April 2015 For Microsoft Access, SQL Server, Visual Studio .NET, and VB6 Professionals

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Greetings!

It's been a few months since we sent out an email newsletter. Thankfully, many of you have followed us online through our Facebook page, Blog, and Tweets. If you don't have Facebook, you can still see our news from our Facebook feed on our web site.

We are pleased to release new versions of Total Visual SourceBook and Total Access Admin for Microsoft Access 2013 and earlier versions.

Total Visual SourceBook is our royalty-free source code database that is enhanced with lots of new code plus updates to support 32 and 64-bit Windows API calls in Office VBA.

Total Access Admin is our database monitoring program to see users enter and exit your databases in real-time. Many enhancements were added including the ability to maintain a translation list of computer names to more friendly user names.

We're also pleased to publish several significant whitepapers on the history and versions of Microsoft Access, Runtime, and SQL Server Express. We've also created a new Microsoft Access to SQL Server Upsizing Center that consolidates our related resources in one place. Additionally, many existing whitepapers are updated with more information and tips.

The picture above is from Microsoft's first US MVP Open Days outside of Redmond. I am with fellow Microsoft Access MVPs at the recent event in Malvern, PA. More info here. I'll be speaking again at the Portland Access User Group Conference at Silver Falls State Park, Oregon in May 16-18 on Access and Office automation. Hope to see you there. And if you're up for it, FMS is a sponsor of next year's Access Days on a cruise ship. More info below and on our Upcoming Events page.

I'd also like to send my condolences and share the passing of long-time friend and colleague Cary Prague. Cary was the author of countless articles and dozens of books including the Access How-To and Access Bible series. He sold more than a million copies over his lifetime. Witty, creative, unconventional and impatient, Cary was a friend and contributor to his community having served on his city council and as mayor. We'll miss you (article).

All the best,

Luke Chung
President

Contents

• Total Visual SourceBook Ships for Microsoft Access 2013 and 2010
• Total Access Admin 2013 Ships
• Speaking at the Portland Access User Group Conference
• Total Access Detective Review
• Microsoft Access Version Releases, Service Packs, Hotfixes, and Updates History (new whitepaper)
• Microsoft Access Runtime Versions and Free Downloads (new whitepaper)
• Microsoft SQL Server Express Version Comparison and Free Downloads (new whitepaper)
• New Microsoft Access to SQL Server Upsizing Center
• Free Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool
• Updated Microsoft Access White Papers and Resources
• Microsoft Access Days Caribbean 2016

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Total Visual SourceBook Ships for Microsoft Access 2013 and 2010

Total Visual SourceBook is the most popular professional source code library for Microsoft Access, VBA and Visual Basic 6. We are delighted to announce the release of Total Visual SourceBook 2013 with our royalty-free source code library.

The new 2013 version is an upgrade to our Total Visual SourceBook 2007 version. The new version is especially designed for the new features introduced in Microsoft Access/Office/VBA 2013 and 2010. It can also run in Access/Office 2007 and older versions through Access/Office 2000.

New Features

Total Visual SourceBook 2013 includes 35 new modules, 25,000+ more lines of code, enhancements to existing modules including VBA code that’s compatible with 32 and 64-bit versions of Office. It now includes over 227 modules, 3,600+ procedures, and 125,000+ lines of well documented and tested code that you can insert into your projects immediately. There's an additional 25,000 lines of example code showing how to use it.

The user code database can now be upsized to SQL Server to simplify sharing code among your developer team. The new version also includes many enhancements to the code browser to simplify your experience in viewing, searching, adding, editing, and applying different error handlers to the source code.

For a complete list of enhancements, visit our New Features page.

Additional Resources

• Main Total Visual SourceBook page
• Overview and Screenshots
• Summary of Code Topics and Categories
• Complete List of Microsoft Access, Office/VBA, and VB6 Modules
• Two Page PDF Product Flier
• Sample Module Code
• Awards and Reviews

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Total Access Admin 2013 Ships

Total Access Admin lets you monitor users going in and out of your databases in real-time. See who's currently in your database and who recently exited, create a log of connections and disconnects, compact the database after everyone exits, etc. Monitor all the databases across your network from one installation of Total Access Admin.

Total Access Admin 2013 includes many new features. You can now maintain a list to translate computer names to more friendly user names, manage up to 100 database in one screen (up from 50), specify a time to close the program, more command line parameters, new forms to view the activity log, and more. Read our New Features page for details.

Download the free, fully-functional Trial Version to see how helpful Total Access Admin can be for you. Total Access Admin 2013 supports ACCDB databases created in Microsoft Access 2013, 2010 and 2007, plus MDB databases created in any version of Access. Existing customers can upgrade at a discounted price.

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Microsoft Access Version Releases, Service Packs, Hotfixes, and Updates History

Through an extensive research process, we've created a consolidated list of the different Microsoft Access desktop versions, service packs, hot fixes and other related updates.

From Access 1.0 to Access 2013 (version 15), we list the different releases, the type of release, build number, date it was released, download links, and description of the release. We hope you find it helpful for understanding what you and your users are running: Microsoft Access Version Releases, Service Packs, Hotfixes, and Updates History

Let us know if there's more information to add.

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Microsoft Access Runtime Versions and Free Downloads

The Microsoft Access runtime program lets you distribute, royalty-free, your Microsoft Access databases to users who don't own a licensed copy of Microsoft Access. They install the runtime program and run your database.

Free versions of Microsoft Access Runtime are available for download for MS Access 2007, 2010, and 2013. Visit this page for details: Microsoft Access Runtime Distribution and Free Downloads

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Microsoft SQL Server Express Version Comparison and Free Downloads

For the first time, all the different versions of SQL Server Express from 2005 to 2014 are shown, compared, and referenced with download links. This content required extensive research to document the details of which operating system each SQL Server version supports. Just because Microsoft web pages list the versions they support doesn't necessarily mean it works when you actually try to install it.

SQL Express is a free version of SQL Server that you can install on your PC. Many people use it for limited SQL Server database solutions or for local development. For instance, you can link a Microsoft Access front-end database to tables hosted by SQL Server Express. This makes it easy to develop solutions that can later be linked to SQL Server production databases hosted elsewhere on your network, cloud, and SQL Azure. Our whitepaper describes the features and limitations of SQL Express versus other SQL Server editions.

Many versions of SQL Express and service packs were released over the years, each supporting different operating systems:

• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2014
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2012
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2012 SP1
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2012 SP2
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 R2 RTM
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 R2 SP1
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 R2 SP2
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 SP1
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 SP2
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 SP3
• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 SP4

Our whitepaper compares each version, the operating systems they support, and download links to get your own free copy: Microsoft SQL Server Express Version Comparison and Free Downloads

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New Microsoft Access to SQL Server Upsizing Resource Center

We've completely revamped our Microsoft Access to SQL Server Upsizing Resource Center with links to all our related whitepapers and Microsoft resources to help with the whole upsizing process and use of SQL Server Express.

We have extensively updated two whitepapers:

• Automating the Backup of Your Microsoft SQL Server Express Databases
  If you're using SQL Server Express, you still need to create backups of the database. Here's how to automate it.
• When and How to Upsize Microsoft Access Databases to SQL Server
  The original version of this was written for Microsoft when they selected us for a joint national campaign a decade ago to promote Microsoft Access to SQL Server Upsizing. We've updated it to better explain why and why not people should upsize their Access databases and an overview of what the options are and what to do.

On a related note, we collaborated with Darren Myher when he discovered a Microsoft security update caused major performance issues for Microsoft Access databases linked to SQL Server. It's critical to use the more modern SQL Server connection strings and ODBC drivers when linking to SQL Server databases. For more information on this issue, read his website.

Blog

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Free Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool

The Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool identifies problematic configurations in most Microsoft Office programs. This is helpful if you find one machine behaving differently from others. Version 2 of this utility was recently released.

You can download it for free.

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Designing a Data Entry System Properly; Overhauling the Healthcare.gov Web Site

Quoted in The New York Times on the anniversary of the debut of the Healthcare.gov web site. FMS President Luke Chung wrote a blog post about how one should create a data entry web site that's functional, user friendly, secure and easier to develop and maintain.

The basics of what a data entry system needs was missed by the designers of the Healthcare.gov web site. While the site was stabilized for individual applicants over the past year, the small business features remains cumbersome at best.

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Updated Microsoft Access White Papers and Resources

Over the last few months, we've updated several of our white papers:

• Avoid Using DoEvents to Wait in Microsoft Access, VBA, and VB6
• How many Microsoft Access users can it support?
• How to rename a File or Folder (Directory)
• Microsoft Access Database Architecture: Temporary Data and User Settings
• Setting Microsoft Access VBA Module Options Properly
• Shortcut Keys for Debugging in VBA, Access and Visual Basic 6
• Top 14 Features of Microsoft Access That Aren't Available in Access 2003 or Earlier
• When Microsoft Access Math Doesn't Add Up

For additional resources, visit our Microsoft Access Developer and VBA Programming Help Center

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Microsoft Access Days Caribbean 2016

After speaking at several Access Day events organized by J Street Technology, Luke Chung and FMS are sponsors in their ambitious plan to hold their 2016 event at sea.

From January 30 to February 6, 2016, join fellow Access enthusiasts for a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale where we'll share our experiences with MS Access and enjoy the warm waters and shore excursions. For more information, visit Access Day Conference site.

Use promo code FMSINC to save $25.

[CANCELLED: The organizers have cancelled this event]

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