Whats new in Microsoft Access 2010
In 2007, all the attention was on the new Ribbon user interface
, which for good or bad almost every Office application was forced to adopt. In 2010 there's a different focus, but in the case of Access it hasn't been on making things easier for users and developers. If it had been, we might have expected Microsoft to have made moving from 2007 to 2010 easier, but that's far from the case.
The principal hurdle is that Access 2010 has become even more inextricably entangled with SharePoint than before. To create a database accessible from the web, you require access to a SharePoint site configured with Access Services, and control over what web users can see is managed by SharePoint too. Database objects, meanwhile (forms, queries and the like), exist in two flavours: as client objects or as web objects, with many client features not supported by the other web equivalent, With no SQL view of queries, either, converting an existing Access database is likely to take a lot of work. Fortunately, Access 2010 isn't bereft of useful upgrades, and one of the biggest is a change to the way in which macros are created, with the new Macro Designer boasting more scope than its predecessor. You can build macros as before, but critically a new type is introduced here, called a "data macro". These are the functional equivalents of the "triggers" that have been available in enterprise database management systems such as SQL Server for years, and also in rival FileMaker Pro 11. Data macros can act before or after certain actions, and you get five variants - BeforeChange, BeforeDelete, Afterlnsert, AfterUpdate and AfterDelete. Access has always been excellent at importing data from other sources, and this ability has been enhanced in 2010.
Many people combine their own data with web data to create mash-ups aka a Virtual Earth map showing a company's outlets, for instance. A web service can now be used as an external data source and, once a web service definition file is installed, you can link to its data as a linked table. Data from SharePoint 2010 Business Connectivity Services can be handled the same way. Data can also be linked or imported from SQL Sewer, Excel and Outlook among others, while import and export operations can be saved for reuse a time-saver if you receive weekly updates in spreadsheet format. Another handy feature allows a history of memo field entries to be stored. With this feature enabled, you simply right-click the field, select "Show column history...", and it launches a list of all previous entries, each one time- and date-stamped.
Finally, as with other Office 2010 applications, there's a focus on aesthetics, making it easy to customise a database with a theme. You get 40 design schemes in all, which instantly apply a consistent look to forms and reports (both client and web versions). A theme can be applied to single objects or to all objects of one type, and colours can be tweaked too. Conditional formatting, now available in reports, has also been drafted in, offering an effective way to make particular values, or ranges of values stand out.
Templates, meanwhile, are provided as in previous versions, with the client templates joined by five new ones for web databases. But while these improvements are all well and good, it's disappointing that Microsoft doesn't appear to have been acting on customer requests. A prime example is the Next Record button, which before 2007 had an auto-repeat function for fast-forwarding through records. In 2007, it stopped working - much to the irritation of many users and developers - and despite a promise to fix the bug, it still hasn't been resolved.
For small businesses in the web-aware world, the burden of implementing SharePoint can be an onerous one, and that will undoubtedly turn many to its easier to use, easier to teach rival, FileMaker Pro 11. But part of the reason Access takes longer to lean is that it enforces better database design on those you build. For that reason it will continue to be the PC-based database of choice for many people, and rightly so.
Whats new in Microsoft Access 2010
By: Steve Barker
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