Adventures in Access 2007

Introduction

I avoided it as long as possible.  But I finally have a client that is starting a business, and bought new computers with Office 2007 installed.  So I'm finally going to take the plunge and develop his new Access application from scratch using Access 2007.  I'll use this article to document what I find as I go along.  It will probably be changing and growing for quite awhile, so you might want to come back and re-read it occasionally.  I made the decision to have VBWebDev.net be article based, versus blog based and I still think that is best.  This is the closest thing I have attempted to blog style writing.  So I may write things that I either edit, correct, or delete later on.  It might have been better done in a blog format, but at least you only have one place to come to in order to see what I've done lately with this project.

Access 2007

If you are a beginner, you probably don't know any different.  But if you have used/developed with previous versions of Access, the new version looks like a freak accident.  The user interface has changed more than with any other version of Access, ever.  I've worked with Access since 1.0, believe me, I know.

That's one reason I have been avoiding it.  My clients are billed hourly, and I like to be able to give them the most for their money.  I know Access very well and can get things done very quickly.  This project will be slower, and I will be eating more time, off the clock, to learn the new stuff.  That's part of the motivation for this article.  If I can document all these new things as I find them, then I am helping myself for the next project, and helping you out when it's your turn. 

The other reason I haven't jumped at Access 2007 is that my clients aren't.  Here it is, 2008, and people are just now starting to get Office 2007.  I was told by a Microsoft product manager that sales for Office 2003 peaked just a few months before Office 2007 was released.  So I don't expect a huge rush now.

Anyway, I'm using it now.  The first learning curve is just figuring out how to get around and do things in 2007.  I wonder if that is at least part of the reason some places aren't upgrading to Office 2007.  The loss of productivity while workers re-adjust could be staggering.  Many things have changed in the Access GUI, and I will try to cover how to deal with that, piece by piece.  A good place to start is with that abomination called:

The 'Ribbon'

For Office 2007, Microsoft completely replaced the menus and toolbars with the 'ribbon'.  I don't think I could possibly overstate my pure hatred for this hideous excuse for a user interface.  But if you will bear with me, I shall try.  I hope this doesn't scare off readers right away; there are some good parts about Access 2007.  I will get to them and shed a positive light were deserved.  But I want to get this out of the way first.

The ribbon is the worst, ugliest, poorest design for an application user interface since the DOS days.  And the more you knew the Office menus and toolbars, the worse it is.  Things that have been in the same location, oh, since Windows 3.1 are suddenly gone.  And by 'gone' I mean they might either be somewhere on the ribbon, or simply not exist.  Other things you didn't use are now there.  You can't even open, save, or print a file without some instruction, or clicking on everything till something opens.  The ribbon combines the icons of toolbars with menu dropdowns, organized by tabs at the top.  Most of the 'internal' functionality of the application is on the ribbon.  However, the common functions, like open, save, etc. are in a menu like thing that opens when you click the big round happy button in the upper left.  At least it somewhat resembles a menu.

In my opinion, the ribbon is a poor implementation, based on a poor idea.  The help files say that the ribbon is better because it exposes the application functionality quicker.  I think that's flawed thinking.  First of all, the common things you need to do were always exposed directly with toolbars.  And in previous versions of Office, the toolbars changed depending on what you were doing.  Editing a form?  The appropriate toolbar was there.  Previewing a report?  The right toolbar was there.  So the ribbon doesn't gain anything there, it just takes more space up.  Second, they failed to appreciate the knowledge and experience of long time users.  Yes, some things might be buried on the third level of the menu.  But many of those things have been in the same places for 15 years.  People grow very accustomed to the menu.  Some can use it so fast you can hardly see it.  We didn't need to change.  Doing a complete redesign does us no favors, it doesn't make things quicker, not at all.  It just slows us down.  Which brings me to the most important thing about this atrocity.

There wasn't an option.  Microsoft shoved this interface down our throats without asking.  Without providing us the option of going back to the old menus and toolbars if we didn't like the ribbon.  That is unforgivable.  If I did that to my clients, well, I wouldn't have any.

Did I mention I hate the ribbon?  I'd tell Ballmer to his face.  I'll certainly tell anyone else.  OK, now that's off my chest, I'll move on to other topics, some good, some....

The Navigation Pane (Pain?)

Another significant change to how you interact with Access as a developer is the Navigation Pane.  This replaces the Database Window.  The old Database Window has been tweaked over the versions of Access, but the guts remained mostly the same.  Not any more.

(more to come on the Nav Pane)