Chapter 8: Microsoft Office Objects

Overview

As part of Microsoft Office System, Access 2003 shares a select group of objects with the other Office applications. These objects let you carry out such tasks as searching for files, modifying standard menus and toolbars, developing custom menus and toolbars , and manipulating the Office Assistant help feature. In addition, your knowledge of how to program these objects in Access will transfer to the other Office applications ”Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, and even Microsoft FrontPage. Most of the objects work in all of the Office applications.

This chapter starts with an overview of Office objects. After the overview, you'll examine the DocumentProperty object and related Access objects from Access database and Access project files. Within this discussion, I'll focus on techniques for replacing the Database window with a custom startup form. Next, you'll explore two specific objects: FileSearch , which you use to programmatically manage file searches, and CommandBars , which you use to modify the built-in menu and toolbars as well as create custom toolbars. Those who want to learn more about programming the Assistant object can visit my Web site ( http://www.programmingmsaccess.com/ForA2002/AssistantObject.htm ) for text on the subject. Code samples are in the AssistantModule of Chapter08.mdb, which is available with the companion content for this chapter.