Access 2002 Changes to Basic Access 2000 Features

Basic features involve the user interface (UI) for viewing and designing Access objects, and the Access (Jet) file system. Most existing Access applications use Jet databases to store traditional Access objects forms, reports, macros, and modules and data, and probably will continue to use Jet, despite Microsoft's promotion of the SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE) as the preferred back end for Access applications. Access data projects and data access pages, introduced in Access 2000 with MSDE 1.0, have their own storage systems and don't use Jet .mdb files for object storage. SQL Server is the data source for ADP; DAP can connect to SQL Server or Jet data sources.

To learn more about ADP and DAP, see "Access Data Projects and SQL Server 2000," p. 34 and "Data Access Pages Revisited," p. 40.

Note

This book uses the term SQL Server when referring to any edition of SQL Server 2000, including MSDE. The term MSDE indicates a reference that's specific to the Desktop Engine. MSDE 1.0 is an abbreviation for Access 2000's Microsoft Data Engine version of SQL Server 7.0.

Access 2000 and 97 File Compatibility

Traditionally, each new version of Access has required an update to the Jet file system; Access 2002 and 2003 are exceptions. Access 2003 and 2002 default to the Access 2000 file format for backward compatibility. You specify Access 2000 or 2002 as the default format for new databases and ADP in the Advanced Page of the Options dialog.

Like Access 2000 and 2002, you can save data-only Access 2003 .mdb files in Access 97 format; saving Access 200x front-end .mdbs containing forms, reports, macros, and modules in Access 97 format isn't practical because Access 2000 and 2002 made extensive changes to these objects and VBA code. Upgrading from Access 2002 to 2003 makes no significant changes to any Access object except DAP.

Note

If you're migrating from Access 97 to Access 2003, you must convert your .mdb files to Access 2000 format to open them in Design view. There is no benefit to upgrading directly to Access 2002 format.

Converted front-end .mdbs continue to connect to back-end (data-only) Access 97 .mdbs. Chapter 32, "Upgrading Access 97 and 2000/2002 Applications to Access 2003," covers the Access 97 upgrade process in detail.

The Access 2002 Jet and ADP file formats are intended primarily to improve the performance of very large Access projects. Access 2002 format also supports a few new properties, events, and methods for traditional Access objects and ADP. Access 2000 ignores any Access 2002 format-specific settings you make in the UI. If your VBA code refers to Access 2002-only elements, however, the application won't run under Access 2000 because of differences in the Access type libraries for the two formats. Unless your front-end application is very large or requires Access 2002-only events, methods, properties, or VBA functions, you can continue to use the default Access 2000 format. All examples in this book use Access 2000 format.

For more information on programming elements added by Access 2002 that also applies to Access 2003, see "Programmability Enhancements," p. 43.

Undo and Redo Enhancements

DAP; Jet tables and queries; ADP views, functions, and stored procedures; and forms, reports, macros, and modules have a multiple undo and redo feature. Lack of undo capability in DAP Design view was one of the primary complaints about the Access 2000 version of this feature. Changing between most Access views and object types empties the undo stack.

Choice of Subform and Subreport Design Views

Users of Access 2000 encountered difficulties when editing complex subforms in their parent form's Design view, called in-situ subform editing. Access 2002 introduced the option to right-click the subform and choose Subform in New Window from the context menu or choose View, Subform in New Window to edit the subform by the traditional (Access 97 and earlier) method.

Added Shortcut Key Combinations

The four shortcut key combinations added by Access 2002 aren't exciting, but Table 1.1 lists them for the sake of completeness.

Table 1.1. Shortcut Keys Added in Access 2002

Key/Combination	View	Action
F4	Design	Opens the ObjectType Properties dialog
F7	Form/Report Design	Opens the Choose Builder dialog if the form or report has the focus; opens the code window if the form or report doesn't have the focus
Shift+F7	Form/Report Design	Returns focus to the selected control if the ControlName Properties dialog has the focus
Ctrl+> or Ctrl+.	Any	Cycles the view from the current view forward in the view sequence (Design, Form, Datasheet, PivotTable, and PivotChart for forms)
Ctrl+< or Ctrl+,	Any	Cycles the view from the current view backward in the view sequence (PivotChart, PivotTable, Datasheet, Form, and Design for forms)