Author Archives: Admin

Dec 18

Total Access Detective Available for Microsoft Access 2013 and 2016

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We are delighted to announce the release of Total Access Detective for Microsoft Access 2013 and 2016. Total Access Detective lets you quickly find differences between any two databases or two objects in your current database, know exactly what changed at the table, field, property, control, macro line and VBA module code level. You can even compare tables for data differences.

Main Menu for Comparing Two Databases

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Add-in Menu to Launch Total Access Detective to Compare Two Objects in the Current Database

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The Object Comparison Wizard:

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Enhancementsdetective

The latest version offers many enhancements from the previous versions:

  • Support for the 32 and 64-bit versions of Access 2016 and 2013
  • Module and Text Comparison Option to Ignore Line Numbers
  • Search Bar to Filter Objects and Properties by Name
  • See and Filter Tables based on Whether it’s Linked
  • Procedures with Differences List
  • New Manual and Help File

For more information on the enhancements, visit: New Features in Total Access Detective 2016 and 2013

Existing Total Access Detective customers can upgrade for a discounted price.

Jul 07

Total Access Analyzer Ships for Microsoft Access 2013

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Microsoft Access 2013FMS is pleased to announce the release of Total Access Analyzer, version 15, for Microsoft Access 2013. Total Access Analyzer 2013 is our 10th major release of this product since its debut with Access 1.1 in 1993.

Total Access Analyzer provides detailed documentation and analysis of your MS Access databases to help you better understand how your objects work together, detect problems, improve your designs, and enhance performance.

Over 300 Types of Issues are Detected

Total Access Analyzer examines all your database objects in detail to find 300+ types of issues including errors that crash your application, unused objects and VBA code, design inconsistencies, and other best practices to maximize your investment in your Access applications.

390 + Professional Quality Reports

Over 390 filterable and customizable reports are available to document your applications and help you develop more efficiently. Reports include table/field dictionary reports, object cross-reference lists, module printouts, application flow diagrams, field and SQL consistency reports, and much more.

Discover why so many Microsoft Access enthusiasts made Total Access Analyzer the most popular Microsoft Access add-in of all time and the winner of every Best Access Add-in Award for decades.

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New Features

Total Access Analyzer is now available for Microsoft Access 2013 with many new features:

  • Total Access AnalyzerSupports Microsoft Access 2013, 32 and 64-bit versions
  • New documentation of Conditional Formatting
  • Documentation of Navigation Control and Buttons
  • Documentation of Web Controls
  • New Control Type Reports
  • Support Procedure Calls to Libraries
  • 3 New Module VBA Coding Suggestions
  • Enhanced VBA Module Parser for Compiler Conditionals
  • New Search Bar for Selecting Objects
  • Improved Open Documentation Form
  • Report Filter Shows Count of Issues
  • New Treeview with 64-bit support
  • New user manual and help file
  • and more!

Here’s a complete list of new features.

Free Demo

A demo is available for you to see the types of documentation it generates using the sample Northwind database. Look at the results, filter and search it, and see the reports it generates: Demo Download

Existing Customers

Existing Total Access Analyzer customers can upgrade for a discounted price.

Jun 01

Total Access Admin 2003, Version 11.6 Ships

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adminThe release of Total Access Admin 2013 added many new features. Due to customer demand, we’ve updated Total Access Admin 2003 from version 11.5 to 11.6 to include the new features.

The primary difference between the 2003 and 2013 version is that the 2003 version doesn’t require installing Access 2007 or later on the machine in order to support the ACCDB database format. It supports Access databases in MDB formats and does not require Access to be installed on the PC.

Many New Features

Total Access Admin 2003 version 11.6 includes these enhancements:

  • 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.

Free Trial

Download the free, fully-functional Trial Version to see how helpful Total Access Admin can be for you.

Supports All Microsoft Access Versions

Total Access Admin 2003 supports MDB databases created in any version of Microsoft Access. Existing customers can upgrade at a discounted price.

Apr 14

Microsoft Access Videos from the SharePoint Conference

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Microsoft Access ProductsMicrosoft SharePointThe Microsoft Access team has released videos of their presentations at the SharePoint Conference from Las Vegas, NV.

With Access 2013, Access web solutions are hosted in SharePoint and rather than using SharePoint lists as they did in Access 2010, they use a real SQL Server database hosted in SQL Azure. The database can also be linked from desktop copies of Access to create hybrid solutions that serve both the web and Windows.

The Microsoft Access program managers presented these four sessions:

Enjoy!

Other Videos from FMS

Aug 07

Microsoft Access and Office 2010 Service Pack 2 (SP2) Enhancements and Issues

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New Paper: Microsoft Access and Office 2010 Service Pack 2 (SP2) Enhnacements and Issues

Microsoft has released Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Microsoft Office 2010. It includes enhancements to Access, Excel, Groove, Office. Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, SharePoint, Visio, Word, and more.

Read our new paper listing:

  • Links to the Download and List of Enhancements
  • List of Updated Products
  • Microsoft Access Enhancements and Fixes:
    • Microsoft Access Object Issues
    • Repair and Compact Issues
    • Microsoft Excel Related Issues
    • Access Web/SharePoint Issues
    • Windows 8 64-bit Issue
    • Runtime Version
  • Known Issues from Microsoft
  • A Confirmed Bug between MS Access 2010 and SharePoint 2013
  • Additional Resources for Microsoft Office and Office 2010 SP1
Apr 25

Boston Marathon Bombing and the Use of Social Network Analysis (SNA) Software

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Sentinel VisualizerWhile we at FMS are best known for our Microsoft Access add-in products, we are also a leader in the Big Data analytics world with our Sentinel Visualizer product from our FMS Advanced Systems Group.

Sentinel Visualzer helps analysts mine their data to find hidden relationships among people, places and events. Built with Visual Studio .NET on a SQL Server database, Sentinel Visualizer provdes advanced data visualization through link analysis, geospatial mapping, timelines, social network analysis (SNA), advanced filtering and decluttering, and many other tools to maximize the value of data.

MIT Technology Review Article on Social Network Analysis and Boston Marathon BombingAs the rampage and manhunt in Boston, Cambridge, and Watertown transpired, MIT Technology Review published an article that mentioned our Sentinel Visualizer product. In the April 19, 2013 article, David Talbot describes the rise of technology to detect the activities of criminals over the Internet and connect seemingly unrelated people, places and things. For more information, visit Building a Picture of the Boston Marathon Bombing Suspects through Social Network Analysis.

Dec 19

Microsoft Security Update KB2753842 Problem with Windows OpenType Compact Font Format (CFF) driver

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On December 11th, 2012, Microsoft released this security update (KB2753842): MS12-078: Windows OpenType Compact Font Format (CFF) driver.

This patch is causing certain programs to break. The Microsoft KB article acknowledges:

We are aware of issues related to OpenType Font (OTF) rendering in applications such as PowerPoint on affected versions of Windows that occur after this security update is applied. We are currently investigating these issues and will take appropriate action to address the known issues.

Well, it impacts more than PowerPoint. If your applications are suddenly experiencing failures, try removing this update to see if it makes a difference. It can be removed from the Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, under Updates.

Here’s a Microsoft thread about the issues people have encountered.

Here’s another discussion from Utter Access that includes instructions for uninstalling the update.

Sep 07

Microsoft Access Error 3045 Could Not Use Database; File Already in Use

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Error Message

When you try to open a database, you may encounter this error message: Could not use [Database Name]; file already in use.

Explanation

This error occurs if another user (or instance of Access) has opened up the database exclusively and you try to open it. Maybe the other user opened the database in exclusive mode or made some modifications such as editing modules, which put the database in exclusive mode.

However, that may not be the case. This error can occur even if the other user has the database opened without opening it exclusively. What’s going on? Why would the second instance think it’s being opened exclusively?

What if the Other User isn’t Opening it Exclusively?

It turns out that another cause of this error is not immediately obvious and is related to workgroup security files. This applies to MDB files (not ADP or ACCDB formats). If two instances of Microsoft Access (DAO database engine) are using different system MDW files, a conflict may occur where the database appears to be exclusively locked by the other instance. The MDW file used by your instance of Access can be checked in VBA by examining the value of DBEngine.SystemDB.

Another copy of Access or DAO may have that database opened using another MDW file causing this conflict. This can come from another instance of MS Access, a Microsoft Access add-in or library reference, a VBA Add-in, or other program such as VB6, .NET, etc. that’s connecting to that database.

To avoid this, if you’re using workgroup security, make sure every instance is pointing to the same shared MDW file. This is often defined in the shortcut used to launch Microsoft Access, or if you are opening a different database programmatically within your VBA code.

Additional Resources

Visit our Microsoft Access Error Number and Error Description Reference site for a complete list of Microsoft Access error numbers, many with links to resources explaining and resolving them.

total-access-admin[1]If you’re interested in seeing who’s going in and out of your database in real-time, check out our Total Access Admin program. It’ll let you monitor multiple databases across your network to see when users enter and exit your database and flag instances where connections are dropped suspiciously.

Sep 07

Luke Chung at New York City Microsoft Access User Group Meeting

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Please join FMS President Luke Chung at the New York Microsoft Access User Group Meeting on September 10, 2012 at 6:30PM.

Luke Chung is the featured presenter at this New York City event hosted at Microsoft Headquarters located at 1290 6th Ave., between 51st and 52nd Streets.

Luke will discuss and demonstrate FMS products for Microsoft Access, Azure cloud computing, plus answer any questions you may have about his experiences. There will also be product giveaways to members of the user group.

We look forward to seeing you at this free event.

Aug 22

Microsoft Windows Common Control Library (MSCOMCTL.OCX) Security Update Requires Fixing

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ActiveX ControlOn August 14, 2012, Microsoft released a security update for Microsoft Office that includes an update to the Windows Common Control MSCOMCTL.OCX.

Unfortunately, this update causes problems with existing Microsoft Access, Visual Basic 6, and other applications that use the common control such as the Treeview and ListBox controls. For us, this impacts our Total Access Analyzer program which uses the Treeview control in its database explorer feature. It triggers this error:

Error 459 – Object or class does not support the set of events,
Procedure clsFrmExplorer_TAA.InitForm

Microsoft provides a workaround for this problem in a Knowledgebase article, but it doesn't always work. We've come up with a solution that addresses this problem reliably.

Read our article Fixing the Microsoft Windows Common Control Library (MSCOMCTL.OCX) Security Update for more details.