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Welcome! Dialog Boxes, Form Position, String Mgmt

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Welcome to Microsoft Access Developer Level 12. In this course we will continue working with the Universal Dialog Box, learn how to set custom form positioning including controlling the location and size of forms, and discuss building an external string manager to support multiple languages in your Access databases. You should have completed all previous Beginner, Expert, Advanced, and Developer 1-11 lessons. We will also review where to find the sample databases and which Microsoft Access versions are supported. Each lesson will build on these concepts to enhance your Access development skills.

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Keywords

Access Developer, Universal Dialog Box, custom form positioning, external string manager, multi language database, centering forms, form resizing, dynamic form controls, form coordinates, Office 365 Access features, Access Developer Level 12, test-taker d

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Transcript

Welcome to Microsoft Access Developer Level 12 brought to you by AccessLearningZone.com. I am your instructor, Richard Rost.

In Level 12, we are going to continue working with our Universal Dialog Box that we started a few lessons ago. We are going to learn about custom form positioning where we can control exactly where on the screen our form appears at the position and size we want it to. We are going to learn how to build an external string manager which is extremely useful if you have multiple copies of forms or even multiple databases that you have to support for different languages. This way you can simply change one variable and the different language strings will be pulled into the database.

Before this class, you should have taken all of my Beginner, Expert, and Advanced classes, and up to Access Developer 11. The Universal Dialog Box that we are working on was started, I believe, in Level 9, so with the test-taker database. So make sure that you are up to speed with those before you start this class.

If you are just looking for this stuff on the custom form positioning or the external string manager, you should be able to follow along with just those lessons. But if you want to go and work on the Universal Dialog Box, then I suggest you get the lessons that started it.

If you have never taken any of my classes before, they are broken down into different groups. There is Beginner, Expert, Advanced, and Developer. You are currently in Developer Level 12, which is the latest lesson. My lessons really are designed to be followed one after the other in order. So if you seem a little bit lost about something that you are not sure about, I probably covered it in the previous lesson. So make sure you take these classes in order.

The sample databases for the class, there are a couple of them today, can be found at this page: find nncd.com/databases. You will need your class password in order to open that up.

Now, as far as versions used go, Microsoft has kind of changed the way they do versioning now. If you have an Office 365 subscription like I do, then every couple of months Access pushes new features and new bug fixes directly to your computer. So the version numbers now are basically for people who do not have a subscription. If you just go ahead and buy the software as a one-off purchase instead of getting a monthly subscription, then at whatever point the subscription users are at at that moment when Microsoft decides to say, OK, this is now Access 2019, that is how they do it.

So for 365 users like me and most of you that I have talked to, that is the version that is used. I am currently at the point where Microsoft has released Access 2019. But everything that I have shown in today's class should work all the way back to 2007, and probably even 2003 and earlier. I do not think anything was really different back then. This should all work in the older versions too, but I will guarantee it back to 2007.

Let us take a closer look now. Let us cover what is in today's class.

In lesson one, we are continuing work on the Universal Dialog Box that we started back in Access Developer 11.

In lesson two, we are going to study custom form positioning, how to set the height and width of a window, how to determine what it is first, and then how to manually set it to whatever size we want. And the coordinates, the positioning of the form on the screen, the top and left coordinates, so we can position the window exactly where we want it and size it exactly how we want it.

In lesson three, we are going back to work on our Universal Dialog Box. We are going to learn about centering the form on the screen, how to control exactly where it appears on the screen, the upper left corner, the height, and the width. We are going to learn how to resize the controls on the form, like the label width and such, based on the width of the form and the height of the form. We will learn how to move the buttons around so as the form gets smaller or wider, those buttons will resize and move accordingly.

In lesson four, we are going to build something different. We are going to build an external string manager. This is handy if you have a database where you are supporting multiple language speaking users, where you do not want to have to maintain three or four different copies of your database or different forms for the different languages. You can just have one form or one database and pull in the different prompts and labels from a table. That is what this lesson will cover.

Thank you.

Intro

Quiz

Q1. What main feature is being continued in Access Developer Level 12?
A. Universal Dialog Box
B. SQL Query Builder
C. Report Printing Automation
D. VBA Debugging Tools

Q2. What new functionality is introduced for form handling in this lesson?
A. Custom form positioning
B. Data import/export routines
C. Automation of email reminders
D. Security management

Q3. What is the primary benefit of an external string manager discussed in this class?
A. Supporting multiple languages in one database
B. Increasing database speed
C. Improving database backup procedures
D. Automating table relationships

Q4. Before taking Developer Level 12, which prior classes should a student have completed?
A. Only Beginner lessons
B. Beginner, Expert, Advanced, and Access Developer 1 through 11
C. Only Developer Level 11
D. Only Expert and Advanced lessons

Q5. According to the video, if a student is only interested in custom form positioning or the external string manager, what can they do?
A. Take just those specific lessons
B. Skip all lessons and read the manual
C. Only watch Beginner level videos
D. Ignore prerequisite knowledge

Q6. How are the lessons in this course described in terms of learning order?
A. Designed to be followed in order
B. Can be taken in any order
C. Only even-numbered lessons matter
D. Start with the most recent lesson first

Q7. Where can sample databases for this course be found?
A. nncd.com/databases
B. sqlzone.com/samples
C. accesshelp.org/files
D. developer12.com/dbsamples

Q8. What do you need to access the sample database files?
A. Class password
B. Serial number of the Access installation
C. Microsoft account login
D. Form submission

Q9. Which versions of Access should the techniques shown in this class work with, at a minimum?
A. Back to Access 2007
B. Access 2019 and later only
C. Access XP only
D. Only for Access 365

Q10. What does lesson two specifically focus on?
A. Custom form positioning: setting height, width, and position of the window
B. Adding new tables
C. Building relationships between forms
D. Automating reports

Q11. In lesson three, which additional Universal Dialog Box features are covered?
A. Centering the form and resizing controls and buttons dynamically
B. Connecting to an external database
C. Adding password protection to forms
D. Linking to SQL Server

Q12. Why is an external string manager beneficial for multi-language support?
A. Allows different prompts and labels to be pulled from a table
B. Changes the default font automatically
C. Compresses the database size
D. Provides encryption for data

Answers: 1-A; 2-A; 3-A; 4-B; 5-A; 6-A; 7-A; 8-A; 9-A; 10-A; 11-A; 12-A

DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Summary

Today's video from Access Learning Zone is Microsoft Access Developer Level 12. I'm Richard Rost, your instructor for this course.

In Developer Level 12, we continue the work we started a few lessons back with the Universal Dialog Box. We'll take things further by learning how to control exactly where a form appears on your screen. This includes being able to set the position and size of the form to precise values, which makes your applications look more professional and user-friendly.

We'll also introduce the concept of an external string manager. This is especially helpful for anyone who maintains multiple copies of a form or has to support databases in several languages. With an external string manager, you only need to change one value, and the proper language strings will be loaded automatically across your database. It is a much better alternative to maintaining separate versions for each language.

Before you start this class, I recommend that you have already completed all of my Beginner, Expert, and Advanced series, plus Developer levels up to 11. The Universal Dialog Box project began around Level 9, so you will need to be familiar with that to follow along. If you are interested only in learning about custom form positioning or the external string manager, you should be fine just watching those sections. However, if you want to work fully with the Universal Dialog Box, make sure you are caught up with the previous lessons.

If you are new to my courses, they are structured in sequential groups: Beginner, Expert, Advanced, and Developer. Right now, you are in Developer Level 12, the latest lesson. Each lesson builds on the previous ones, so if you run into something that feels unfamiliar, I probably covered it earlier. Please work through the courses in order so you do not miss anything.

Today's sample databases can be found at nncd.com/databases. You will need your class password to access them.

As for which version of Access we use, Microsoft has changed its versioning process. Office 365 subscribers get regular updates with new features and bug fixes, so version numbers really only apply to non-subscribers who purchase Access outright. When Microsoft rolls out a particular version, like Access 2019, it's essentially the current build for subscription users at that moment. I'm using the latest 365 subscription version here, but everything in this class should work in older versions of Access, going back to at least 2007 and probably even 2003. I guarantee compatibility back to 2007.

Now, here's an overview of what is covered in this class:

Lesson one continues our work with the Universal Dialog Box from Developer 11.

Lesson two is all about custom form positioning. We will look at how to find out the height and width of a window and then set it manually. We will also cover how to set the top and left coordinates, so you have full control over the form's location and size.

Lesson three brings us back to the Universal Dialog Box, where I will show you how to center the form on the screen, control where it appears, and adjust its dimensions. We will also discuss how to resize and reposition controls inside the form, such as labels and buttons, to match the new size of the form. This way, as the form dimensions change, the buttons and other controls adjust as well.

In lesson four, we will build the external string manager. This is a great tool if you support users who speak different languages and do not want to manage several copies of your database or forms. Instead, you can use one set of forms or a single database and pull all your prompts and labels from a table, making language support much more streamlined.

That is what you will find in this course. A complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions covering everything discussed here is available on my website at the link below.

Live long and prosper, my friends.

Topic List

Universal Dialog Box enhancements
Custom form positioning techniques
Setting form height and width programmatically
Determining current form size and position
Manually setting form coordinates (top and left)
Centering forms on the screen
Resizing form controls dynamically
Adjusting label widths and heights based on form size
Moving and resizing buttons as form changes size
Building an external string manager
Managing language strings from a table for multi-language support
Loading different prompts and labels from a table

Primary Topics

Universal Dialog Box, custom form positioning, external string manager, control resizing, multi-language support

Secondary Topics

version compatibility, sample database usage