Access Developer 12

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Comments for Access Developer 12

Age	Subject	From
7 years	Microsoft Access Developer 6	Robert S
7 years	Microsoft Access Developer 12	Richard R
8 years	Microsoft Access Developer 12	Steve V

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Intro

In lesson 12 of Microsoft Access Developer, we continue building the Universal Dialog Box, focusing on custom form positioning so you can control exactly where your forms appear and how they are sized on the screen. I will show you how to set form dimensions, move and resize controls dynamically, and position buttons based on your form layout. You will also learn how to create an external string manager, which is useful for supporting multiple languages in your databases by pulling in labels and prompts from a table.

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, with the test-taker database. Make sure that you are up to speed with those before you start this class.

If you are just looking for information on custom form positioning or the external string manager, you should be able to follow along OK with just those lessons. However, if you want to 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 are really designed to be followed one after the other in order. If you feel a little bit lost about something that you are not sure about, I probably covered it in the previous lesson. Make sure you take these classes in order.

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

As far as versions used go, Microsoft has 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. The version numbers now are basically for people who do not have a subscription. If you buy the software as a one-off purchase instead of getting a monthly subscription, then at whatever point the subscription users are at when Microsoft decides to say, "OK, this is now Access 2019," then that is how they do it.

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. Everything that I show 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's take a closer look now at what we will cover 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. We will look at 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 and 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 and 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.

Quiz

Q1. What is one main topic covered in Developer Level 12?
A. Building a Universal Dialog Box
B. Creating an online survey
C. Integrating Access with Excel
D. Learning basic SQL queries

Q2. What does the custom form positioning lesson teach?
A. How to import external XML files
B. How to set the exact size and location of a form on the screen
C. How to link Access to web services
D. How to print reports

Q3. What is the external string manager useful for?
A. Managing form locations
B. Allowing support for multiple languages in forms and databases
C. Backing up the database automatically
D. Importing CSV data

Q4. Which previous lesson started the Universal Dialog Box project?
A. Beginner Level 1
B. Access Developer 9
C. Advanced Level 5
D. Access Expert 11

Q5. What should students do if they feel lost in the current lesson?
A. Contact Microsoft support
B. Skip to the final lesson
C. Review previous lessons in order
D. Only watch the summary video

Q6. For what versions of Access are the lessons guaranteed to work?
A. Only Access 2019 and newer
B. Access 2007 and newer
C. Only the latest Office 365 version
D. Access 2013 and later only

Q7. What is a benefit of using an external string manager in Access?
A. Automatic query optimization
B. Centralizing prompt and label strings for easier multi-language support
C. Data encryption
D. Syncing data with Excel

Q8. What is included in the resources for this class?
A. Free Office 365 subscription
B. Sample databases available for download with a class password
C. A printed textbook
D. Access source code only

Q9. How does Access versioning work for Office 365 subscribers?
A. They must manually update
B. Features and updates are pushed automatically every few months
C. They only receive updates once a year
D. Subscription users do not get updates

Q10. What can you control about buttons on a resizable form, as described in lesson three?
A. Their data source only
B. Their color only
C. Their size and position as the form is resized
D. Their printer settings

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

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 am your instructor, Richard Rost.

In this lesson, we are moving forward with the Universal Dialog Box that we began developing a few sessions ago. One of the main topics we will be covering is custom form positioning, which allows you to control precisely where your form appears on the screen, along with its size and placement.

We will also explore how to create an external string manager. This tool is incredibly helpful when you have multiple copies of forms or databases that need to support various languages. With this manager, you only need to update a single variable to have all your language-specific strings pulled into your database.

Before taking this class, you should have completed all of my Beginner, Expert, and Advanced courses, as well as Access Developer levels up through 11. The Universal Dialog Box we are building on was first introduced in Level 9 with the test-taker database. Make sure you are familiar with those earlier lessons before tackling this material.

If your goal is to specifically learn about custom form positioning or the external string manager, you can follow those parts of this course without the full background. However, for work on the Universal Dialog Box itself, it would be best to review the lessons where we originally started that project.

For those who have not attended any of my classes before, I structure them into four series: Beginner, Expert, Advanced, and Developer. This lesson is part of the Developer series, specifically Level 12. My courses are designed to be followed sequentially, building on concepts from one to the next. If you find yourself confused by something, it was most likely covered in a previous lesson, so I recommend proceeding in order.

Sample databases for this lesson are available, and there are a couple to use today. You can download them from nncd.com/databases. Just remember, you will need your class password to access the files.

Regarding the software version, Microsoft now handles updates differently. If you have an Office 365 subscription, you receive automatic updates every few months, including new features and bug fixes. For those with perpetual versions, such as Access 2019, that version is essentially a snapshot of whatever feature set the subscription users had at the time of release. For most people using 365, and for myself, we are on the current version. Everything discussed in this class should work in versions as far back as 2007, and possibly even earlier, but I can guarantee compatibility from 2007 on.

Here's what you can expect from each lesson today:

In lesson one, we will continue our work with the Universal Dialog Box, expanding what we started back in Access Developer 11.

Lesson two focuses on custom form positioning. We will go over how to determine and set the exact height and width of a window, how to retrieve its current size, and then set it to your preference. You will learn how to adjust the top and left coordinates so the form appears exactly where you want it on the screen.

In lesson three, we return to enhancing the Universal Dialog Box. This time, we will learn how to center the form on the screen and control the appearance of the upper left corner. Additionally, you will see how to adjust the width and height dynamically, including resizing controls such as label widths. You will also learn to reposition images and buttons so that as the form changes size, those elements automatically resize and relocate as needed.

Lesson four introduces the external string manager. This is especially useful if you need to support multiple languages within a single database. Rather than maintaining separate versions of each form or even the entire database for each language, you can maintain just one and have it pull all the necessary prompts and labels from a table depending on the user's preferences.

For a complete video tutorial featuring step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here, visit 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 manually
Determining form size and screen coordinates
Positioning forms using top and left coordinates
Centering forms on the screen
Controlling form location on screen
Resizing form controls dynamically
Adjusting button positions based on form size
Building an external string manager for multilingual support
Pulling prompts and labels from a table for localization