Quick Queries #25
By Richard Rost
15 months ago
Access End of Life, Forms to Reports, Try It, and More! In today's Quick Queries video, we'll answer a range of your tech questions. We'll explore misconceptions around Microsoft Access's end of life, sharing insights on versions and future support. You'll also learn efficient techniques for converting forms to reports using the 'Save Object As' feature. Discover how to set default print previews for reports and expand your Access VBA knowledge with a special code shared by one of our community members. For those struggling with viewing videos on mobile devices, we'll discuss the best way to consume our content. Additionally, get advice on avoiding ActiveX controls and hear some of our favorite community comments. Also we address the dynamic resizing of rows in continuous forms. PrerequisitesLinksRecommended CoursesUp Next
Keywords TechHelp Access, Access End of Life, Convert Form to Report Access, Access Save Object As, Access Print Preview Report, Access Report Default View, ActiveX ListView Control Access, Access Programming Mistakes, Access Experimentation Techniques
Intro In this video, we'll talk about several common questions and tips for working with Microsoft Access, including the ongoing rumors about Access going end of life, how to quickly create a report from a form using the Save Object As feature, setting reports to open in print preview by default, and why it's often best to avoid ActiveX controls. We'll also discuss issues like adjusting video screen sizes for better visibility, the difference between Me.Painting and docmd.echo, and share some helpful viewer feedback and stories from the community. This is Quick Queries 25.Transcript Welcome to another TechHelp Quick Queries video. This is number 25, brought to you by accesslearningzone.com. I'm your instructor, Richard Rost. I think moving forward, I'm going to do one of these every Friday, so it's going to be Quick Queries Friday, every Friday. Because the response and the feedback I've been getting is that you guys really enjoy these Quick Queries videos, and I really enjoy making them. So I'm going to make them more often.
I get tons and tons of questions, both on the forum and in YouTube comments, and I love answering them all, but I don't have time to do them all individually, so that's what this is for. Let's see what's on the pile today.
First up, I get this question all the time, so I like to address it often. Platinum member Daniel says, my IT department just informed me that Access is supposed to go end of life sometime this year. Anyone else hearing this? Or is it just something they say to dissuade folks from using the program? IT departments hate Access. Why? Because Access makes it easy to build really cool software, and you don't need the IT guys. So they feel threatened by it, at least that's my theory. It's not a real database program. Okay, sure.
But anyways, you might hear that Access is going end of life, but it's always a specific version of Access that's going end of life, and they do that with all of the software. Word, Windows, Windows 10 is approaching end of life, they're trying to get everybody to upgrade to Windows 11. It doesn't mean that Access is going away. It doesn't mean that Access is going away. Excel 2013 is approaching end of life. That's all of the office software, not just Access.
So this scaremongering goes around every couple of years. I've done whole videos on it. I'll put a link to this one down below. But every couple of months, someone comes up to me, "Oh, I heard that Access is getting discontinued." No, no, no, it's not. 2025, Access has been around since what, 1992, and it's still going strong. So don't worry about it. Microsoft doesn't give Access the love that it gives some of its other apps like Word and Excel. But it's still there, got a very dedicated following. It's not going anywhere.
Next up a little while ago, I did a video on how to make a quick customer report based on a form. We create a new report, and then we just copy over the objects, and that's how I've done it forever. Since the 90s, that's how I've always done it. And, of course, my awesome students, Donald, one of my platinum members, said that all you have to do is go into the file menu, let me open this up, go to file, save object as, and there's a save object as here, and you can save your form as a report. That's even faster, that works great too.
There's pros and cons to each method, because when you do that, you get all the colors and the shading and everything. So you can go into your database, open up like your customer form, and then go to file, save as, save object as, this didn't exist when I was learning Access back in the 90s, early 2000s. I don't know when they added this. Save as, let's call this the customer, I think I already have a customer, so R2, whatever, it's temporary, save it as a report, hit okay, and now you've got a customer report, and it looks like that, it looks just like the form.
Print preview it, and you can come in here and customize it. Now, I don't know, it's one way or the other, whatever you prefer, you can come in here and just remove these backgrounds, if you like the same layout, or do what I do. I like to have my blank report here that already has the settings in it that I like as far as the margins and the width and all that stuff already set, then I can just put the objects in here, like I showed you in the last video. It's six of one and a half dozen of the other, whichever way you think is easier, whatever you prefer, I'm just here to show you other options, and thanks to Donald for bringing this one to my attention.
Another suggestion on here, Richard, one of my gold members says, you can set the default property of a report when you open it. Because I always hate opening up straight to the report view, or you don't want to send it to the printer, you can make the default property print preview. I never knew this, and that's another new thing that I learned. So you can come in here, right-click, choose design view, and on the Format tab, change this to print preview. Now, if I open this up, just from here, it opens up in print preview, and that's really cool. I think I'm going to change my defaults in the TechHelp Free template to print preview because if I open them right from the navigation pane, I want to see them like this. I never want to see them in just plain old report views. That's pretty cool too.
Thanks, guys, unlike a lot of teachers who get insulted or feel weird when students try to teach them something, I love it. I love learning new things from you guys when you post a comment, tell me something in the forums, or even email me. I love learning new stuff, and I will never be insulted if you guys are like, wait a minute, you can do this easier that way. Fantastic, you just taught me something, and that's great, I love learning new stuff.
One of my silver members, Chris, says that he likes the size of the recording screen as it is in the video. I know in the newer of the future videos, I have a higher definition monitor, and it allows you to see and record most of access. But I look at these videos while driving and on my phone, so this version is easier to see. With your newer version, you can hardly see that on the phone. Yeah, my new stuff is all recorded at 720p, which is higher definition. All my old videos, like if you look at Access Advanced too, this is an older one. This was the entire size that I could record back then, and I did it for a lot of different reasons. Not everybody had high-speed internet, so I was trying to keep the video sizes smaller. Plus, I had to put these on CDs and blah, blah, blah. Anyways, a high-definition video takes a lot more storage space and a lot more bandwidth to be able to watch it, which is not a problem today in 2025, but in 2004, when I started this, no.
So this is obviously going to show up easier on your screen than this will. This is a newer HD version. So if you're watching on a phone, you can see how that's hard to see. I don't know what to say. My lessons are meant to be watched on a PC screen where you've got a decent-sized monitor. I've thought of doing some shorts and stuff, maybe for that smaller phone format, that TikTok type video, but for my long-form content, I really can't do this for the small screens. It's just panning around too much. That's one of the problems I had back with this one; you can only get so much on this little tiny window. That's why I had to go bigger. People even still say that I don't record enough of the screen, so I'm trying to keep everybody happy here. What do you think? What size do you prefer?
Also, going back to that customer report thing, one of my moderators, Adam, shared some source that he wrote, some code, that automatically converts a form to a report for you in some VBA. He posted it online. It's basically this run command, and I'll put a link to this down below; you can check it out if you want. Thanks to Adam for sharing it, and thanks to Kevin for reminding me that Adam shared it. I might do a follow-up separate video on this, but I want to let everybody know about it now. Here it is, we'll look for the link down below.
This one came up this morning as a testimonial from one of my platinum members, Joe. He said that he felt a really great sense of accomplishment by figuring something out by himself instead of having to ask someone else for the answer or looking it up. Experimentation is sometimes the best way to learn. In fact, I put together an entire video on this. Sometimes I tell people, they ask me all the time in the YouTube comments or in the forums or whatever, well, what if you did this or can you do that? Just try it, just click on it. You're not going to break anything by just clicking on the button. Oh, can you change this to a, yeah, see if you can, try it yourself.
I don't want you to get mad at me if I tell you to go try it yourself. I'm not trying to brush you off or act like I have better things to do. No, I want you to experiment with it. I'm trying to teach you how to teach yourself. Go experiment with it and see if you can get it to work. Take your way through. Some of the best lessons that I learned as far as programming, well, I guess in life in general too, is making mistakes. Because then you, okay, that didn't work. All right, let's try, okay, that didn't work. All right, it's like Edison and the Lightbulb. We learned 10,000 ways not to build the Lightbulb. When you finally figure it out, you're going to remember it better too.
So when I tell you, try it yourself, I mean it, just go and tinker with it. Play with it, experiment with it. Back up your database and go to town. I'll put a link to this video down below. Don't get upset if I tell you in a comment, hey, go try it yourself. That means that I probably know the answer, and I probably know it's not going to be that hard to solve if you just take two minutes to try and figure it out on your own. If it's a really weird, complicated problem, I'll tell you. I'm not that cruel.
All right, it's time for YouTube comments. I wanted to share with you guys when they give me YouTube comments. They're in reverse chronological order, so they're the newest ones first. I've still got some going back like 10, 15 years that I haven't even answered yet. I'm trying. But there's just so many, there's not enough hours in the day. But as you can see here, this is three hours ago, six hours ago, six hours ago, 14 hours ago. As I'm doing these, I'll do them for like an hour, and then I'm still only like three months ago. I try to read them all, but I don't necessarily have time to respond to them all. For a few years, I was really busy moving and doing all kinds of stuff and didn't even answer any of them. So I'm doing my best to get back to people now.
The user asks what my opinion is, pros and cons of the ActiveX ListView control against a traditional list box. My personal opinion is I always try to use the native Microsoft Access Controls first if they'll do the job. I prefer using stuff that's built into access. I don't like ActiveX Controls. There's a couple of reasons why. Most importantly, if you are building a database that you're sharing with other people, they have to have the exact same version of the control, the exact same version of office that you have. If the file is any different, even installed in a different folder, it can cause problems. I've had nothing but tons of problems trying to use ActiveX Controls in the past. When I was a developer building solutions for companies with 10, 15 people, some of whom might have had slightly different setups. Joe's got Windows 98 and Bill's got Windows 2000. It was just a pain. But if I just stuck to just Microsoft Access stuff by itself, no problem.
There is one exception. I do like the tree view control this thing, where you can build a little tree. Like this was, I believe, employees and their supervisors. And so it's great for showing self-join relationships. Okay. But that's it. That's the only ActiveX Control that I actually like. There's also a progress bar ActiveX Control. That's kind of cool. But again, you can do the same thing with just a regular text box, and you don't need a separate ActiveX Control. That's what this video's about. He tried to make one without one, without using an ActiveX Control. So you asked, that's my opinion. I tried to avoid ActiveX, any third-party controls for sure, unless you've got a specific situation where you're using an ActiveX Control to open cash drawers before, things like that.
If you've got a specific solution that you have to implement for a client, you have no choice but to use them. And they're not all bad. But you got to be careful with compatibility issues if you're dealing with setting it up on multiple machines. So that's my major concern. If it's just for one person, one machine, for you, for yourself, great, no problem. But I try to stick to stuff that's baked into access.
Next up is a comment that I have for all of you. If you're going to ask a question about a video, watch the video. Watch the whole video. This user's asking if they can, so this video is about changing the row height in a continuous form. So at runtime, when the user's working on it, if they want to make these rows taller or shorter, they can. Now this user is asking if it's possible to auto-fit the row height based on the data in the field. So if it's only got one line of text, it only shows one line. If it's got five lines of text, it only shows five lines. I explain this in the video at time index 1022.
Before everybody asks in the comments, no, you cannot have multiple different heights for different rows. You can't say make this one taller, this one shorter. Can't do it. It's one of the limitations of access. I have no control over that. I've tried numerous different techniques to change that, can't be done. That's just one of the very few things that access can't do, that's one of them. Note to the access team, maybe it shouldn't be too hard for you to do. So there you go, there's your answer. Now, if you're just interested in reading the data, not necessarily editing it, you can put it in a report, and reports do have a can-grow can shrink. So if you just want to be able to read it on the screen, yes, you can format it that way. I explain that in the video after I talk about that. So please, if you're going to ask questions about a video, watch the video.
Next up, Jan Van Antwerp says, maybe try Me.Painting equals false in the reverse status box. The reverse status box video is where I teach you how to take that status box that I have and make the text go in backwards. So as the user's reading it, new stuff comes in on the bottom. But unfortunately, there is some flicker in there, especially if you're on that form, you'll see a lot of flicker. His suggestion, Me.Painting is something you can turn on and off. It disables the form display updates. In fact, I have a video on this coming out soon. It's been on my to-do list forever. I'm going to compare and contrast that with docmd.echo, which is the one that I usually use to prevent flicker. The difference between the two, basically, in a nutshell, is Me.Painting only affects one specific form. Whereas docmd.echo affects the entire application.So you've got to be very careful not to have any errors pop up. Otherwise, you won't see them, and it'll look to your user like your database has just crashed. But I tried both of these, and you still get flicker. But thanks for the suggestion.
There are awesome Owens. I have just one comment for you. Boom! This is a comment I get once in a while, and I just want to make a brief mention about this. I understand that there are a lot of you out there who watch my videos on YouTube from all around the world, especially in a lot of countries where the US dollar is pretty strong against your currency. So even paying for some of my less expensive stuff is a lot for you. I get it, and I feel for you.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where I have bills too that I have to pay. I wish I could make everything that I do free, but it's just not a possibility. I wish I made enough money to live on from just putting free videos on YouTube, but the Microsoft Access community is not just that large. It's not like I'm getting money from cat videos where I get millions of views. I get a few thousand views on my videos, but I earn most of my income from selling memberships and my full courses.
I put the free stuff online, which I'm very happy to do. I love being able to provide stuff for free and to help people without asking for any compensation. But the small percentage of people who decide to sign up and become members or purchase my full courses, those people allow me to continue doing what I love. Hopefully, I'll be able to do more free stuff in the future. But until then, I have to earn a living. If I went out and got a real job, I wouldn't have any time to make videos at all.
This one goes out to Mickey. He says, can you please set the audio track to German? I did a video a little while ago talking about how YouTube now has auto-dubbing where they can dub my voice in different languages, which is pretty cool. However, with some videos, when I go and have all the languages turned on that I can, for some of them, it just says ineligible. It won't let me put that one on. I'll send an email to YouTube and see if maybe they know what's going on.
All right, folks, now it's time for a quick queries retro. I'm going to go back and take a look at some stuff from 10 years ago and older. Why the old stuff? Well, as I explained before, the comments are displayed on YouTube in my creator screen where I approve and answer them. They're in reverse chronological order. Sometimes I'll get a comment on an old video that comes in now, and I'll comment on it. Then if I look at the other comments on that video, I see some of them from 10 years ago that I didn't answer. So we're going to answer some of those now.
Joey Spurps says I should be his IT teacher instead of his current good-for-nothing IT teacher. I want to know how Joey feels about his IT teacher now, 10 years ago, and 10 years later. We'll see; hopefully, he'll respond.
The Dell Cruise says this information is going to triple his carpet cleaning business. I want to know 10 years later, did it triple your business, Vidal? If so, someone owes a commission check; send it my way, thank you.
Diane can't find the link. Are you still looking for it 10 years later? Did you find it? Everyone wants to know. No, I'm just kidding, Diane. It is really hard to find the link sometimes. YouTube does a really good job of hiding it. I mention this in every other Quick Queries video. If you're on YouTube, you have to come down here. You miss this bar right here. This is the description text below the window. Hit that more, and there are all the links. It's very easy to miss this. I'm constantly telling people where to go to find it.
This one goes out to roller coaster 11-11. This is a video talking about tables and fields, and he's saying they're called attributes, not fields. Nope, in Microsoft Access, they're called fields. Yes, I know that other database systems and if you're taking a class on database theory, they call them attributes. I get it, but in Access, they're fields. It's just like in Excel; we have rows and columns. In Access, they're called records and fields.
I don't ever like to be that guy who says, no, you're wrong. But when someone posts a comment on one of my videos and says that I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure I'm right. I've been doing this for 30 years in Microsoft Access for fields. So that's it. That's the answer.
Now I've got a couple that we actually have some responses to. This is funny; I didn't even realize this. Lunatic Del Rey says she has an exam tomorrow, was really confused as Access was really hard, but now she feels happy and confident. This was eight years ago. So three years ago, I said, how'd the exam go? She replied right away, but I missed it. Honey, this was five years ago. I don't remember, but thanks. I hope you did well.
I wanted to bring this one up because it brings up a story from my own past. I'm learning Access so I can tutor it at my job, and this is a great starting point. It reminds me of how I was when I was starting out. I used to teach in a classroom. I used to have my own training center. I pretty much stuck to the Microsoft stuff: Windows, Word, Excel, Access, of course, some Visual Basic. But I had never really used PowerPoint. I had a client of mine who had a bunch of people in for Word and Excel training. He's like, well, we have to learn PowerPoint too. I'm like, yeah, no problem. I can do that too. So I taught myself PowerPoint in a weekend so I could teach the class on Monday.
That was fun. I did the same thing with Photoshop a few years after that. I had never touched Photoshop in my life, but I had a client that wanted to put 10 people into a Photoshop class. So, all right, I'll learn it. I think that's one of my skills. I'm not the smartest guy, but I can learn something quickly and teach other people and act like at least I'm an expert. The most powerful words you can have as an instructor when someone asks you a question you don't know the answer to is: we'll cover that in the next class. Make yourself a note, research it, and come back. That's why I love teaching online. Because I can just be like, oh, I'll have a video on that next week. I'm giving away all my secrets. For the people who actually watch the Quick Queries, you're learning all my dirty secrets.
Well, folks, that's going to do it for Quick Queries number 25. I hope you enjoyed it. We'll do this every Friday unless you guys tell me otherwise. Let me know what you think. Do you enjoy these Quick Queries? I like doing them. I'll see you on Monday for another regular video, and I'll see you next Friday for another Quick Queries video.
That's going to be your video for today. I hope you learned something. Live long and prosper, my friends. I'll see you next time.
TOPICS:
Access does not have an end-of-life
Creating a report from a form
Save object as: form to report
Setting report default to print preview
Avoid ActiveX Controls in Access
Auto-fit row height in continuous forms
Me.Painting vs docmd.echo
Creating self-join relationships in Access
Adjusting screen size for video recordings
COMMERCIAL:
In today's video, we're diving into Quick Queries number 25, where we'll answer a range of your tech questions. We'll explore misconceptions around Microsoft Access's end of life, sharing insights on versions and future support. You'll also learn efficient techniques for converting forms to reports using the 'Save Object As' feature. Discover how to set default print previews for reports and expand your Access VBA knowledge with a special code shared by one of our community members. For those struggling with viewing videos on mobile devices, we'll discuss the best way to consume our content. Additionally, get advice on avoiding ActiveX controls and hear some of our favorite community comments. Also, in today's Extended Cut, we address the dynamic resizing of rows in continuous forms. You'll find the complete video on my YouTube channel and on my website at the link shown. Live long and prosper my friends.Quiz Q1. In the video, what is the primary reason suggested for IT departments disliking Microsoft Access?
A. It is an outdated software
B. It requires too much technical support
C. It enables users to create software easily without needing IT
D. It has compatibility issues with other Microsoft products
Q2. What is a common misconception about Microsoft Access mentioned in the video?
A. Access is a database management system
B. Access is going end of life as a product
C. Access cannot be used in professional settings
D. Access is only for beginners
Q3. How can one quickly create a report from a form in Microsoft Access according to the video?
A. Copy and paste all objects from the form to the report
B. Use the Save Object As feature to save the form as a report
C. Recreate the form elements manually in a new report
D. Use an import/export wizard
Q4. What method does the presenter mention he prefers for customizing reports?
A. Using default settings for all new reports
B. Saving the form as a report and editing it
C. Starting with a blank report template he set up
D. Using a built-in report wizard to set up the layout
Q5. What is a new feature or option the presenter learned about for reports?
A. Setting the report to default to print preview
B. Automating report generation from data tables
C. Using macros to adjust report layout dynamically
D. Creating a summary page for all reports
Q6. What audio-visual quality does the presenter mention targeting different screen sizes?
A. He records all videos in 4K for maximum clarity
B. Videos are recorded at 720p for compatibility
C. He uses ultra-low resolution for small mobile devices
D. He does not consider screen size differences at all
Q7. What stance does the presenter take on using ActiveX Controls in Access databases?
A. Actively encourages their use due to enhanced features
B. Prefers native Access controls due to fewer compatibility issues
C. Advises avoidance only for personal, non-commercial databases
D. Suggests ActiveX for advanced users only
Q8. How does experimentation help in learning Access as per the video?
A. It wastes time compared to structured learning
B. It allows discovery of undocumented Access features
C. It reinforces learning through trial and error
D. It leads to frequent corruption of the database
Q9. What is the presenter's response to requests for making his content fully free?
A. Plans to make everything free in the future
B. Explains that financial constraints limit this possibility
C. Offers discounts on all courses to make them more affordable
D. Encourages viewers to find free alternatives online
Q10. What was the primary challenge mentioned regarding older video formats?
A. Poor audio quality and lack of subtitles
B. They were too concise and lacked detail
C. They were optimized for lower resolution screens
D. They contained outdated Access features that are not relevant today
Answers: 1-C; 2-B; 3-B; 4-C; 5-A; 6-B; 7-B; 8-C; 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 TechHelp tutorial from Access Learning Zone covers Quick Queries, where I answer several frequently received questions and share insights from my experience with Microsoft Access.
Every Friday, I'll share a Quick Queries session. The response to these has been wonderful, and I love the engagement from everyone who watches. Although I constantly receive questions in forums and on YouTube, I can't address them all individually, so I created these sessions.
One common question comes from people concerned that Microsoft Access is reaching its end of life. This rumor crops up often, and what usually happens is a particular version of Access, Word, or Excel reaches its end of life. Access is still supported, and while it doesn't receive as much attention as some other Microsoft apps, it definitely has a devoted user base.
I also discussed different methods for creating customer reports based on forms. Traditionally, I've copied objects to a report, but a student pointed out an easier method by saving a form as a report from the "Save As" menu. Each approach has its pros and cons, and I encourage experimenting with both to find your preference.
Another learning I've embraced is setting the default view of a report to print preview. This avoids unnecessary printing errors and aligns with how I like to view reports when opening them directly from the navigation pane.
Some of you have mentioned preferences over the size and resolution of my instructional videos. While I now record in high definition, I understand that it might be challenging to follow these on smaller devices like phones. My lessons are designed for larger screens, but I'm open to experimenting with other formats for better accessibility.
On the topic of using controls, I received questions about the differences between ActiveX ListView controls and traditional list boxes. My stance is to use Microsoft Access's native controls unless an ActiveX Control is essential for your task. These external controls often introduce compatibility issues, which can be especially problematic in multi-user environments.
I remind viewers to watch my entire video before posing questions about it. Often, the answer to a frequently asked question is thoroughly covered within the tutorial itself, such as the limitations of adjusting row height dynamically in continuous forms.
Additionally, engaging with me through comments is encouraged, and I appreciate learning new things from my students. I occasionally revisit older comments to address unanswered questions, and I'm always learning and growing with all of you.
Thank you all for your participation and support. Your input and interaction inspire my work, and I'm grateful for the community we have created together. Remember, experimentation is an excellent way to solidify your learning. Don't hesitate to try things out and see what works.
For complete video tutorials, including step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here, visit my website at the link below.
Live long and prosper, my friends.Topic List Access does not have an end-of-life
Creating a report from a form
Save object as: form to report
Setting report default to print preview
Avoid ActiveX Controls in Access
Auto-fit row height in continuous forms
Me.Painting vs docmd.echo
Creating self-join relationships in Access
Adjusting screen size for video recordings |
