Microsoft Access 207 Intermediate Access 7 Form-Based Field Filters, Macro Collections, Allow Edits / Deletions / Additions, IIF Function, LIKE Keyword, Compact & Repair. 73 Minutes.

In this class, and it's pre-requisite Access 206, we are building a Task Management System to manage your "to do" list. This is the second of a 2-part series on Task Management. In this course you will learn how to hide completed tasks, show tasks by date, set recurring tasks, set conditions (IF/THEN) in macros, learn about the IIF function, and learn how to filter form results with your own text boxes.

We will begin this class by creating a date filter for our tasks - to only see tasks that are due up to and including a certain date. We will use the AfterUpdate property to assign a macro to it so it requeries the list when you change the date automatically.

We will learn more complicated macro grouping techniques, and how to assign all of these groups to buttons.

Next we'll learn about Macro Conditions, which are essentially IF / THEN statements for macros. Use them to make the macro smart and make decisions.

We will deal with recurring tasks... if the task is set to be a "Daily" task, for example, just move the date forward one day instead of closing it when someone clicks on the Completed box.

We'll learn about some new form properties: Allow Edits, Allow Deletions, and Allow Additions.

We'll also learn how to lock individual form controls with the Locked property so that users can't change them.

Next we'll learn about a real powerful function called IIF or Immediate If. This is a function that can act as an IF/THEN statement inside of queries or forms.

We will use that IIF function in several places to determine whether or not to display tasks based on a checkbox we'll place on the form (show all tasks or not?)

We will review manually filtering results on a form.

Then we'll create our own set of combo boxes and text boxes so our users can filter the results by setting the values themselves - without having to know how to filter.

We will review how to use the LIKE keyword to create wildcard parameters for our queries - allowing the users to set filters based on any combination of characters in the description.

You will see how to deal with the problem that can exist if one of your users doesn't pick a value - say assign a category to a Task - and that task is missing. We'll compact and repair our database.

We'll finish off the class by placing a button for our new Task Management System on our Main Menu.

Make sure to get yourself a copy of the Handbook for this course. There are a ton of ideas that I threw in while I was writing the book - after the course videos were made. The handbook has lots of extra tips in it!

Don't miss this course! We cover a lot of really cool tips and tricks with relation to macros and form values.

Lesson 1. Task Query
Creating a TaskQ query
Create a TaskViewDate form field to limit the date
Base the data in the query on the date on the form
Run our requery macro in the On Open event
Run our requery macro in the AfterUpdate for the date
Copy date reset buttons from TaskF to TaskListF

Lesson 2. Recurring Tasks
Learn about Macro Conditions (groups)
Conditions are IF/THEN statements for Macros
If the Completed box is clicked on a recurring macro increment date
Deal with weekly, monthly, and other tasks
Allow Edits form property
Allow Deletions form property
Allow Additions form property
Locked control property

Lesson 3. Choose to Hide Future Tasks
Create a Show All Tasks check box
If the check box is unchecked, hide tasks by date
If checked, show all of the tasks regardless of date
Use the IIF() function to determine if task in future
Use the NOT keyword to negate values
Complex IIF() function with multiple conditions
Nested statements using AND and OR clauses
Feeding query results into a second query Task2Q

Lesson 4. Filtering Results
Manually filtering using built-in Access filters
Filter By Selection, Remove Filter/Sort
Creating our own filter text and combo boxes
Adding * values to our supporting tables
Review of the LIKE keyword in queries
Manually editing the Column Count and Column Width

Lesson 5. Miscellaneous
Dealing with missing data
Tasks without a category won't show. Fix this.
Compact and Repair Database
Add Tasks button to Main Menu

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