Total Access Components 2010 Ships with 32 and 64 bit ActiveX Controls

Create dazzling forms with Total Access Components, the only collection of custom controls designed specifically for Microsoft Access.

With little or no code, add advanced menus, rotated text, bitmap animation, resizer and splitter bars, progress meters, gauges, dials, sliders, spin buttons, pop-up notes, Windows dialogs, clocks, fancy buttons, borders, rotated tabs, cursors, etc. A sample database includes examples of every control and how to customize them.

The 2010 version is rebuilt using C++ version 10 and supports both 32 and 64 bit platforms without having to make any changes to your forms or code.

Total Access Components 2010 supports Access 2000 through 2010. It includes a royalty-free distribution license and a deployment program to easily distribute it to your users. Here are the new features. You can also download a free trial version.

As a resource for the Microsoft Access community, we've updated our comprehensive list of Microsoft Access Error Codes and Descriptions for Microsoft Access 2010.

There are PDF reports of the error codes and descriptions, and a database containing a with each error code and its different descriptions access MSAccess versions 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002, and 2000.

Here's the detailed HTML page that lists every Microsoft Access 2010 error code with its description and for some of them, hyperlinks to resources that address the error and/or provide more information on the topic. Since this page is so large, please be patient while it loads.

This resources is part of our Microsoft Access Developer Help Center where you'll find lots of other information to improve your skills. Hope this helps!

I've recently had several discussions with developers (not technology specific) about how they can be perceived as higher level professionals in enterprise environments.

One of the key steps is making sure you understand the larger needs of the organization. While it's nice to create solutions quickly and on your own, IT managers look beyond the current solution or technology to see how it will be supported and enhanced over time. Developers who create solutions that do not follow industry or organizational standards are a risk. While it may be personally satisfying to do things on your own, that's not a perspective shared or encouraged by organizations worried about what happens when you're no longer available to help. After all, they can all of a sudden become responsible for your work and the next person may not be so pleased with your "creativity".

It's important to mitigate that risk by reaching out and using resources to help you be more productive. Adopt processes that address the long term requirements of a solution to support its entire lifecycle. This begins with understanding best practices for creating solutions and avoiding common mistakes. Within the application, there should be consistent coding, error handling and commenting standards, the use of source code libraries or shared code across applications, etc. It should also include system documentation, version control, disaster recovery plans, quality assurance and test plans, deployment processes, etc. Issues of security, reliability, scalability, and maintainability become more and more important as your solution becomes more successful.

We at FMS face these issues all the time, which directly resulted in the creation of many of our commercial products. Professional developers in enterprises use lots of 3rd party tools to be more productive. Take advantage of what we have to offer so your organization addresses these critical needs at a fraction of the cost of you building it yourself. In fact, using industry products and standards makes you more of a professional, not less.

Here are some resources that can help Microsoft Access developers get to the next level:

• Microsoft Access within an Organization's Database Strategy
• Microsoft Access Developer Help Center
• Microsoft Access Errors, Suggestions, and Performance Tips
• Microsoft Access Products for Users, Developers, and Database Administrators

Enterprise organizations understand the investment that's necessary to support their solutions and professionals because the work is so valuable and mistakes so expensive. For your personal growth, it's important to spend time learning on your own whether it's through online resources or books. Learning from others is the next level which can be in person and through online groups. Formal training can also help. Hiring consultants for their specific expertise can be quite useful in bringing in new ideas and solutions, and teaching you additional skills and best practices. Finally, products that can leverage your knowledge and skills, or automate manual steps, have a tremendous return on investment both short-term and long-term. Take advantage of all these resources for your own sake and because other professional are.

Good luck!

Geoff Hollander of Northwest Database Services and the Portland Access User Group wrote a review of our Total Access Analyzer product. He provides a nice discussion of how it finds ways to improve his Access applications:

"I always thought that I was thorough about going through an application and cleaning up loose ends, but Total Access Analyzer proved: I was wrong and I probably won't call another application complete until Total Access Analyzer gives it the OK."

He also suggests how the documentation it generates and its reports are a business opportunity:

"Selling a documentation package generated by Total Access Analyzer for your application is a great way to add a training-free, trouble-free and reasonably priced profit center to the work you are already performing!....Total Access Analyzer is a solid product that any Access developer should have in their toolbox; and one that will pay for itself in short order."

Read the complete review

We are very pleased to offer a Free Preview of Total Access Detective for Microsoft Access 2010.

Ever wonder what changed between your database versions or the difference between two similar objects or tables? Total Access Detective is the premier program to detect differences between Microsoft Access databases, objects, code, and data.

Available as a Microsoft Access add-in, Total Access Detective lets you easily find differences between objects in your currently opened database. Easily find changes in your table and field definitions, object properties, controls, report sections, embedded macros, regular macros, modules, and data. The results are available to you in reports and on screen which can be copied or exported.

You can also compare any two databases to easily find exactly how they changed. Your databases can be an ACCDB, MDB or ADP database format. The new version lets you create separate databases for each comparison so you can easily manage multiple databases and changes over time.

We've added many new features to make Total Access Detective more powerful than ever.

Manually comparing databases for design and data differences is prone to error. Discover why so many Microsoft Access professionals rely on Total Access Detective to improve their productivity by quickly identifying the changes in their work.

Tell us how it works for you!

We've enhanced our Microsoft Access Query Help Center with a new paper describing Microsoft Access Append (Insert) Queries, and how to use them to add multiple records or a single record to a table.

We also discuss why rather than using a Make Table query, it's preferable to use an existing table, empty it, then fill it with an Append query.

Our paper on Using Terminal Services and RemoteApp to Extend Your Microsoft Access and other Windows Applications Over the Internet is updated. There's more information on implementing this plus how Total Access Startup can manage this through user profiles to let every user have a unique experience.

Our Professional Solutions Group has helped organizations run Microsoft Access application over the web and can even help you use host RemoteApp instances for your users. Contact our consulting team for more information.

Total Access Startup lets you centrally manage and guarantee that all your users always launch the right version of Microsoft Access with the right version of your MS Access database (ACCDB, MDB, or ADP). Simply distribute a shortcut to your users to start your application. When you post an updated database, your users automatically get it installed on their machine the next time they launch your program. They don't need to know the name of the database. You manage all of that in one place and can change it at any time. A runtime version lets you control the Access version launched for users not on your network.

Total Access Startup 2010 is now shipping. It supports both 32 and 64 bit versions of Microsoft Access 2010 letting you control which version your application requires. It also supports all legacy versions of Microsoft Access. Learn more about the new features and try out the free trial version.

FMS is pleased to announce the release of Total Visual CodeTools 2010, the most popular commercial Visual Basic for Application (VBA) and Visual Basic 6 (VB6) coding product for the Microsoft Office/Access community.

Total Visual CodeTools is an add-in that is integrated with the module editor of all VBA platforms such as Microsoft Office, Access, Excel, Outlook, Word, etc. It offers a wide range of utilities to help developers become more productive when creating new code, taking over existing projects, and delivering more robust solutions.

"Total Visual CodeTools is by far my favorite third-party product," says Alison Balter, author of Mastering Access Desktop Development, instructor and developer. "Total Visual CodeTools helps you get your job done more quickly and allows you to focus on the fun and exciting aspects of application development. My favorite feature is the Code Cleanup. If you've ever inherited a code-intensive database, you'll appreciate this feature."

Total Visual CodeTools 2010 includes many enhancements over its predecessor for Office 2007. In addition to supporting VBA in Office 2010, there are new options and better performance for Code Cleanup and Delivery, enhancements to many Code Builders including the Message Box Builder, Recordset Builder, Select Case Builder, and SQL Text Builder. New features simplify the replacement of existing error handling code, and the user interface is enhanced to support Windows 7. There’s also improved support for international languages and operating systems.

"We are very pleased to ship Total Visual CodeTools 2010," said Luke Chung, President of FMS. "This version represents our seventh major release of this product and our continued support of the VBA and VB6 developer communities."

Edwin Blancovitch of Advanced Developers in Puerto Rico adds, "I really recommend it. This tool definitely increased my productivity, allows for code optimization and quality, and best of all reduced my costs."

"I really love Total Visual CodeTools," said Peter Weinwurm of Axium Canada. "I am completely blown away by how much the products in the Total Access Developer Suite can do, and how much time they will save me."

Product Information

Total Visual CodeTools supports all Visual Basic 6.0 and VBA development environments including all versions of Microsoft Office from Office 2000 through 2010. Additional information is available on these web pages:

• Main product page
• New features
• Free trial

Licensing and Pricing

Total Visual CodeTools is available via ESD and also comes with a professionally printed 164 page user manual and CD.

Total Visual CodeTools is licensed on a per developer basis. A single license is $299. Existing customers can upgrade for $199. It is also included as a standalone product and is part of the Total Access Developer Suite, Total Access Ultimate Suite, and Total Visual Developer Suite.

Total Visual CodeTools can be purchased directly from FMS, corporate resellers, and international distributors. All FMS products include a 30-day money back guarantee.

Press Release

Mercer Consulting, a global provider of human resources services, chose FMS to enhance an existing application for deployment to their multinational clients. See how they leveraged our commercial software development experience to create a professional quality solution with many enhancements including language localization:

"Although we had ambitious goals and increased the scope mid-stream, this was still one of the smoothest software development projects I've seen. FMS's requirements gathering was flexible and efficient, with helpful quick prototyping to facilitate our decision making. The technical development work was always fast, creative but focused, and thoroughly tested....And project management was a breeze, with thorough monthly tracking and the project coming in ahead of schedule and under budget."

Read more in our joint Case Study: Leveraging our Commercial Software Development Expertise

Additional information on our Microsoft Access Development Services 

We are very pleased to announce the creation of our new (and free) Microsoft Access Developer Help Center. It contains our many popular papers with tips and techniques for becoming a better Microsoft Access developer, programmer, and administrator. It covers the whole life cycle from strategic planning of how MS Access fits, database and table design, form and report tips, programming do's and don'ts, deployment, best practices, performance tips, etc.

This follows our recent Microsoft Access Query Help Center that's been well received, and our Microsoft Access to SQL Server Upsizing Help Center. 

We welcome any feedback on what we've put there and suggestions for additional content that would be helpful.

In Access 2010 and 2007 databases (ACCDBs), the Attachment field type lets you attach files (documents, files, etc.) to records in your database. When you open the table in Datasheet view, the attachment fields display a paperclip as the column header.

Read our paper to learn how you you can Replace the Paperclip Icon of Attachment Fields with a Column Name in Microsoft Access Tables in ACCDB Databases .

The purpose of the SQL UNION query is to combine the results of two or more queries into a single result set. The list contains all the rows belonging to all the queries in the union. This applies to queries in SQL Server or Microsoft Access. A common question is whether to use the UNION or UNION ALL syntax.

The main difference between UNION ALL and UNION is that, UNION only selects distinct values and sorts the results, while UNION ALL selects all values (including duplicates) without sorting. Read our revised paper on UNION versus UNION ALL SQL Syntax to learn more about the differences, see some examples, and understand why you would use one versus the other.

For more tips and using queries, visit our Microsoft Access Query Help Center.

Here are some pictures from the Portland Access User Group Conference at Silver Falls State Park in May 2011. FMS President Luke Chung spoke at the conference which was his first experience attending this wonderful conference and location.

Since our beginning in 1986, we've served large organizations with our leading-edge solutions designed to help people make better data-based decisions. Whether it's on PC desktops, networks, the Internet, and more recently mobile devices, we recognize you need to have the data you need, where and when you need it, in a format that helps you make decisions and avoid mistakes. We also understand the challenges of balancing application functionality with the cost and requirements of regulators, auditors, and enterprise IT.

Our general philosophy is to quickly create sophisticated solutions built on a solid database foundation. Designed to scale and expand, our solutions evolve as your business demands it. Sometimes we can anticipate future needs in our design, but more often, the application evolves based on unforeseen events such as changes in the economy, regulations, new products and customers, or competitive pressure. With our staff of experienced developers, we can quickly adapt our solutions to meet your needs. Rapid development and deployment, fail quickly and cheaply, and water and nurture the seeds that grow and justify additional investment.

We understand the needs of large organizations and deliver the quality you demand. FMS products are used by tens of thousands of customers in over 100 countries including 90 of the Fortune 100.

Learn more about our experience and services to large organizations in our new page Consulting Services and Custom Software Solutions for Large Businesses.

To find out how we can help your organization, please contact us for a Risk-Free Assessment.