Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint 2010 have a new feature that allows you to recover unsaved documents, even ones that you never saved. This expands on the Autosave feature that was available for years, but unlike earlier versions of MS Office, the automated backups are not deleted when you close your Office host. Additionally, multiple versions of your file are maintained, so that you can return to an earlier version of your document.

For more details, read our Mircosoft Office tip: Recover unsaved documents or return to an earlier version of your document in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word 2010

Microsoft Office 2010 has a new feature that makes it easier than ever to insert screenshots into your documents. The Screenshot feature is available in MS Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word 2010. On the Insert tab of the Ribbon, just click “Screenshot” and choose any of the windows that you have open:

For more details, read our Microsoft Office tip: Quickly Insert Screenshots in Microsoft Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint and Word 2010

A new feature in Microsoft Excel 2010 lets you insert tiny charts, or Sparklines, into worksheet cells. Sparklinkes are a powerful way to show a quick snapshot of data trends.

To insert a Sparkline:

• Select the cell where you want to insert the mini chart.
• On the Insert tab of the Ribbon, choose the desired Sparkline type in the Sparklines group:
  

For more details, read our Microsoft Excel tip article: Show Data Trends with Tiny Sparkline Charts in Microsoft Excel 2010

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

The Enterprise Features web site highlight's FMS President Luke Chung's discussion about why Microsoft Access is underrated and hated in large enterprise organizations.

He discusses the dynamics of IT departments in large organizations and their natural conflict with the needs and budgets of information worker. He also shows how organizations that understand the strengths and weaknesses of Microsoft Access can leverage its power for competitive advantage, and how to structure service levels to do so.

Read our new paper on using Terminal Services and RemoteApp to Extend Microsoft Access and Other Windows Applications Over the Internet.

One of the features of Microsoft Windows Server that is increasingly popular over the last few years is the Terminal Server and more recently RemoteApp. With few exceptions, most Windows applications work within a Terminal Server environment. By doing so, your investment in existing applications, and the power of Windows desktop features and interoperability, can be exposed over the Internet.

This is particularly powerful for database applications such as Microsoft Access since it eliminates the need to send large amounts of data over the Internet for Access to process and users do not need to install Access on their machine. With RemoteApp, you can set up a terminal server experience where your users can only run your application without running other applications or browsing your network. Easily web enable all your desktop applications.

The Microsoft Azure platform is now available for production use.

We've been using Azure over the past year for web/asp.net hosting and SQL Server solutions. We have been very impressed with its features and capabilties. We believe it will revolutionize how we create and deploy applications, and look forward to providing commercial and custom solutions and services with Azure.

We're already working on several projects including the merging of the Windows desktop/Microsoft Access/Office with the web. We look forward to sharing more with you in the near future.

What do you think about Azure and cloud computing?

Total Visual SourceBook 2007, the most popular professional source code library for Microsoft Access, Office and Visual Basic 6 is shipping with an expanded code base and improved code manager. With 194 modules/classes and over 100,000 lines of code, Total Visual SourceBook lets you add our well written, documented, and tested code into your VBA/VB6 projects royalty-free. Includes full support for Access 2007, lots of new code for Outlook 2007, Office 2007, the web, etc. Learn more about Total Visual SourceBook and why so many developers use and learn from our years of experience creating professional quality solutions:

• New Features
• Overview and Screenshots
• Code Categories
• Complete List of Modules and Classes
• Sample Code (Example of Date/Time Calculations)

In Microsoft Office 2007 programs (Access, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) the Quick Access toolbar in the upper left corner offers shortcuts to several commonly-used toolbar buttons or commands. By default, it just shows Save, Undo, and Redo. However, you can customize this to add commands that you use often.

When moving from earlier versions of Microsoft Office programs (Access, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) to Office 2007, the new Ribbon can be very difficult to get used to. One common complaint is that it takes up so much space. However, did you know that the ribbon can be easily collapsed to give you extra vertical space?

I participated on this panel at the Microsoft TechEd Conference to explore the different reasons and approaches for migrating applications to Microsoft SQL Server. In addition to moving the data to SQL Server, ideas are presented for transforming applications to offer additional features while maintaining budgets. (43 minutes)

Worried about your job or career?  Uncertain about what to do to protect your future?  

Watch this video from my panel discussion at the Microsoft TechEd Conference. Hear me share my experiences at FMS with fiver other developers, and different ways we've survived over our careers. Entitled The World Turned Upside Down: Development Strategies for Lean Times, the video is 51 minutes.

If you're used to pasting Excel spreadsheet data into an Access table, you may have encountered this error recently: The data on the Clipboard is damaged, so Microsoft Office Access can't paste it.  Maybe you thought there was something wrong with your spreadsheet, data, or memory. It turns out this is caused by a Microsoft Excel 2007 security patch that was released December 9th. Click on the link to learn about the issue and a workaround.

The economy and financial markets are undergoing tremendous turmoil as this massive deleveraging unfolds. In response to discussions with our customers and the wider community, I published an article for things to consider when developing software applications during these challenging times. Minimize risk and maximize your potential by getting solutions into production quickly and let the market (users) decide what survives and dies. Application evolution and natural selection is most powerful during times like these. It's important to anticipate rather than be surprised by those forces. For more details, check out the paper (http://www.fmsinc.com/tpapers/budgets/ApplicationDev) which is referenced by Microsoft and other sites.

Wishing you the best and much success!