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

Download the free preview of Total Visual CodeTools 2010 for Microsoft Office/Access 2010. The Preview Version is fully functional through the end of July. Take advantage of this opportunity to see how Total Visual CodeTools can cleanup the code in your existing projects, let you deliver more robust solutions, and simplify your daily coding chores.

Integrated directly into the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), Total Visual CodeTools gives you a rich set of tools to help you create, cleanup, and deliver better solutions. The latest version is enhanced for MS Office/Access 2010 and has many new features:

• Supports Microsoft Access/Office 2010, 32-bit version
• VBA Code Parsing Supports Access/Office 2010
• Code Cleanup and Code Delivery Allow Immediate Overwrite
• Code Cleanup Error Enabler and Handler Tags are Customizable
• Copy Control Builder Supports Multiple Target Controls
• Long Text/SQL Builder Supports Query Retrieval and Converts Tabs and Spaces
• Select Case Builder Supports Text Blocks and Numeric Ranges
• Recordset Builder Defaults to Current Database and Simplifies Selections
• Three Locations for Total Visual CodeTools on Your Menus
• Tools Available During Debugging
• Default 'Send To' is Remembered
• Screens are Resizable
• Redesigned Storage of Standards for Improved International Support

Visit these pages for:

• Complete list of 2010 enhancements
• Download the Preview Version

Total Visual CodeTools supports all VB/VBA hosts, including Visual Basic 6.0 (VB6) and Office 2010, 2007, 2003, 2002/XP, and 2000.

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 recent release of Windows 7, Service Pack 1 (and Windows 2008 R2) breaks backward compatibility for Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). That means if your .NET, Visual Basic 6, VBA/Office, C++ or other program includes an ADO library reference, and you compile your application or COM object on a Windows 7 SP1 machine, it will not run when deployed to an earlier environment containing the existing ADO object.

An error you may encounter is: Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'ADODB.Connection'.

Basically, the interface IDs for files like MSADO28.tlb and MSADO15.dll have changed. For more information on this, read the Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 2517589 entitled An ADO application that is re-compiled on a Windows 7 Service Pack 1-based computer does not run on down-level operating systems

This is not an issue in Visual Studio .NET if you are using ADO.NET. But if you are using ADO, it is an issue. For .NET specific issues, see KnowledgeBase article 840667: You receive unexpected errors when using ADO and ADO Multidimensional in a .NET Framework application

Note that applications built on the original version will run fine on Windows 7, SP1. You just can't go backwards. Watch out!

In our Microsoft Access, VBA, and VB6 programs, we often need to pauseprocessing for a certain period of time, or until a specific time, and thencontinue processing. One common way to do this is to use the DoEvents function in a loop whilewaiting, however, this method consumes the CPU time and slows down the PCconsiderably. This is a significant problem when pausing for more than a coupleof seconds, when users will notice the slowdown. Use the Sleep command instead.

Learn more about our royalty-free MicrosoftAccess/VBA/VB6 module code.

Microsoft Access, VBA, and VB6 include a wide range of built-in Date functions, including DateAdd, which calculates the difference between two dates. A common need, however, is to add a number of weekdays to a date, without counting weekend dates.

Learn about this and all our royalty-free module code in Total Visual SourceBook where you can also perform business day math with a list of holidays to avoid.

One of the nicest features to add to an address data entry screen is to automatically fill the city and state fields when a zip code is entered. In conjunction with the US Postal Service, FMS offers the Total Zip Code Database which gives you the entire list of valid zip codes and their corresponding city and state names. Both the primary and secondary city names are provided. Speed up data entry, eliminate typos, and clean up existing data with Total Zip Code Database. We also include the list of common city names the USPS doesn't like with their corresponding corrections. The database is provided on an annual subscription basis with an initial list and 11 monthly updates.

In addition to the information provided by the USPS, the Total Zip Code Database also includes geospatial coordinates (latitude and longitude) for each zip code. We also provide a list of countries and states to simplify lookups, and module code and sample form to add this to your applications. The data is provided in a Microsoft Access MDB and ASCII files. 

For more information, visit the Total Zip Code Database page, view the zip code flier, or get the demo.

The complete list of modules and procedures in our Total Visual SourceBook professional source code library is now available for your review. From the list of Microsoft Access/Office/VBA/VB6 modules, you can click on any item to get its details.

194 royalty-free modules and classes are available covering all aspects of application development. Learn more about what's available, so you can simply use our code rather than writing your own. It's all open source, so you can learn from it or enhance it to your specific needs.

Total Visual SourceBook is the most popular professional source code library for the Microsoft Access/VBA/VB6 community. This huge library of powerful, well tested, and documented VBA/VB6 source code is available for your projects royalty free! Eliminate the drudgery of writing code that already exists. Simply insert our code into your project and run it.

As part of our commitment to quality, we are pleased to announce that we have released a new update for Total Visual SourceBook 2007. This update resolves all known issues since their original release.

The updates are available free of charge to registered owners who were notified via email. If you did not receive instructions, please contact us so we can update your information. 

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)

Microsoft recently added three of our technical papers to their MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) web site:

• Microsoft Access Query Tips and Techniques
• Error Handling and Debugging Tips and Techniques for Microsoft Access, VBA, and Visual Basic 6 (VB6)
• Microsoft Access Performance Tips to Speed up Your Access Databases

We're proud Microsoft recognized our work and look forward to sharing more resources with the developer community.

Total Visual Agent is the system administration tool for professionally maintaining your Microsoft Access databases. Our seventh major release, Total Visual Agent 2007 is now shipping with full support for Access 2007 including the Access 2007 ACCDB database format. It incorporates many new features including improved support of Windows NT Service options, ADPs, and a more modern user interface.

Microsoft Access Jet Databases (MDB and ACCDB formats) need to be periodically compacted and repaired for optimal performance (visit the Microsoft site for keeping Jet databases working in top condition for more information). You also need to make regular backups or multiple backups for disaster recovery. Schedule these database chores, manage entire folders or disk drives, and ensure tasks are executed consistently and audited. If something goes wrong, Total Visual Agent can actually send you an email. You can also schedule your own tasks such as running a macro in a database, which can perform all sorts of work such as printing reports, downloads, file transfers, and other processes you want on a regular basis. Tasks can be run monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, or just one time. Schedule your tasks and confidently know they'll be executed according to your plan.

As part of our commitment to quality software, FMS regularly releases product update patches to add new enhancements and resolve known issues. Most recently, we have released updates for Total Access Emailer, Total Access Analyzer 2007, and Total Visual CodeTools. Updates have been sent to all registered owners—contact us if you did not receive your update.

You can check for updates in most FMS products by using the built-in Update Wizard. From the Windows Start menu, select All Programs, FMS, Program Name, Update Wizard. Follow the wizard prompts to check for updates.