Replies

Dougie

The ‘programme’ I’m running is an Access database. As the users are not particularly PC friendly I’ve had to replace the server copy twice already (they ctl alt del if it seems to have hung [busy network = slow database sometimes] and this can corrupt it). By having the front end on the local HDD the user will only corrupt the local copy (everyone else gets to keep working), by having the .bat file replace it each time they start up any corrupt local copy is replaced with a good server copy.

I’ve been looking around for solutions, and have found references to .bat file compilers, these appear to turn the bat file into an .exe…… Have you any knowledge of this sort of programme? After all if it’s an .exe I’ll have the close programme tab on the short cut wont I????

As I don’t know squat about .pif files then getting my hands on an old .pif editor would just give me a new learning opportunity, but thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for your time and help so far.

Ian

Dougie

There is no program tab under the properties section for my shortcut. This may be because I’m running a .bat file with the short cut? not sure at all here.

The first question, like patt says, if it’s a single form the wizard will do this for you, the code behind it will look something like this: –

Private Sub This_Particular_Combobox_AfterUpdate()
‘ Find the record that matches the control.
Me.RecordsetClone.FindFirst “[quotenum] = ” & Me![quotenum]
Me.Bookmark = Me.RecordsetClone.Bookmark

End Sub

Where ‘quotenum’ is your reference.

The second bit is concatenation, type the & sign into your help index, it has a reasonably good explanation, if not some one far more competent than me will be along before long to help you out.

Ian

Hans

Not sure why the PCs are different. The variation is causing me other problems, oopppssss, sorry, creating other learning opportunities for me .

The database I’m having problems with isn’t an .mde, I was curious about whether or not the .mde could have some how set the library references Access wide. Having found a few posts that refer to this issue indirectly it does not appear as though this is possible, therefore a red herring.

The installations of Access on the culprit computers doesn’t even recognise the Date() parameter. This may suggest other problems but the only idea we could come up with was to re-install Office. I’m hoping that this will sort out the problems with the missing help files on these PCs as well.

As for Access 2k, I’m not overly impressed so far, bit of a luddite really….. My main gripe is the help, when it opens it reduces the database window to the left hand half of the monitor and presents itself on the right, all very nice if you have a 21″ monitor, but on my 15″ it’s an annoyance me = . My only reason for changing was the Big Boss decided we were going to 2000. As far as useability is concerned I don’t see any improvement, I’m not good enough with Access to appreciate the upgrade really.

Hans

Thanks for the suggestion, just had the offending PCs to myself for an hour and the debug compile instruction threw up an error, missing object or project when it got to a line of code witht the format instruction in it. On further investigation the PCs in question did not have teh same install of MS Office as the rest of the company, same version number etc, but different install method. Access wasn’t even able to handle Date() as a query parameter. IT will be re-installing MS Office on these computers, and I’ll re-try my system then.

As a last question, can an Access MDE cause problems with .obj files? The PCs in question have an externally developed Access database on them which is heavily coded, so I’m told.

Thanks

Ian

Peter

I’m afraid I can’t help, but this does strike a cord here, I’ve just had Office 2000 installed on my PC and the Access VBA help often ends with a dead end, similar to the one you describe. I’ve been nicely asking our IT department to sort this out and install the ‘missing’ files. By the sounds of it I might be ‘politely’ asking the wrong people to sort out the problem.

Nice to know it’s not just me that MS has it in for

Update

Thought I’d have a look on the MS web site and found an article ( http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?…kb;en-us;231955 ), it just says the help files aren’t installed untill they are used, and that the install media must be available when they are called. This fits my situation, but I may be ‘teaching granny to suck eggs’ with your greater experience.

Ian

Hans

, this is why the thing hasn’t been working….. Where it’s been returning ‘too few parameters’ as the error it’s because I’m using a query controlled by a form?????? .

If I open the query using the querydef bit and then put into the code the relevant part of Andrew’s code, ‘Qry![user_id} = me![user_id]’ (altered to suit my variables) will this set the query parameter? I think it will, but after this morning I’m feeling a tad fragile confidence wise.

Thanks again for the sanity.

Ian

Andrew / Hans

Thanks for the information, I haven’t put the ‘set var = nothing’ in yet as the code isn’t working (I think it was one of you I saw telling some one else about this that got me doing it), I’m a bit lazy like that, get it to work then tidy it up (the error trapping is there as I used the button wizard…).

The query does reference the password form for a user_id, I used the ‘build wizard’ to set the statement. The query works when I open it with the form open in form view, and a user _id selected in the form, so the reference is correct?? Should I be using the () after the currentdb? (for some reason my VBA editor always resets CurrentDb to currentdb).

I’m intrigued by the QueryDef bit, I thought the OpenRecordset was the only way of opening a record set….. Where I use a query for my source data (nearly all the time) is it better to use QueryDef to make the data available?

Back to my VBA editor, lunch might have cleared my tiny a bit.

Thanks again for the suggestions

Ian

Wendell

I’ve promised the boss to try the automation route over the next three months, and he’s accepted the current solution of one email per primary reference, this will mean some folk getting several emails at once, but with a max of 40 and an average contact base of 20 then I doubt any one is going to be too buried by emails for the next few months.

I should be receiving Litwin, Getz et al’s Developers set for 2000, along with their VBA book. Hopefully these, along with the support I get on here, will solve my problems.

Besides, I don’t want to offer too much, because every time I show them I can do ‘the impossible’ they think up some thing even more devilish .

Thanks

Ian

Wendell / Brian

Thanks for the information on automation, I downloaded the files and spent last night reading them. I doubt I’ll be able to get it working in the current project by my deadline, but as it’s a company database I can make the modification when I’m confident with this new method.

It’s not the automation bit that’s really putting me off, it’s the multiple records. Even using the article that Hans pointed me at I get strange results sometimes so can’t use it until I know what the cause of the variation is (don’t know if it’s my use of the Word fields, or my data set).

Thanks for the help

Ian

Wendell

Yup, it’s a ‘real fun project’ OK…..

If I was to delve into the Access automation route, I’m thinking over the next few months while I improve my programming skills, would I be able to use a Word template to place all the relevant fields into? The resulting Word document is going out from the company I work for and has to have the company letter head on it.

The maximum likely number of letters to be produced during the merge procedure is around 40, would this be too much for automation to handle?

Thanks for the information

Ian

Hans

Thanks a lot, I’m beginning to think of you as my sanity’s guardian angel . I hadn’t realised that the MS knowledge base contained this sort of tip (guess that’s another one for my browser’s favourites list ).

As you said, the article doesn’t do exactly what I want, but after a quick read through, it appears to have the basics I need to achieve a working result. The ability to list all projects for each employee is the bit I needed, the rest is just formatting the Word document (I hope that these aren’t ‘famous last words ).

Thanks again

Ian

Dave

Thanks for the example, problem is I didn’t mention that the forms are opened in dialogue mode, thus stopping anyone from ‘playing’ with them, and stopping any code executing from the previous form…. My mistake, I wonder if the code would work from a class module rather than from the button? The answer will be here some where 2 .

Hans

Excellent, two more new ‘words’ for my vocabulary. I’ll give them both a try just to drive the lesson home.

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to help me out again.

Ian

Charlotte

And there was me hoping some thing in life was going to be simple . As database developing (destroying?? ) is only done as a back drop to my ‘real’ job (Manufacturing Engineer) I’m not sure if I’ll get the time to do a programming course.

Hopefully I’ll pick up what I need by association with the Lounge.

Any good books for structured programming, like ‘structured programming for the PC language illiterate’?

Off to run a few searches.

Thanks again

Ian

Charlotte

Thanks for the tips, I’ll see if I can find a copy of either book to have a flip through. I’ve acquired rather a lot of books recently and not many of them offer solutions to ‘real life’ problems (mine at least), so I was hoping to find the dictionary of VBA, pity it hasn’t been written yet.

The dictionary (nice definition) idea was spawned partly by my lack of programming knowledge, while I know about do while and if then etc I’ve no real back ground with any programming language, this leads to some strange results with search engines and from the on line help, I was hoping that a full list of the terms etc would allow me to make better use of the available resources.

I think my copy of Access may have a problem though, when I try and open help from the object browser (right click the bit I’m interested in, click help on the pop up menu) it gives me one of two error messages, I’m trying to get it re-installed. Any one else had similar problems, or am I cursed??

Thanks

Ian