Microsoft Access 2010 new feature overview
Thursday, October 15, 2009 12:48 PM
Here are some of the new features you can expect to see in Access 2010, including a Web-ready format and an improved macro environment.
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Access 2010 new feature overview
Microsoft Access is one of those applications you either love or loathe. Some of the features are quite useful for smaller databases, like address books and CD/DVD collections, but the 2GB database file size limitation is constricting.
The Office 2010 release of Access offers some improvements that make the application more usable, including reliability enhancements.
Web-ready database format
The Web is the new desktop in some environments. The Access team took this into consideration and provided a Web-ready format for databases. While previous versions of Access allowed publishing to the Web via scripting technologies to access the data, Access 2010 makes Web publication even easier by making use of the Web Database type.
Macros
Another change to Access 2010 is the inclusion of a better macro environment. Macros function more like SQL triggers. They can be launched conditionally based on actions taken within the database, which not only improves performance, but also can improve the user experience by allowing tasks to be automated.
Figure A
The Access 2010 Data Macro Environment
Themes
Office themes are supported in Access 2010, making customizations to the appearance of databases much easier and more uniform than in the past. When using a form in Access, you can apply a theme to it, similar to the way themes can be applied in Word and PowerPoint. This will help keep the appearance of your forms unified across the application. Themes can also be applied to reports created in Access.
Groups of fields
Access 2010 changes the way that fields are added to the database by using a better list of fields to insert. The Data Type gallery replaces the Add Field task pane and contains all of the common field types for use in a database. One handy new feature here allows you to add certain groups of fields, called Quick Start selections, as a collection rather than adding one field at a time (Figure B). For example, when you select the Address Quick Start, multiple fields are inserted:
- Address
- City
- Country_Location
- State
- Zip
Figure B
Quick Starts allow you to add fields as a collection.
In addition to the data types already available in the Add Field fly-out, you can add your own to the list. You can save selected fields as new, user-defined data types. When saving fields for later use, you can categorize them under any section within the Add Fields fly-out, with the default being User Defined. Figure C shows the Add Field option.
Figure C
Add Fields from Data Type gallery.
Reporting
Access 2010 allows conditional formatting within reports, showing the information that meets a certain condition or set of conditions. To use or change the conditional formatting rules in a report, open the report and choose the Format tab on the Ribbon. Then, select the Conditional Formatting option.
The Conditional Formatting Rules Manager (Figure D) lists the rules will be displayed. Just choose the field for which you want to add/remove/modify formatting rules. The rules for the selected field are displayed in a box below.
Figure D
Conditional formatting
Expression and Query Builder use Intellisense
Microsoft has included Intellisense in the Expression and Query Builder portions of Access. Intellisense helps complete the field names and other items you might use in these areas. This reduces the margin of error when working with queries and expressions, as well as the time spent looking up the spelling of field names in large databases.
Conclusion
These are a few of the key features I have discovered when using Access 2010. The biggest items by far for me are the macro changes and allowing them to function similarly to SQL Triggers. Access 2010 also seems a bit friendlier than previous versions. Now if only we could get Microsoft to increase the 2GB limit on file sizes.
Microsoft Word
Automatically add captions to graphic elements in a Word document
Illustrations, figures, and tables are often accompanied by a caption that explains the graphic. If your Word document contains a number of these elements, you might want to include some kind of generic label for each.
Word can help by automatically adding specific elements when you insert them. To automatically add captions to graphic elements, do the following:
- From the Insert menu, choose References and then select Caption from the submenu. In Word 2007, click the References tab and then click Insert Caption in the Captions group.
- In the Caption dialog box, click the AutoCaption button.
- Check the object you want to associate with an automated caption.
- From the Use Label drop-down list, specify the text you want to appear at the beginning of each caption.
- From the Position drop-down list, specify where you want the caption to appear in relation to the inserted graphic.
- Click OK.
After setting up the automatic caption, Word will automatically include the specified text (label) with the table. At this point, you can add a table number, title, or leave the caption just as it is.
Microsoft Excel
Quickly add a blank row between multiple rows of data in an Excel spreadsheet
Inserting a new row into a sheet is an easy task:
- Right-click a row number and select Insert from the resulting context menu.
- Or choose Rows from the Insert menu.
Either way, Excel inserts a row above the current row or cell. To insert multiple rows, select multiple rows before inserting. For every selected row, Excel will insert a new row.
Inserting a row between several existing rows would certainly be a tedious job if you inserted each row this way--individually. Fortunately, there's an easier, but roundabout, way to insert blank rows between existing rows:
- First, you need a blank column adjacent to your data. For instance, if the spreadsheet comprises A1:E11, you could use column F or insert a column to the left of column A.
- In the first cell adjacent to the data (not the headings), enter the value 1.
- In the cell just below 1, enter the value 2.
- Select the values 1 and 2 (cells F2:F3 above) and double-click the fill handle. Excel will auto-fill the cells in column F.
- Next, press [Ctrl]+ C to copy the values in column F (F2:F11) to the Clipboard.
- Select the first blank cell in the auto-fill column (F12) and press [Ctrl]+V to copy the auto-fill numbers from F2:F11.
- Click Sort Ascending to sort the spreadsheet by the auto-fill values in column F. (You shouldn’t have to select anything since cells in column F are already selected.)
- When Excel prompts you to extend the sort selection, click Expand The Selection and click Sort.
The result of the sort is a blank row between each of the existing rows. Excel simply sorts by the second set of auto-fill numbers (the result of the copy task), so it isn't a true insert task, but the result is the same. To insert two blank rows between each existing row, copy the copy values a second time (step 5), and so on.
If the rows below the spreadsheet contain data, insert the necessary number of rows below the spreadsheet before beginning. For example, if you have 10 rows of data and you want to insert one blank row between each, you will need to insert 10 rows below the spreadsheet to accommodate the copied values.
I recommend that you save your workbook before attempting this change, just in case something goes wrong and you need to start over.
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