Chapter 4. Applications

This chapter is a compendium of tips and suggestions for making your application development go more smoothly and your applications look more professional. You'll learn how to convert queries into embedded SQL strings providing data for forms or reports. You'll learn how to build an object inventory so you can document your applications better, how to ensure that properties for objects that should match up actually do, and how to disable screen output more effectively than the methods Access provides internally can. You'll find tips on discerning the current language version of Access and modifying text in error messages and on forms and reports to accommodate the current language. You'll see how to set and restore the Access caption and how to set startup options for your application. You'll also see how to use the Windows File Open/Save dialogs and how to clear out test data before shipping your application. The final topic explains how to implement user-level Access security.

Some of the topics in this chapter take advantage of the MicrosoftData Access Objects (DAO) library. By default, when you create a newapplication in Access 2000 or later, Access doesn't includea reference to this library. Although each of the samples for thischapter includes this reference, if you create a new application andimport modules from the samples, your code won't work. In order to be able to use imported code that uses DAO objects, you'll need to select Tools References... to display the References dialog box, and select the Microsoft DAO library.