Darryl Collins
Darryl.Collins at coles.com.au
Sun Jun 28 22:39:54 CDT 2009
Yep, we have been trialling Office 2007 for a few months now. I think they have improved how Outlook behaves and there are some nice features there, Excel 2007 is cumbersome but is not so bad to use (usual toolbar rant excepted), but Access 2007 is just a mess IMHO. They would have been far better off fixing the bugs and leaving the UI alone. Not many folks were complaining about the UI anyway from what I could tell.
Anyway... As I said before, there seems to be a drift towards using a browser based FE anyway and given I only ever use Access as a FE these days it is a bit of a moot point. I would probably be heading this way anyway. Access 2007 has just speed up the process for me.
I can't help but feel they are trying to turn Excel into a sloppy database and Access into some kind of spreadsheet, at the detriment of both products. *shrug*...
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Monday, 29 June 2009 12:18 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Poll on Access 2007
Darryl,
Wait... you are saying that you have given it a chance then. And all of these "fantastic changes"?
Are you saying that you haven't discovered them?
As for here in my part of the world, I don' have ANY clients using 2007, none even CONSIDERING
moving to it.
Steve is correct of course, MS can and does FORCE the change simply by refusing to sell the old
stuff but my clients are scrambling to find old copies of 2003.
John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com
Darryl Collins wrote:
> Hi Steve,
>
> It is good to read that some folks like Access 2007. I cannot say I am one of them though. The whole app seems to be not quite finished. It is clunky and inelegant compared to Access 2003. Existing forms no longer fit smoothly on the screen and my personal bugbear in both Access and Excel is how MS have completely fouled up existing custom toolbars and menus that have functioned flawlessly for years and over multiple app versions.
>
> ok, you can recode them as custom tabs in XML, but then they are no longer backwardly compatible with older versions. You also cannot position them where they are most useful and the user still has to select the tab to get all the tools for the form. Rubbish. Besides, Often I would put a custom nav and close toolbar at the bottom of the screen with process toolbar at the top. Elegant, logic and functional - but no. Can't do that anymore, can't do much really.
>
> I don't know about the rest of the world, but here in Oz, Office 2007 is no where near critical mass. Most of the people who are using it are small businesses and 'mum and dads' who have purchased a new PC and accepted whatever it came with. Indeed, if anything folks who use Office 2007 are generally annoyed as hell to find out that .doc/.xls email attachment they sent everyone is hard to open and bits are missing for the bulk of the recipients. Yeah, I know you can run stuff in compat mode, but then why bother upgrading at all?
>
> One day time and technology will ensure that everyone creeps fwd to the newer apps, but I can honestly say the ribbon has done nothing to improve my productivity and I have been using it now for months- and in with the case of stuffing all the custom tools bars into the addin tab, this has actually made thing much worse for me and my clients.
>
> So Access 2007 a step forward? It is largely puffery and pretty colours.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve Schapel
> Sent: Saturday, 27 June 2009 7:22 PM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Poll on Access 2007
>
> Hi Max,
>
> Yes, I understand, and I have seen the problems that many people have had in
> adapting to change, and recognising the value of the fantastic changes that
> were given to us with Access 2007.
>
> I anticipate that in 10 years, my work will still be centred around Access
> development. Maybe yours will be too. If so, it is my fervent hope that we
> will look back at this period, and feel gratitude to the Access team at
> Microsoft, for their willingness to take the hard and unpopular decisions in
> order to keep Access current with the IT industry, create a product that is
> unique in its scope of functionality, and provide Access with a future.
>
> We have to see Access 2007 as the first tentative steps in a major movement
> towards Access 2010 and beyond, and sometimes tentative steps only make
> sense in retrospect. But I don't think there is any secret about the fact
> that Microsoft is investing hugely in the future of Access, and I have a
> hunch they're getting it right.
>
> Regards
> Steve
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Max Wanadoo" <max.wanadoo at gmail.com>
> Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 7:09 PM
> To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'"
> <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Poll on Access 2007
>
>> Steve FWIW, I am definitely PRO MS but anti Access 2007.
>>
>> Over the years MS has given the majority a stable site of platforms which
>> enables collaboration at various levels throughtout and across the World.
>> It has never been Un-Affordable although it must be said that costs were
>> never reduced once R&D and Profits Targets were reached - it would have
>> been
>> nice to the old-2-back versions at half price for those who didn't want
>> cutting edge. But for me, MS has been a good thing.
>>
>> What I dislike mostly about A2007 is that, in real development terms, it
>> has
>> bought nothing to the table. It has remove interfaces that have, in some
>> cases, taken years to hone and perfect, and all for the God "Looks". It
>> is
>> functionality and benefits that count and these are beyond the scope of
>> end-users - complex, behind the scene coding has to be done to make it
>> "perform" in a real tough business sense. EG. What did the Ribbon bring
>> to
>> the table for a developer producing a MR2 manufacturing solution? Answer:
>> a
>> lot of heartache to re-write existing code for no other reason than the
>> interface has changed.
>>
>
>
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