[AccessD] Observations on AC 2007 (not good)

Hi Mark:

I started converting a project from AC 2003 to AC 2007 but ran into so many
issues that I told the client that 2007 was not worth and it would be a good
savings in the long run to jump right into 2010. Never having used 2010 it
was a bit of a jump of faith but I thought how much worse could it be. It
was a good choice. 

I believe the 2007 should be avoided at all costs, just like the OS (a name
that must not be spoken) and move straight to Win7 or in our case Access
2010.

Thanks for the your warnings and investigations. Do not hestitate to post
any of your other finds.

Jim



-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Mark Simms
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 9:04 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: [AccessD] Observations on AC 2007 (not good)

As I am furiously hacking away at AC 2007 for a client, I've spotted some
problems I have not seen documented.
Here they are:
1) I observed that when changing an ACCDB to an MDB for purposes of using
Access 2003 and Access 2007 there a bug in this conversion process ...it
removes the USysRibbons table. Access 2007 still can operate without one.
However, without that system table, you cannot do any customization of the
ribbon by assignment from the Ribbon and Toolbar options setting ! The only
alternative is the LoadCustomUI vba method.
The fix: cut-and-paste the USysRibbons from an ACCDB file; then change the
Attribute to the proper system table attribute -2....... something. That
last step is important.
 
2) Commandbar menu items built in AC 2003 show-up ONLY under the "Add-ins"
tab of AC 2007. OF COURSE THIS STINKS HUGELY. If you assign a custom Ribbon
that does not have an Add-ins tab, YOUR COMMANDBAR MENU IS LOST....your
users cannot do anything !
Microsoft easily could have provided a database-level setting for the
flexible placement of the commandbar menu onto the Ribbon. How this major
oversight ever got past beta testing only confirms my feeling about the
political nature of the selection of the beta test team. I would go so far
as to indict the product manager of Access for such a grevious oversight and
lack of attention to detail.
 
3) The AC 2007 ribbon can be minimized and indeed that setting "persists"
upon the next database open. Minimizing it via the GUI is simple. Doing it
with VBA is nearly rocket science with a ton of Win API calls required for
it to be reliable. Note: in AC 2010, a new DoCmd was added to minimize the
ribbon. (it took 3 YEARS to figure that out ?)
 
It doesn't take a genius to see why AC usage and acceptance in corporations
has now dropped to very low levels. Anyone associated with the beta testing
of AC 2007 should immediately disavow all knowledge of any interaction with
Microsoft Access engineers and managers involved in that program at the risk
of major verbal abuse by beleagered colleagues.
 
 
 
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