Access 2003 SUCH a disappointment!

[Bill Mitchell]

I just bought and installed Access 2003. Except for a
few new bells and whistles I DON'T need, there is really
NOTHING NEW!!!! What a waste of money. Ok, so it looks
a bit cooler and they've added some xML and database
management tools, but they have done nothing to fill the
gaping holes in the day-to-day functionality.

Here are just a few examples:

1. A Find and Replace in the SQL Editor - Oh gee, this
would be hard to put in. As it is now, I have to copy
the SQL into Word, do a find and replace then paste it
back. What a colossal waste of my time.

2. We all know that SQL as it is has to be tweaked a bit
to work in our VB code when doing DoCmd.RunSQL things.
It is mostly a punctuation issue. Wouldnt it be great if
Access could transform our query grids into SQL which we
could drop right into VB? Yes, HUGELY helpful. Did they
do it in 2003? No chance in hell kids.

3. How about a Universal Find & Replace function that
would search my entire database for words or phrases and
replace them? As it is now I am forced to pay for a
third party plug-in to do this. Why can't MS put this IN
Access for me? Is MS AGAINST providing us with a
complete product?

4. Access's technique for handling Shortcut Menus is
pathetic if almost non-existent. You can't even sort
your list of shortcut menus alphabetically. Did they fix
this in 2003? Nope, no change at all. Zero improvement.

5. How about a "snap-to" grid on my query editor? You
know, so when you have added 8 tables to a query you
could "snap" them into a nice clean format? They have
this in form design. Why not in query design? It would
be oh so nice - NOPE, not gonna happen folks.

6. A Tree Tool to use on our forms. Tree Tools are
cool. I could really use them, but I don't want to have
to write 3000 lines of code just to get one working.

Anyway MS, thanks for the pretty new colors and icons,
but for my $100 + I would have preferred some
improvements I can actually USE.

Sorry MS, but if you ever wonder why you are losing out
to software like Linux in China, its crap like this. You
DON'T listen to your customers. You don't CARE about
your customers. You just care about making money.

Bill Mitchell
Pissed-Off User

 

[Dorian]

The problem seems to be that Microsoft has a 'stragetic
direction' which is currently .NET and they spend almost
all their time making their various products compatible
with it. They have no time to improve base functionality.
They must also spend a lot of time making sure their
products are backward compatible so that users of old
versions of Access can upgrade with minimal effort.

 

[Steve]

Get a life!

 

[Paul Overway]

Get a life? Maybe Bill could, if he wasn't wasting time on things Microsoft
should have taken care of long ago. Issues 4 and 5 seem pretty anal, but
the first 3 would be great improvements and have no doubt been suggested
numerous times. Microsoft has improved NOTHING in 2003...in fact, they've
only added a lot of crap that causes more problems. It is true....Microsoft
doesn't listen to customers.

 

[Rick Brandt]

Get a life? Maybe Bill could, if he wasn't wasting time on things Microsoft
should have taken care of long ago. Issues 4 and 5 seem pretty anal, but
the first 3 would be great improvements and have no doubt been suggested
numerous times. Microsoft has improved NOTHING in 2003...in fact, they've
only added a lot of crap that causes more problems. It is true....Microsoft
doesn't listen to customers.

Often when new versions of software come out a common refrain is "Stop
giving us useless bells and whistles and just make the product more
bug-free, smaller, faster, more secure, etc.". Is there any evidence that
this has happened to any degree with A2K3?

I thought that maybe since the list of new features is somewhat sparse that
some effort had been concerted in these areas. So far all I have seen are
problems/complaints concerning the new security restrictions.

 

[StCyrM]

I somewhat share your sentiment. I never upgrade to a new version before it has
been proven.

However MS Access is excellent at what it was designed to do...compared to
products like FilemakerPro ot Lotus Approach.

In my case, for real database development I use Delphi with Paradox tables.

 

[Paul Overway]

Often when new versions of software come out a common refrain is "Stop

giving us useless bells and whistles and just make the product more
bug-free, smaller, faster, more secure, etc.". Is there any evidence that
this has happened to any degree with A2K3?

Quite the opposite, in fact. I participated in the beta and pointed out
many of the bugs that everyone gripes about, but they had to get it out the
door....what a waste of time! And the few additions they made (especially
macro security) nobody wanted and also managed to f%#k everyone over that
distributes Access applications.

I thought that maybe since the list of new features is somewhat sparse that
some effort had been concerted in these areas. So far all I have seen are
problems/complaints concerning the new security restrictions.

Complaints go unheard. 2003 is nearly as screwed up as 95 was....but I
don't see anyone at Microsoft doing anything about it.