General question about 2003 and 2007 VBA

[Stockwell43]

Hello,

I am currently using Access 2003. I noticed in buying various book regarding
the setup and coding it pretty much the same from 2000 - 2003. However, I
have purchase Office 2007 with Access and know by reading the forum that 2003
and 2007 and are like night and day (for the most part). My question is this:

Before I start buying a bunch of 2007 books, will it be necessary to buy
books referring to VBA or is the VBA coding that's used for 2003 the same for
2007? I ask this because I have books showing how to code for example "If"
statements. So would I code and "If" statement the same way in 2007? I hope
this is not going to be like learning all over again. )

I know my question may seem like a bit simple but, I just to make sure I
know what books I need and which ones I can still use before building another
library. )

Thanks!!

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

Before I start buying a bunch of 2007 books, will it be necessary to buy
books referring to VBA or is the VBA coding that's used for 2003 the same
for
2007? I ask this because I have books showing how to code for example "If"
statements. So would I code and "If" statement the same way in 2007? I
hope
this is not going to be like learning all over again. )

The VBA and coding remains the same and has not changed. So anything you
write in 2003 will work in 2007.

In fact for the most part anything else you use in terms of building reports
and forms is the same in access 2007, but in a number of areas some things
are quite a bit better 2007

 

[Stockwell43]

Hi Albert, thanks for replying.

So it's more of the mechanics that are different correct? In general, what
percentage would say is different in 2007 from 2003 maybe 20%? Just trying to
get a gauge as to what to expect before cracking it open.

Also, When I look at the TOC in some of these books, they mention
SharePoint. What is sharepoint and is it something new for 2007? I seem to
see it mentioned quite a bit.

Thanks!!

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

Hi Albert, thanks for replying.

So it's more of the mechanics that are different correct?

If by mechanics you mean user interface, then yes.

In general, what
percentage would say is different in 2007 from 2003 maybe 20%?

In terms of VBA, they are 100% the same....there is no change except if you
are using new features.

The only real changes is in terms of the user interface. So, lots of little
new features that are really nice, such as buttons can have both text and
graphic image on them now (something I wanted for years). You can now
specify what form will be used for a combo box to "edit the list" of items
(this just simply makes maintain of combo box lists in your application a
lot easier and you don't have to write code to do this anymore).

Also, When I look at the TOC in some of these books, they mention
SharePoint. What is SharePoint and is it something new for 2007? I seem to
see it mentioned quite a bit.

When you read all the technical IT magazines and articles on the web, you
hear the term called cloud computing. Share point is simply a web based
interface that allows you to collaborate with members of your organization,
or even outside clients. Share point is the fastest billion dollar product
in the history of Microsoft, and its gaining momentum every day. If you're
familiar with something like face book, think of share point as facebook for
businesses.

In simple terms, SharePoint is simply a web based system that allow you to
have messages, blogs, and share all of your word documents, excel etc in a
web space. Imagine if you have 10 people in your company that are working
on some kind of construction project. And, you also have 4 outside people.
You going to have tons of documents, papers, charts, (excel, power point,
word etc). It really becomes impossible for everybody to share this
mountain of documents via email. So you use SharePoint and any and all the
documents that get updated are now available for all to use together. It
simply allows you to put all pieces of information for a particular project
into one little website that manages everything for you. And, you can
integrate workflow operations into the system. So, for example you might
have an area for proposals and when somebody upload a proposal to the
system, the boss and the people who are supposed to give approval will be
emailed and notified automatically.

And just like we're having a discussion on this newsgroup board right now,
you can imagine those fifteen people working on the construction project
would also have discussions that all need to particpate in.

Access 2007 was a huge leap forward in terms of usability with share point.
The possibilities that share point opens up for MS access is becoming
mind-boggling right now.

I have an application which the three users in three completely different
cities need access to the same information at the same time. I could go to
ask their IT department to set up some SQL server and a vpn private network,
but this would take months and months of red tape and all kinds of hassles.

All as I did was skip on down to office live.com and sign up for the free
version of share point (in case you didn't know, the new free office live
online is based on share point).

I simply then linked my data tables to this share point site, and then
distributed the application to the three computers in three different
cities, and presto in a matter of minutes I have a distributed multiuser
application up and running. What's really incredible here is that I did not
have to purchase a server, I did not have to set up a server, yet I have a
multiuser system running now. That is the power of power cloud computing.
So, these people can now run this application anywhere where they have
Internet connections...even a wi-fi hot spot. It would have been a science
fiction dream just a few years ago that by installing my access application
on 3 computers that they would be instant multi-user anywhere and anytime
(and I did not purchase or even have to setup a server to do this).

Yet, with the free on-line Office live (SharePoint) I now have free
multi-user software that my clients can use...

 

[Stockwell43]

Albert,

Thank you so much for all this great information!!!! Very detailed and clear
cut and I like the idea of that free SharePoint!!! I have saved this post to
my folder so I can refer to the information you sent about obtaining the free
version of Sharepoint.

Thank you again for taking the time to explain everything to my and give me
all the great information. It is and will be very helpful going forward.

Have a great weekend!!!!