Access 2003 Application Options Changing

[Guest]

Access 2003 is... acting wierd.

I use somewhere between 20 and 30 different access databases every week, 97,
2000, and 2003 formats included.

I recently began using 2003 almost exclusively, in part to re-write several
of those databases to smooth them out and make them faster and more user
friendly. Ever since I have started this however, the application settings
and options keep changing. I keep losing my system pre-set toolbars, having
buttons move in my toolbars, losing the close X button in the upper right
hand corner for 1 set of stuff (only lost it for queries right now, as an
example), having the 'show windows in taskbar' option check and uncheck
itself...

I believe it may be due to pre-selected options in different databases
carrying over between databases. I know how to 'fix' each issue as it shows
up, (get my toolbars to show back up, etc...) but i am tired of resetting
everything back to defaults one by one every time i open a database.

It never did this in 2000, I have to believe that it is part of Microsoft's
"Let me help you do it, I think I know what you want" coding, like Word's
auto-formatting.

Is there any way to lock the settings/options in place so they don't keep
changing like this?

Getting annoyed,
-CoW

 

[Guest]

Strange. I've never seen that behavior. Converting them to MDE's could stop
some of the things from changing. You could set things using
Application.SetOption. Below are some I use in A97 databases.

'Set some database defaults found in Tools, Options
' Put in the Open event of the startup form
' Set Default Locking to Edited Record
Application.SetOption "Default Record Locking", 2
' Set Default Open Mode for Databases to Shared
Application.SetOption "Default Open Mode for Databases", 0
' Set Default Find/Replace Behavior to Start of Field Search
Application.SetOption "Default Find/Replace Behavior", 2

In the case of "Application.SetOption "Default Record Locking", 2" Default
Record Locking has three choices and the one I want is the third so, of
course, I put in 2 for the arguement. That's because it starts numbering at 0
instead of 1.

Put the above code in the Open Event of your opening form. One other strange
thing is that the database may need to be opened and closed twice on the
user's computer for the change to take effect. The first time the database
opens, it makes the changes. The second time the changes are in effect.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply.

Your comment of "Strange. I've never seen that behavior." is unfortunately
an all too common response I receive from my co-workers.

Converting the databases to MDEs won't help me, since only 3 of them I work
exclusively through a front end. The rest of them I need full back end
functionality, either AS back ends to existing front ends that the users work
with, or just as self-only databases for compiling and analyzing data. About
half of them don't even have forms that I work with, so using code to set all
settings is only a partial solution.

Your suggestion is still useful to me, so thanks for that.

 

[Guest]

Strange that it should be different between 2000 and 2003, but
it's always been a strange corner of Access functionality.

Your personal preferences are stored in the registry. Your
database settings are stored in the database. Even in A97 it
was possible for database preferences to reset your personal
preferences, and your personal preferences to reset your
database preferences, leading to a loss of the menu items
that allowed you to reset your menu, recoverable only by
coding or simultaneous registry changes and restore from backup.

I have no idea how that worked, and I never understood it,
and eventually we worked out how to avoid the problem, which
was more important than understanding it.

In your particular case, I would consider a registry script to
delete your Access preferences from the registry. One click
and they're gone. They magically restore to default next time
you open Access.

HKCU\software\microsoft\office\11\access\settings

(david)