Using Help in Access 2007

[Guest]

Am I missing something or did Microsoft really screw up Help? I am a long
time Access programmer and getting introduced to 2007 on a Windows XP machine.

when I open Help I see a window with a toolbar that has 9 icons beginning
with Back and ending with (8) Table of Contents and (9) Keep on top. Below
is a seach text box. In this window, there are several things that I could
do in the past but cannot do now. These are based upon this specific window.
Maybe a different window does exist that I cannot find. Missing
capabilities are:

(1) No way to synchronize content pane with navigation pane.

(2) No address bar (or Favorites) that I can use to track significant (to
me) topics.

(3) No way to move to next or previous topics by hitting a toolbar icon.

Note: Title bar contains: Access Help, Status bar contains: All Access,
Connected to Office Online. Toolbar does not appear to be customizable.

Can someone comment on these three points. Hopefully these capabilities
still exist if I only learn the trick to find them.

 

[AnandaSim]

Am I missing something or did Microsoft really screw up Help? I am a long
time Access programmer and getting introduced to 2007 on a Windows XP machine.

MS does really weird things to it's help. Things that were in winhelp
(.hlp) were lost when we went to .chm.
..chm was really bad and then got better. As it got better it also
accumulated the whole of Microsoft Office content so if you were
searching for an Excel worksheet function or an Access VBA feature,
you also got guff about Visio that you weren't intereted in.

The new 2007 help engine is another step along the way - they have
done more integrate "seamlessly" web content with local disk content.
And of course features have gone missing or changed because of the
change of architecture.

(1) No way to synchronize content pane with navigation pane.

I don't see that either. The desktop Access Help engine may be a
dumbed down version of the full MSDN interface.

By the way, I would expect all of the local desktop content to be
available on MSDN on the web.

Take for example this MSDN page:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb177313.aspx

In the MSDN interface, you will see breadcrumbs at the top of the
content pane. This is the new way to identify where you are in the
Table of Contents and means that there is no more synch.

(2) No address bar (or Favorites) that I can use to track significant (to
me) topics.

The MSDN interface allows you, because you are using a web browser, to
bookmark that content webpage. And the url includes some UID which
identifies that webpage.

If you use the desktop help window, you can right click on the content
pane and it tells you the UID.

(3) No way to move to next or previous topics by hitting a toolbar icon.

I don't think the concept of previous and next exists in their help
authoring system. If they want a previous and next, the content author
codes that as hyperlinks in the content.

It looks like browsing MSDN is the more effective way to go.
1. You can refer to a webpage with a url which can be bookmarked in
any compatible web browser and be discussed with a collaborator.
2. You favourites are portable across machines because they are just
web browser bookmarks. I work across several machines and my help
bookmarks were always local to each machine and it was too hard to
figure out how to carry them with me.
3. MS can update their help online without needing to re-deploy
content to all their customers (which they never did after you bought
it)
4. The commnunity can add user notes to the help page (rather like the
php manual has been organised all these years)

HTH
Ananda

 

[Guest]

For anyone that finds this topic and has an interest, Here is what I have
learned.
It seems that using Help Online and Offline has some differences beyond
Online being more up-to-date.

A significant difference is that Offline, you have a top level entry of:
Visual Basic for Applications Language Reference. Online does not have this
entry.

The following link takes you to a window that contains a similar menu to the
one viewed when you enter Help online from within Access:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb149076.aspx

A second significant difference is the breadcrumb created when you use F1 on
a VBA keyword such as Option Explicit. Offline, you are taken to:

Access 2007 Developer Reference > Visual Basic for Applications Language
Reference > Visual Basic Language Reference > Statements

When online, the trail becomes:

Access Developer Home > Visio > Visio 2007 Automation Reference > Visual
Basic for Applications Language Reference > Visual Basic Language Reference

Statements Good Luck!!!

Another complaint that I have is that in Access 2003, you had a "See Also"
button with most topics. This is a great feature because if you can find a
topic that is close to what you want, the "See Also" button may take you to
your answer.

I am not sure what drives Microsoft but it seems that they surely do not
know how to handle help. They think by having the information in a topic
somewhere is the objective. How to navigate among topics is a concept
outside of their grasp. After being in business for over 20 years, you
would think they could grasp this simple concept.

 

[AnandaSim]

I am not sure what drives Microsoft but it seems that they surely do not
know how to handle help. They think by having the information in a topic
somewhere is the objective. How to navigate among topics is a concept
outside of their grasp. After being in business for over 20 years, you
would think they could grasp this simple concept.

With that many people on the Microsoft campus, I am sure that they
grasp many concepts. However, which one is given more priority is a
different matter.

If you download the new Help display engine for one of the IT Pro
products (e.g. sql server, visual studio, msdn library) as opposed to
the Office Suite (which is an end user product), you will see that the
Help is and has been different since Year 2000.

I just downloaded the Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 MSDN Library free and
it also covers Office 2007 programming Help content. It does have
bookmarks, synch panes and stuff like that.

It isn't however integrated in any way to a keystroke in the VBA IDE.

Email (e-mail address removed)
and you will provide feedback to Office Developer Help.