Archive Collection: Hidden Features

I've been writing a daily article here since September 1, 2020; that's over 800 articles.  I haven't missed a day yet, and that includes Christmas and Easter.  Well, I'm taking my first family vacation since I started writing this blog.  Our only other family vacation (which predates the blog) was a National Lampoon's-style disaster.  I hope this one is going better.

I'm writing this in the present tense, but I'm writing it for future publication with links to past articles.  Let's hope the time-space continuum holds up.

In any case, as the slacker Firstie says to the Stony Lonesome Gate guard twenty minutes before Taps, let me get to the Point.  I've got a daily publishing streak to keep up.  But I don't want to be writing and publishing articles on vacation.  And I still want to provide you with something of value to read each day.  So I settled on creating a series of curated article lists that I think you'll find beneficial.

I'm hoping at least some of these articles are ones you haven't read before.  And if you're so obsessed with me that you have read all my articles, I'm hoping that they'll keep you busy enough that you don't come looking for me and my family 😳.  

Enjoy!

Hidden Features

Requery a Form in Place

Form.Recordset.Requery. That’s it. That’s the whole article.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Blast From the Past

Why use keyboard shortcuts from Access 2003 when developing in 2020? Because starting with Access 2007, the new shortcuts suck.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

JetShowPlan: A Primer

You may be familiar with JetShowPlan, but I guarantee you’ve never read an article about it quite like this one.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Debugging Private Procedures

After more than 14 years as a VBA developer, I recently discovered that you can debug private procedures without temporarily making them public!

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Hidden Feature: Drag and Drop Access Objects Between Files

Skip the “Import Access Objects” dialog screens and use your mouse to move Tables, Queries, Forms, Reports, and code modules between Access files.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

VBA’s Case Changing “Feature”

VBA likes to change the casing of our code (upper/lower/mixed). It may seem random, but it’s not. Read all the details here.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Inspecting the End of a Long Variable Value in VBA

You know how VBA cuts off the right side of a really long variable when inspecting its value via mouse hover? Did you know you can show the right side instead?

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Quick and Dirty For Loops in the Immediate Window

Did you know that you can write and execute entire For Loops in the VBA Immediate Window?

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Poor Man’s Status Bar in VBA

If you’re looking for a quick and dirty way to keep track of a long-running process while developing, this VBA one-liner will do the trick.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Shortcut Key to Comment/Uncomment Blocks of Code in VBA

You don’t need 3rd-party tools to add keyboard shortcuts for commenting and uncommenting code blocks in VBA with this trick.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

WizHook: A Hidden Access Object With Intriguing Potential

Font-aware AutoFit of text and combo boxes, auto-bracketing of illegal field names, sorting an array of strings...the possibilities are finite!

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Dark Mode in VBA

VBA may not have a preset “Dark Mode” like other modern development environments, but it’s not hard to create one yourself.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Declaring and Initializing Variables in the Same Line in VBA

You can’t declare and initialize a variable in a single code *statement* in VBA, but you can do it in a single *line* of code with this handy trick.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

Select Entire Sub or Function in VBA with a Double-Click

Yet another hidden feature of the VBA editor that eluded me for more than fifteen years.

No Longer SetMike Wolfe

And there's lots more where those came from on the Hidden Features tag page.