Mike Wolfe

Intermediate

Debugging Sideways Images in Access

Ever import a normal-looking image in Access, only to have it turn sideways on you in the image control? The problem may lie in the EXIF data.

Commentary

7th Grade Career Day

Using this approach, I manage to teach multiple programming concepts to absolute beginners in the span of about fifteen minutes.

Signal vs. Noise

Signal vs. Noise: Error Handling

To boost our signal to noise ratio, we can increase our lines of meaningful code or decrease the lines of boilerplate.

Debugging

Debugging Automation Errors

Come join me on a journey debugging hard-to-reproduce "Automation error" bugs.

AutoHotKey

"Toggle" Hotkey for the Immediate Window

Am I the only one who finds it annoying that [Ctl] + [G] doesn't *toggle* between the immediate window and the code window? Let's fix that.

Advanced

JetShowPlan: A Primer

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

Code Library

Now you have two problems

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems. --Jamie Zawinski

SQL Server

Tuning Access Query Performance

The four best tools/techniques for tuning Access query performance: JetShowPlan, Process Monitor, TraceSQLMode, and SQL Profiler.

Hidden Features

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.

SQL Server

Cloning a SQL Server Database

The fastest, simplest, and cheapest way to clone a SQL Server database for debugging or testing. Even works with SQL Server Express!

SQL Server

All Hail Ola!

If you're managing SQL Server and you're not using Ola Hallengren's scripts, then you're doing it wrong.

Commentary

Web Apps - Bane of my Existence

Whatever modicum of credibility I may have had with "real programmers" I am about to douse in gasoline and light on fire with this article.

Signal vs. Noise

When Good Comments Go Bad

Bad actors carry out disinformation campaigns to poison our discourse. But when we write code, sometimes we're the bad actors.

Code Library

Listing External Table Sources

Using the Parse() function to list linked tables by source. Use this when you want to refer to Linked Table Manager info while writing code.

Code Library

Part and Parse()-l

Take the Tag property and OpenArgs argument to the next level. This function makes it easy to assign and extract multiple values from a single string.

Commentary

Cruft Sale!

Everything must go!!! Dead code, obsolete reports, and bunches of binary backups! No offer too big or too small!

Code Library

Don't Settle for the "Status" Quo

Wherein I wrap Access's built-in status bar functions inside a class module for more readable code.

Code Library

Environmentally Friendly Access

Using the Windows Registry to manage Production, Development, and Testing environments in #VBA and #MSAccess.

Code Library

Why so lazy, Access?

Introducing FormIsOpen() and ReportIsOpen(), two simple functions to help deal with Access's laziness.

Code Library

Filling in the Blanks

One of the keys to being a good developer is to make the *easy way* also be the *right way*. Exhibit A: the ControlIsBlank() function.

Code Library

My Dirty Little Secret

I don't use Me.Dirty = False in my #msaccess code. I wrap it up and call it from a "guard clause" instead.

AutoHotKey

Size Matters

Testing your program for small screens? You could change your own monitor's resolution, but that gets annoying real fast. Here's a better way.

AutoHotKey

Expand Your Access Palette

Use AutoHotkey to bring consistency to your Access color schemes and save time when designing forms.

Signal vs. Noise

Signal vs. Noise

My approach to software development in four words: Less noise. More signal.

Code Library

Code Library Updates

Q: How do you manage updates to code library modules? A: Version control and backward compatibility zealotry.