twinBASIC Weekly Update twinBASIC Update: February 26, 2023 Highlights include a big announcement for twinBASIC in the world of Access and the release of ZoneStripper, another of fafalone's VB6 twinBASIC ports.
Week in Review Week in Review: February 25, 2023 Highlights include a modern date-time picker proof of concept, using SQL Server views from Access, and writing code other people can read.
Subs vs. Functions Returning Multiple Values from a Function in VBA Using a UDT You can return multiple values from a VBA procedure by using a simple User Defined Type (UDT). Though, some situations require a "complex" UDT.
Subs vs. Functions Using ByRef to Return Multiple Values from a Sub (or Function) You can "return" multiple values from a VBA procedure by passing your arguments by reference.
Code Library Creating Form Skeletons with VBA The DesignNewForm() routine is a good starting point for creating your own procedure to generate new form skeletons with a consistent UI design.
Reports Detect if an Access Report is in Preview Mode, Report Mode, or Being Sent to the Printer How do you know if a user is viewing a report on screen or if they sent it to the printer? With this simple technique from Access MVP, Karl Donaubauer.
Form Design 5 Ways to Build Consistent Form User Interfaces in Microsoft Access Make your Access application feel more professional with a consistent user interface design. Form templates make it easy.
twinBASIC Weekly Update twinBASIC Update: February 19, 2023 Highlights include an option to customize fonts in the IDE, newly implemented OLE Drag/Drop methods and events, and a new vbNullPtr constant.
Week in Review Week in Review: February 18, 2023 Highlights include a video on the current state of Microsoft Access, closing open Access objects (reports, etc.), and using temp tables to boost performance.
Advanced VBA Performance Tip: How to Cache Results of Slow Processes Store expensive function call results with memoization. Learn to implement this technique with our step-by-step instructions and sample code.
Defensive Programming When Reliable Software Goes Bad Back in the 1980's, misplaced user trust in the software of a radiation therapy machine led to six deaths and several other serious injuries.
Subs vs. Functions Calling VBA Functions from the Form or Report Property Sheet There are two basic ways to handle events in Microsoft Access: via {Event Procedure] Event Handlers (i.e., Subs) and Function calls from the Property Sheet.
Code Library Calculating Federal Holidays in VBA: Juneteenth Update An update to my VBA FederalHolidays(), IsBusinessDay(), and WorkingDayCount() functions with support for the new Juneteenth holiday.
Subs vs. Functions Event Handlers in Microsoft Access VBA You need event handlers to write event-driven code. This tutorial will help new users get up to speed and may even teach seasoned pros a thing or two.
twinBASIC Weekly Update twinBASIC Update: February 12, 2023 Highlights include an improved UX for selecting one control from a group of controls, an update to the ActiveX Control project type, and some IID advice.
Week in Review Week in Review: February 11, 2023 Highlights include a video showing how to integrate charts.js in Access, calling the Windows Color Picker Dialog from VBA, and an Access CalendarMaker.
Subs vs. Functions How to Return Values from a Sub in VBA You can "return" values from a Sub via a parameter passed by reference. What does that look like and when should you use it? Let's explore.
Subs vs. Functions Every Function Has a Return Type Every Function in VBA has a return type even if you don't explicitly define one. In fact, there are *FOUR* different ways to declare function return types.
Subs vs. Functions Why Use Subs at All? Almost every Sub could be a Function...but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.
Subs vs. Functions Subs vs. Functions in VBA What is the difference between a Sub and a Function and why would you use one or the other? I'll give you the short answer...and then we can explore the long answer.
Intermediate Open the Windows Color Dialog from VBA If you need to get Access color values from your users, this is the easiest way to do it.
twinBASIC Weekly Update twinBASIC Update: February 5, 2023 Highlights include a major rewrite of the ActiveX implementation, updates to two community projects, and a discussion about the business side of twinBASIC.
Week in Review Week in Review: February 4, 2023 Highlights include a tool to localize Access applications (coming soon) and a couple of good (if slightly off-topic) articles on management and pricing.
VBA Enums in VBA: A Great 10-Minute Introductory Video Excel MVP Paul Kelly packs a bunch of great information (including a well-hidden feature) into this ten-minute video introducing Enums in VBA.
VBA Idempotence vs. Determinism Idempotent functions can safely be run multiple times. Deterministic functions always return the same output given the same inputs. Let's explore further.