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.

AutoHotKey

A Mind-Reading Script

What if you could highlight any text, press a hotkey, and have Windows do what you want almost every time? You'd have my top productivity hack.

AutoHotKey

Debugging VBA with no Break Key

Ever use a keyboard without a Pause/Break key? It's no big deal for most people, but if you develop in VBA it's a huge deal.

Hidden Features

Blast From the Past

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

Intermediate

Cleaner IntelliSense

How to clean up your object's auto-complete dropdown list when it starts to look like that of the MacBook Wheel.

Intermediate

Dependency Injection (sort of)

For a few common dependencies, we can cheat by using a singleton class. Within that class, we'll type those dependencies as interfaces.

Intermediate

Cookie Cutter Forms

How do you reuse a form with external dependencies in multiple projects? Interfaces.

Intermediate

Backward-Compatible Refactoring

How can you completely change the way you interact with a class without breaking backward compatibility? Interfaces.

Intermediate

Interfaces, Practically

A real world example using Active Directory lookups.

Intermediate

Interfaces, Conceptually

Interfaces can be a difficult concept to grasp conceptually. To help make sense of the concept, consider these real world examples.

Hidden Features

VBA Alchemy: Turning Methods Into Properties

One can check the status of screen painting in Excel, but not in Access. This turns out to be an important shortcoming. Let's remedy it.

Code Library

Creating Optional Dependencies

Using conditional compilation to avoid the "Dependency Train" problem.

Code Library

The Dependency Train

Let's torture a train metaphor to illustrate the dangers of dependency chaining.

Commentary

The Golden Rule of Data Migrations

The fastest and most reliable way to run a migration is to repeat it many times. I call this the "Repetition Paradox."

SQL Server

Peeking Under the Hood

Don't let these gotchas trip you up when using SQL Server as a backend for Microsoft Access.

Error Handling

Graduate Level Error Handling

Once again, I borrowed an idea from Python. To smuggle this concept into VBA, I turned to a rarely-used language feature...

Version Control

Scraps of Wood and Code

Resisting the packrat mentality.

Hidden Features

Requery a Form in Place

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

Error Handling

Throwing Errors in VBA

Introducing a frictionless alternative to Err.Raise.

Defensive Programming

Defensive Programming

Don't build digital Maginot Lines. Program your defenses in depth.

Conventions

Enum Type Naming Convention

The combination of "IntelliSense overload" and "global identifier case changes" convinced me I needed a different approach.

Commentary

How Not to Propose

Features don't sell software.