COM How VBA IDE Addins Get Loaded From the Windows Registry A deep dive into how VBA IDE addins get loaded from the Windows Registry to help you avoid getting stuck in DLL hell.
VBA The Windows Registry: A Deep Dive for VBA Developers Everything you need to know to get started reading and writing to the Windows Registry from VBA without breaking into a cold sweat.
Backwards Compatibility Refactoring Procedure Signatures: The Do's and Don'ts Best practices for modifying procedure signatures while maintaining backward compatibility.
Advanced Static Linking vs. Dynamic Linking You've likely heard the terms "dynamic link library", "DLL Hell", and "static linking." But what do they mean? Why should you care? And how do they apply to Access?
Hidden Features Concatenating Strings in VBA: Plus (+) vs. Ampersand (&) Both the ampersand and the plus sign operators can be used to join strings in VBA. Clever developers can use this to their advantage.
Code Library How to Set the Background Color of the Microsoft Access Application Window with VBA A series of Windows API calls will "repaint" the Microsoft Access canvas with the color of your choice. It is a bit rough around the edges, though...
Announcement Dropping `#If VBA7 Then` From API Declares Plus, step-by-step instructions for restoring the `#If VBA7 Then` code construct if you still need to support Office 2007 or earlier.
VBA 32-bit vs. 64-bit VBA: Deep Dive A deep dive into the past, present, and future of the transition from 32-bit VBA to 64-bit VBA.
VBA The Curious Case of the Return Type of the hWndAccessApp Method in 64-bit VBA Is everything I thought I knew about 64-bit vs. 32-bit VBA wrong? Or is there a problem with the Access object model? Or is it something else?
VBA Improve the Readability of Numeric Settings in VBA In VBA, numeric property settings (such as ComboBox.TextAlign–where 3 = "Right") can be handled in many ways, but some ways are more right than others.
Hidden Features NEW & IMPROVED: The "Unset" Enum Item This hidden feature of VBA lets you take advantage of my "Unset" enum item technique without cluttering up your IntelliSense.
VBA The Secret to Achieving Naming Bliss in VBA Class Modules This little-known technique from Rubberduck VBA maintainer and MVP Mathieu Guindon will change how you write class modules forever.
VBA The vbNullChar Constant in VBA What is the vbNullChar constant in VBA and how does it differ from vbNullString?
VBA Reader Question: Do DAO Objects Need to be Closed? Let's explore the conflicting opinions and scarce documentation on whether you need to close your recordsets and databases in Access.
VBA Nullable Types in VBA Ever wondered about the best ways to handle Null values in VBA? There's the ideal solution and then there's what's actually available in the language.
VBA The Pitfalls of Implicit Boolean Conversion in VBA VBA's implicit boolean conversions can trip up even experienced programmers. Negating the results of the Len() function is a perfect example.
VBA Create Standalone Functions to Return User Input Values in Microsoft Access A combination of the GetInfoForm() function, custom VBA types, and "Extract Method" refactoring helps reduce our Access application's complexity.
VBA Standard String Concatenation in VBA is Slow and Inefficient A deep dive into the inner workings of string concatenation in VBA and why appending a single character to a long string can be so expensive.
VBA When–And When Not–To Use the Statement Separator Character in VBA Did you know you can combine lines of code in VBA with the colon character? The key is to understand when--and when not--to use it.
Debugging Break Down Complex Expressions for More Debuggable Code Combining multiple operations into a single line of code may be an effective way to play "code golf", but it's no way to develop maintainable software.
VBA The Magic Behind Microsoft Access Form Object Properties in VBA By using the Me keyword, you can leverage the automatically generated properties to retrieve and set data in VBA.
VBA The vbNullString Constant in VBA What is the vbNullString constant in VBA and how does it differ from a simple empty string ("")?
Error Handling The Form Error Event: How to Handle "Untrappable" Access Errors The Form Error event comes to the rescue for a category of errors impervious to `On Error Resume Next` and `DoCmd.SetWarnings False`.
VBA Working with Empty in VBA A deep dive into the Empty keyword in VBA: why it exists, how to check for it, when it makes sense to check for it, and--most importantly--how NOT to check for it.
VBA The Missing Keyword in VBA Wondering what the IsMissing() function is all about in VBA? We'll explore that plus all the ins and outs of the VBA keyword that isn't: Missing.