Denver Area Access Users Group

Did you know Microsoft Access can connect to databases other than Access and SQL Server? Did you know that Access allows you to connect to multiple database engines at the same time? Join Patrick Headley this month at the Denver Area Access Users Group and learn how you can use Access to:

• Connect to many different database engines, all at the same time.
• Use Access to aid in moving data from one database to another.
• Find out how Access can help you manage data for analysis and reporting in real-time.
• Learn some of the finer points of working with non-Access data.
• Get your connectivity questions answered.

Patrick Headley is the President of Linx Consulting, Inc., serving as a database, web and application developer/consultant. Patrick is the current Web Master of the Denver Area Access Users Group and a Past President of the group. Patrick has written new applications from the ground up and has fixed and improved upon pre-existing applications for clients in a wide variety of for-profit and non-profit organizations using Access, plus several database and Web technologies. Visit the Linx Consulting, Inc. website at www.linxco-inc.com.

Many people believe that algorithms are magical creations anointed by famous developers of yore. In fact, an algorithm is simply a recipe for doing something useful on a computer. In this talk, algorithm expert Rod Stephens demystifies some of his favorite algorithms. Using intuitive concepts (without a lot of math), he’ll explain:

• Quicksort (The most commonly used sorting algorithm)
• B-trees (Which databases use to manage indexes)
• Shortest path algorithms (Similar to the ones used by Google Maps. Maybe. They’re not telling.)
• The police donut routing problem (Sometimes called the traveling salesman problem.)
• The booty division problem (Sometimes called the partition problem.)
• Other algorithms if time permits

Rod Stephens started out as a mathematician, but while studying at MIT, discovered how much fun programming is and has been programming professionally ever since. During his career, he has worked on an eclectic assortment of applications in such fields as telephone switching, billing, repair dispatching, tax processing, wastewater treatment, concert ticket sales, cartography, and training for professional football players.

Rod has been a Microsoft Visual Basic Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for more than 12 years and has taught introductory programming. He has written 28 books that have been translated into languages from all over the world, and more than 250 magazine articles mostly covering Visual Basic, C#, Visual Basic for Applications, Delphi, and Java.

Rod’s popular VB Helper web site (http://www.vb-helper.com) receives several million hits per month and contains thousands of pages of tips, tricks, and example programs for Visual Basic programmers, as well as example code for this book. His C# Helper web site (http://www.csharphelper.com) contains similar material for C# programmers.

You can contact Rod at Rod Stephens at C# Helper or Rod Stephens at VB Helper.

An evening of discovery of the widely misunderstood Microsoft Access Report View, first introduced in Access 2007. Your presenter, Jim Pilcher, will show you how to leverage the similarities and differences that Report View has with the tried-and-true Print Preview in Microsoft Access. Jim will also show you advanced users the VBA report events gotchas when you first begin exploring Report View for serious applications.

Jim Pilcher, the current DAAUG President, is a prominent Microsoft Access developer in the Colorado Front Range, having worked with Access professionally since its introduction in 1992. Jim’s company, DataOne, Inc., maintains a broad clientele base providing database solutions for local and state-wide enterprises, as well as large international companies. A frequent presenter at the Denver Area Access Users Group, Jim has served eight terms as its President, and five terms in other DAAUG capacities. Visit his web site at www.dataonedenver.com

In an era of increasing diversity of devices, there are some interesting options for providing full Access client access to all users, regardless of device or operating system. Two of these, both available today on Microsoft Azure, are a Virtual Machine hosting Access 2013 with Remote Desktop Services used to access the shared resource; and, RemoteApp, a new offering on Azure that offers some interesting differences compared to a straight VM. We’ll take a look at both of these, setting up a fully-running instance of each, and evaluate pros and cons of each approach.

George first encountered Microsoft Access when using the thirty-plus floppy disk versions of Office to teach Statistics and MIS in the early 1990’s. It’s been true love ever since. George has worked as a software developer for the past twenty years, including twelve at Microsoft (in just about every group other than Office). He is currently an independent consultant living at 7000 feet in Larkspur, Colorado, working primarily on .NET applications. George still has a commercial site or two that is driven by an Access database sitting in the server file system.

Download the presentation materials

Windows 10 and Office 2016 previews have been released! Over the coming months, Microsoft will be rolling out periodic updates to both Windows and Office. Want to try the latest and see how Office and Windows are changing? Want to do this without endangering your work machine or buying a test machine? You’ve come to the right place. We’ll walk through setting up a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) using a PowerShell script from a Windows 10 Preview DVD image (ISO) in a matter of minutes, and then adding this to the boot manager so that we can dual boot any machine to either our primary OS or to the Preview. We’ll also install the Office 2016 Preview and have a quick look!

George first encountered Microsoft Access when using the thirty-plus floppy disk versions of Office to teach Statistics and MIS in the early 1990’s. It’s been true love ever since. George has worked as a software developer for the past twenty years, including twelve at Microsoft (in just about every group other than Office). He is currently an independent consultant living at 7000 feet in Larkspur, Colorado, working primarily on .NET applications. George still has a commercial site or two that is driven by an Access database sitting in the server file system.

Download the presentation materials

Andy's company (WorkSmart Database Masters) focuses on providing automated, easy to use user interfaces designed to help companies achieve more in less time.

He will be demonstrating many of his strategies to accomplishes this objective, including dynamic data-driven combo boxes based on tables instead of value lists, with different options to make it easy for users to add choices. This is especially important in cases where clients need to see different combo box options based on which customer they are viewing at the time.

You will also learn how to add a << Select All >> option into the top of a combo box list to make that control more intuitive for users. And, Andy often uses cascading filters, list box group selection and full form calendars, to his databases. Additionally, you'll learn how to dynamically test for and re-attach back end databases and even quickly swap back ends based on project, client or year.

Andy Tabisz, MCAS, MOS, is the owner of WorkSmart Database Masters, LLC, a Michigan-based technology firm focused on providing custom database and web app solutions designed to increase productivity. He has been developing databases since 1983 and is a frequent speaker at Microsoft Access and SQL conferences across the country. Andy is also very involved in the user group community and was recently awarded the 2015 Microsoft MVP Award.

Andy earned an Associates in Business 1987, then pursued a career in IT. His roles have included Software Support, Director of Training, Regional Director or Sales, Hardware & Networking Manager, Director of Automation/IT and Owner of 3 tech companies. Andy founded WorkSmart in 2008, offering software and app development to clients across the U.S. WorkSmart has consultants in Grand Rapids, MI, Detroit, MI, Florida and Arizona.

Andy enjoys traveling with his wife Marcia and his interests include golfing, movies and mentoring others. He also is a huge Dave Ramsey fan and an avid reader of business and marketing books.

This will be an introductory presentation for everyone who wants to know how to unleash the power of VBA behind Microsoft Access, but is afraid to get started.

Susan Mathison is new to our group and a new presenter for us. Please be prepared to give her a warm welcome as she discusses her first topic at DAAUG!

You’ve created a database application in Microsoft Access and you used a database server, as the back-end in order to achieve a high level of performance but there are still some complex processes in your application that take a long time to complete. For example, maybe there’s a report with a large amount of aggregated data that takes a long time to display, even though you used a server View for performance. Don’t lose hope. Maybe all you need is a Pass-through Query and some code.

In this presentation you will see how Microsoft Access Pass-through Queries are different from the queries that you normally see in Microsoft Access and how they can make even the most complicated features of your application run quickly. While the focus of the presentation is on Pass-through Queries, you will also see some database server code. This presentation begins with some basic query concepts and finishes with some complex procedures that take advantage of Pass-through queries. So, whether you are new to Microsoft Access or a seasoned pro, there is something in it for you.

Patrick Headley is the President of Linx Consulting, Inc., serving as a database, web and application developer/consultant. He uses various database and application development products, including Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server and .Net. Patrick creates databases and applications from the ground up and also fixes and improves upon databases and applications that were written by other developers; working for for-profit and non-profit organizations. Patrick is the current Web Master of the Denver Area Access Users Group and a Past President of the group. He can also be seen on a regular basis at the DAAUG lab meetings. Please visit the Linx Consulting, Inc. website at www.linxco-inc.com for more information.

This is a follow-on to Susan's wildly popular introductory July, 2015 presentation for everyone who wants to know how to unleash the power of VBA behind Microsoft Access, but is afraid to get started. Look for information on looping, arrays, data types, debugging tools, intrinsic VBA functions, and much more.

Susan Mathison is new to our group this year and a new presenter for us. Please give her another warm welcome for her second presentation at DAAUG.

Microsoft’s free data analytics and reporting tool, Power BI, has just released to general availability, and now supports Microsoft Access databases as a data source! Come find out how to quickly and easily build rich, dynamic, interactive reports and dashboards on your Access databases.

George first encountered Microsoft Access when using the thirty-plus floppy disk versions of Office to teach Statistics and MIS in the early 1990’s. It’s been true love ever since. George has worked as a software developer for the past twenty years, including twelve at Microsoft (in just about every group other than Office). He is currently an independent consultant living at 7000 feet in Larkspur, Colorado, working primarily on .NET applications. George still has a commercial site or two that is driven by an Access database sitting in the server file system.

Download the presentation materials

Your DAAUG President, Jim Pilcher, will show you some of his simple hand-rolled VBA utilities that he uses to help with his Access development projects. We will also write a small tool on the spot to show just how quickly a bit of VBA can be written and used in the midst of a project.

No Main Presentation - It's the Annual Christmas Holiday Party! The majority of the meeting is for members and visitors to meet, eat well, relax, and chat.