Access Blog - Microsoft Tech Community

1. Access Releases 11 Issue Fixes in Version 2403 (Released March 27th, 2024)

    

    

   In this blog post, we highlight some of the fixed issues that our Access engineers released in the current monthly channel.  

    

   If you see a bug that impacts you, and if you are on the current monthly channel Version 2403, you should have these fixes. Make sure you are onAccess Build # 16.0.17425.20138or greater. 

    

   Bug Name	Issue Fixed
   Error “Primary key already exists.” when refreshing a link to a SQL Server table.	This error could be generated when using the Refresh Link menu item for a linked table and would also produce Error 3283 when using the TableDef.RefreshLink method in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) code. This error was also fixed in Version 2402.
   Data in the extended range of supported characters is not displayed correctly when imported from an Outlook folder.	Some characters would display as ‘?’ rather than the correct character in the import/link wizard.
   Options in the Paste Special dialog are not displayed correctly in some languages when pasting a hyperlink.	Options should now display in the correct language.
   When pasting from a Hyperlink field to a Rich Text field, data in the extended range of supported characters may not display correctly.	Some characters would display as ‘?’ rather than the correct character in the Rich Text field.
   When specifying the description of a database template, data in the extended range of supported characters may not display correctly when using the template to create a new database.	Some characters would display as ‘?’ rather than the correct character in the new database dialog when using the template.
   Cannot create a new database from a template if a table name contains an ampersand (&).	If a database template were created from a database that contained a table with an ampersand (&) in the name then trying to create a new database using the template would generate an error, “Template could not be instantiated.” Instead, you will now get an error when trying to save the template that the table name that contains an ampersand is not supported.
   Error when trying to import/link text or Excel files.	Access was always attempting to open text/Excel files exclusively (denying any other access) when importing/linking to the file. This meant that if another application had opened the file for shared access, then the import/link operation would fail. Access will now open the file in a shared mode to allow the operation to succeed.
   Filename for exported file is not correct when it uses the extended range of supported characters	Some characters were replaced with an underscore (_) in the filename, rather than using the character specified by the user.
   No error displayed when there is a failure trying to switch tabs in a Navigation Form.	When switching tabs in a navigation form, a new form may be loaded. If an error occurs when Access attempts to load the new form, then an error message indicating the cause of failure will now be displayed. Previously the form failed to load, but no notification was given.
   Text for the ribbon button to set the alternate row color for a datasheet reads “Alternative Row Colour” in British English.	The text now reads “Alternate Row Colour.”
   The term Report is incorrectly localized in some versions of Access.	Some terms need to remain in English for expressions to function correctly, so the localization caused the expression builder to fail to build valid expressions.

    

   Please continue to let us know if this is helpful and share any feedback you have.  

2. Access Releases 9 Issue Fixes in Version 2401 and Version 2402 (Released Jan 30 and Feb 28, 2024)

   This set of fixes covers two versions, so all fixes are available in version 2402, which was released on February 28th, 2024. In this blog post, we highlight some of the fixed issues that our Access engineers released in the current monthly channel.  

    

   If you see a bug that impacts you, and if you are on the current monthly channel Version 2402, you should have these fixes. Make sure you are onAccess Build # 16.0.17328.20142 or greater. 

    

   Bug Name	Issue Fixed
   Autocomplete for a Combo Box control may not work if the dropdown displays numbers and there are negative numbers in the list	Autocomplete will now work properly when there are negative numbers in the dropdown list.  This also prevents the “Not in List” event from firing when the item is in the list.
   If the default value of a field is an asterisk (*) or other binary operator, and is not surrounded by quotes, an error will be generated.	The error displayed would be"Syntax error (missing operator) in table-level validation expression."
   When you set the Visible property of an Edge browser control to true (if it was previously false), the control does not navigate to its URL	Now when an Edge browser control is made visible, it will display the correct URL based on any navigation that has occurred.
   Trying to use the Navigate method on a hidden Edge browser control could cause Access to terminate unexpectedly.	This will now work safely.
   If a form has a hidden Edge control and the Record Source property of the form is modified in the form’s Open event, Access may terminate unexpectedly.	Actions that cause the form to repopulate its data will no longer cause issues when there are hidden Edge browser controls on the form.
   The tool gallery in form layout view does not show the new Edge browser control	The tool gallery in form layout view shows a subset of the controls displayed in form design view. The new Edge browser control will now appear in the layout view tool gallery.
   Choosing an event from the event dropdown for the Edge browser control in the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) IDE (integrated development environment) that is not supported can cause Access to terminate unexpectedly	All events in the VBA IDE can now be safely selected.
   Cannot navigate to local file if edge browser is initially blank	The Edge browser control prevents navigation from a web location to a local file. If no initial value was specified in the control source property of an Edge browser control, then the ‘about:blank’ page was considered to be a web location, and navigation to a local file was blocked. This navigation will now be allowed.
   Setting control source of Edge control in form view does not cause control to navigate	When the control source property for an Edge browser control is set using VBA code while a form is in form view, the browser control will now update to display the correct page.

    

   Please continue to let us know if this is helpful and share any feedback you have.  

3. Access Releases 9 Issue Fixes in Version 2312 (Released January 4th, 2024)

   Our newest round of Access bug fixes was released on January 4th, 2024. In this blog post, we highlight some of the fixed issues that our Access engineers released in the current monthly channel.  

    

   If you see a bug that impacts you, and if you are on the current monthly channel Version 2312, you should have these fixes. Make sure you are onAccess Build # 16.0.17126.20126 or greater. 

    

   Bug Name	Issue Fixed
   No list of font sizes when Aptos font is selected	Aptos is the default font for controls in a new database using the recently updated ‘Office Theme,’ but the font size drop down was not displaying a list of font sizes (although you could manually type in a font size).
   When a query was open in datasheet or design view, the context menu command to open in SQL View in the navigation pane would not switch the open query to SQL View	This command on the context menu was recently added to allow opening a query directly into SQL view. However, to be consistent with other commands, it now switches the mode of a query that is already open to SQL view.
   #Error when using DateDiff with one Date/Time column and one Date/Time Extended column	TheDateDifffunction was working correctly if both arguments were of type Date/Time, or both arguments were of type Date/Time Extended but would fail to evaluate with one argument of each type.
   The updated linked table manager no longer shows the name of the DSN used for a linked table	The old, linked table manager displayed this information. The new linked table manager now also displays it.
   Access may terminate unexpectedly when running a macro after editing it	In some cases, after adding/removing/moving macro actions in the macro designer, then attempting to run the macro, Access would terminate unexpectedly. This no longer occurs.
   F1 does not display the correct help page when used on some properties/methods of the Field2 object in the VBA IDE	F1now directs to the appropriate help page for the following properties/methods:  CreateProperty, Expression, IsComplex, Name, Required, SourceTable, Type, ValidationRule, ValidationText, and Value.
   Some valid values for the DBEngine.SetOption method have no defined constant	The following constants were added:  dbPagesLockedToTableLock, dbPasswordEncryptionProvider, dbPasswordEncryptionAlgorithm, dbPasswordEncryptionKeyLength
   Subform control does not support LabelName property	TheLabelNameproperty was shown in the property sheet for every other control that supported child labels and is now present for subform controls as well.
   Auto expand in combo boxes doesn't work for list items >100 index	In some cases, autocomplete did not work for items in a dropdown list when there were more than 100 items in the list. This issue has been resolved.

    

    

   Please continue to let us know if this is helpful and share any feedback you have.  

4. Access Releases 7 Issue Fixes in Version 2311 (Released November 25th, 2023)

   Our newest round of Access bug fixes was released on November 25th, 2023. In this blog post, we highlight some of the fixed issues that our Access engineers released in the current monthly channel.  

    

   If you see a bug that impacts you, and if you are on the current monthly channel Version 2311, you should have these fixes. Make sure you are onAccess Build # 16.0.17029.20068 or greater. 

    

   Bug Name	Issue Fixed
   Reserved error -1001 when using a reserved word in a SQL query	This would only happen if the option to use “SQL Server Compatible Syntax (ANSI 92)” was enabled. In that case the use of a reserved word for a table or field name would generate this error. We will no longer generate an error if Access does not use the specific reserved word, and it will allow the word to be used as a name, without error.
   Report in report view shows navigation controls	The record navigation controls that appear at the bottom of a form window that allow you to move to first/last records, etc. should never appear for a report in report view. The “Navigation Records” property is not exposed for reports, but if the “Scroll Bars” property was set from VBA while a report was open in report view, the navigation controls would incorrectly be displayed.
   Can’t open a query directly into SQL view	Previously to get to SQL view, you’d have to open in query design view first, then switch to SQL view, now you can open directly into SQL view, using a context menu, or code/macro.
   Navigation Pane does not display text correctly when collapsed	When the Navigation Pane is collapsed, it should read “Navigation Pane” with the text oriented counter-clockwise 90 degrees, but instead the text was being garbled.
   When you navigate using the new Edge browser control using the Navigate method while the control is hidden, then set the Visible property to True, the control does not show the correct page	The control now performs the navigation when it is made visible.
   In some cases, using an append query with a linked Dataverse table could cause Access to terminate	This scenario will no longer encounter an issue.
   Applying multiple filters to a linked Dataverse table could cause Access to terminate	Applying a filter to a linked Dataverse table could ‘leak’ open tables, and eventually cause Access to terminate, this issue is now fixed.

    

   Please continue to let us know if this is helpful and share any feedback you have!

    

5. Access Releases 7 Issue Fixes in Version 2310 (Released October 25th, 2023)

   Our newest round of Access bug fixes was released on October 25th, 2023. In this blog post, we highlight some of the fixed issues that our Access engineers released in the current monthly channel.  

    

   If you see a bug that impacts you, and if you are on the current monthly channel Version 2310, you should have these fixes. Make sure you are onAccess Build # 16.0.16924.20106 or greater. 

    

   Bug Name	Issue Fixed
   Crash when opening a linked Dataverse table	This could happen if a link was opened in a session when the import/export wizard for Dataverse had not been used.  This bug was introduced in version 2309, and the fix was applied there as well as in version 2310.
   Crash when creating a new form if the Normal form has a subform control	If a database has a form named ‘Normal’, that form will be used as a template for creating new forms.  If the Normal form contained a subform control, then Access would crash when creating new forms.
   CopyFromRecordset command in Excel used to retrieve data from another Excel sheet using the Microsoft.Ace.Oledb provider could produce incorrect results	The Access Database Engine (Ace) is the provider used when connecting with the OLEDB provider Microsoft.Ace.Oledb.12.0 (or Microsoft.Ace.Oledb.16.0). In some cases when connecting to Excel data, Excel formats were not handled correctly, which could lead to incorrect data.
   Memory leak when copying rows with attachments	When copying rows form a table/query/form that contains an attachment field, memory would be leaked by every copy operation. Especially on 32-bit builds of Office, this could lead to memory exhaustion, which could cause other unrelated operations to fail with an out of memory error.
   Filter menus incorrection showing an underscore (_) rather than an ampersand (&)	Some of the filter menu items are constructed using user data. For example, if you right click on a cell in a datasheet with the data “Food & Beverages”, the context menu should have an entry that reads [Equals “Food & Beverages”], but it would instead read [Equals “Food _Beverages”]
   Application.SetOption command does not work for “Continuous Form Record Navigation Keys” option	This command will now work with this option`
   Crash when inserting records in form bound to ADO recordset	Forms bound to ADO recordsets were not being handled correctly in some cases

    

   Please continue to let us know if this is helpful and share any feedback you have.  

6. Microsoft Access rolls out new Office default theme and font

   The new Office theme specifies an updated standard color palette and type font that will be applied to new databases in Access. This doesn't affect the appearance of existing documents in previously created databases. The new theme is currentlyavailable in Beta and Current Channel (Preview)channels and will appear for some customers in Version 2310, and all customers insubsequent versions. 

    

   New default Office font

   The default font used in databases and for form controls will change from Calibri to Aptos (formerly known as Bierstadt). To learn more about the history of Aptos, read the Beyond Calibri: Finding Microsoft’s Next Default Font blog post on Medium. To use the Aptos fonts outside of Office apps, download and install them from Office: Fonts & Font Service (Internal and External NDA only. Updated 7/28/23).  

    

   New theme colors

   In previous versions of Office, the standard set of palette colors looked like this:

   

    

    

   In the new Office them, the palette looks like this:

   

   These colors are used for default colors for elements of Access forms and controls, but in mostcases, there will be little noticeable change in default appearance. If you use custom theme colors, you'll notice that some Accent colors have changed significantly. For example, Accent 4 has changed from Gold to Turquoise. 

    

   How to change your default font

   If you wany tomodify the fonts or colors used by a theme, open a form in Design View, and on the Form Design ribbon, use the Fonts/Colors dropdowns: 

   

    

   Choose Customize Colors or Customize Fonts. This allows you to change back to Calibri while keeping the new Office theme.

   

   To opt out and continue to use the legacy Office Theme and keep the same default font and colors, go to File > Options > Client Settings, scroll to the bottom, and check the following option:

   

    

    

    

   For more information, see New Office theme on our support website.

7. Access Releases 8 Issue Fixes in Version 2309 (Released September 28th, 2023)

   Access Releases 8 Issue Fixes in Version 2309 (Released September 28th, 2023) 

    

   Our newest round of Access bug fixes was released on September 28th, 2023. In this blog post, we highlight some of the fixed issues that our Access engineers released in the current monthly channel.  

    

   If you see a bug that impacts you, and if you are on the current monthly channel build 2309, you should have these fixes. Make sure you are onAccess Build # 16.0.16827.20130 or greater. 

    

   Bug Name	Issue Fixed
   When saving a table, we may duplicate the table in the relationship window	If the relationship window was open, and a table that was displayed in the relationship window was modified and saved, the table would be duplicated in the relationship window.  This will no longer occur.
   Hang when hitting Tab key in design view	If a layout spans multiple sections in a form/report, when tabbing from the last control in a section, Access could become unresponsive. Tabbing will now work correctly in this case.
   Listbox flickers when getting/losing focus	Whenever a listbox gets/loses focus, it would repaint, which is unnecessary. In some cases, this could cause a visible flicker of the control as it repainted. This unnecessary repaint no longer occurs.
   When a failure to connect to Dataverse occurs because of a broken network connection, Access displays Reserved Error -20345	In this scenario, the message will now read “No internet connection. Please check connection and try again.”
   Assigning Date/Time value to Date/Time Extended field through VBA generates error	Prior to this update, the Date/Time Extended field could only be assigned a date/time value as a string. It will now support directly assigning a Date/Time value.
   When exporting a Date/Time field to SQL Server we create a datetime2(7) column	Access will now create a datetime column in the SQL Server table when exporting a Date/Time field.
   Dataverse connections assume accounts are in the commercial cloud.	The Dataverse import/export wizards now allow you to specify which cloud (e.g., Commercial, Government Community Cloud, etc.) should be used.
   Wrong error message when using TransferText	TransferText only supports a limited number of extensions for the file specified as output. Previously if you used an invalid extension (such as .doc), the error would incorrectly state that the failure occurred because the database was read-only. It will now report that the filename is not valid.

    

   Please continue to let us know if this is helpful and share any feedback you have.  

8. Access releases Northwind 2.2 templates

   Submitted by Tom van Stiphout, Software Dev Manager, at Kinetik IT 

    

   The new version 2.2 of the Northwind templates has some bug fixes and enhancements suggested by the community. To get the new templates, see Get the Access Northwind starter and developer templates v. 2.2.

    

   

   Northwind Starter Edition updates

   1. Added one-time processing steps to improve date and currency display under different regional settings.
   2. Version number 2.2 in the About box.
   3. Bug fixes, contrast and other improvements in Accessibility.

   Northwind Dev Edition updates

   1. Same enhancements as Starter Edition.
   2. Learn page is using new Edge Browser to display web page (Access 365 only), or for other versions of Access shows a report with the same content or the web page in an external browser.
   3. Error handler enhancements. See Video: Implement a Global Error Handler to build a rock-solid application for details.
   4. Improvements to StringFormatSQL.
   5. Fully laid out Relationships diagram under System Admin.

   Share your feedback with us! We’ll be watching the Access Tech Community forum, as well as other forums where Access developers hang out or leave your comments and feedback right here in this blog.

    

   See also

   Announcing New Templates for Microsoft Access: Northwind 2.0 is here!

   Microsoft Access Dev Center | Database app development

    

9. Access Releases 17 Issue Fixes in Version 2308 (Released August 28th, 2023)

   Our newest round of Access bug fixes was released on August 28th, 2023. In this blog post, we highlight some of the fixed issues that our Access engineers released in the current monthly channel.

    

   If you see a bug that impacts you, and if you are on the current monthly channel build 2308, you should have these fixes. Make sure you are on Access Build # 16.0.16731.20170 or greater.

    

   Bug Name	Issue Fixed
   Opening a linked table in design view displayed a warning that the linked table definition couldn’t be edited	There is now a checkbox to prevent the dialog from appearing when a linked table is opened in design view. An option was added to allow the dialog to be displayed again if desired. (Client Settings/Confirm section)
   Error message can’t be dismissed in query designer	If any accessibility tool is in use, including some system features such as “Accessibility Text cursor”, an error message was generated in the query designer, e.g., because you entered an invalid expression, then the error message could not be dismissed. This will no longer occur.
   When exporting to SharePoint, invalid data may cause operation to fail with unhelpful error message	Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition) (w3.org) defines the characters that are valid in XML. If text data in an Access table contains characters that are not valid per this standard, exporting to SharePoint would fail. The operation now gives you the option to remove the invalid characters or to abort.
   The AcSysCmdAction didn’t have an enumeration value defined that supported creating an ACCDE file	You could supply the value 603, but now acSysCmdCompile is defined, so you can provide the symbolic constant, and this is also exposed for external automation.
   When an Edge Browser Control has Visible=No, the control would still render in form view	The browser control will no longer render if Visible=No
   Narrator doesn’t narrate properly in subform controls	Narrator is now given the information it needs to narrate the content of controls in a subform properly.
   F1 does not link to the correct documentation for several properties of the Edge Browser Control.	F1 should now redirect to the appropriate documentation page.
   When specifying a local file for a new Edge Browser Control, the file does not render	The Insert Hyperlink dialog for the new control now automatically adds thehttps://msaccess protocol prefix that is required for navigation to local files.
   Error "Not enough free memory to update the display." when switching Office themes	If a property pane was visible when switching themes, the error message would be generated.  This will no longer occur.
   Access would terminate unexpectedly if the Build Event command was selected for an Edge Browser Control.	This command is on the right-click context menu in design view and should open a menu to allow you to select how you want to create the default event handler for the control.
   The Edge Browser Control does not load local files specified with a UNC path	UNC paths can now be used to specify a local file for the Edge Browser Control.
   Opening a Query in some environments opens https://vscode.dev in the browser	This was fixed in Version 2307 as well; this will no longer occur.
   The Edge Browser Control does not render content when an existing file is chosen in the Insert Hyperlink dialog on creation	The dialog was not properly constructing the required expression for Control Source property for the control.
   Exporting report to XLSX format creates an empty workbook if the report has a Sum expression	Support for exporting reports to XLSX format was added recently but did not work properly if the report contained a control with a Sum expression.
   Crash when trying to view related tables when exporting to Dataverse	When exporting a table to Dataverse, we export related tables as well. If one of the tables contained a self-join, and the “Select Related Tables” button was selected during the export to allow choosing which related tables were exported, then Access would terminate unexpectedly.
   Crash when setting control source to empty on Edge Browser Control	The control source of an Edge Browser Control can now be set to nothing without issue.
   Data in linked Dataverse table isn’t updated while table is open	If changes were made to the data in a Dataverse table that was open in Access, Access would not see the changes unless the user explicitly forced a requery of the data. Access will now refresh the data using the “ODBC refresh interval” option.

    

   Please continue to let us know if this is helpful and share any feedback you have.

    

    

    

    

    

10. New Edge Browser Control in Microsoft Access

    We’re excited to announce the release of the new Edge Browser Control in Microsoft Access! This control allows you to seamlessly integrate modern web content into your Access forms and reports. 

    How to use the Edge Browser control 

    You can find the new control in design view in the control gallery on the Form Design tab in the Controls section: 

    

     

    1. In form view, select the control, specify a URL, and selectOK. 
          

    2. Switch to form view and you’re up and running! 
       

    New capabilities and important changes 

    Unlike the old browser control, you can use the new Edge browser control in continuous forms, reports, and renders for printing. To access Edge’s powerful DevTools, right-click, and choose Inspect. 

    Navigate to local files 

    If you want to navigate to a local file instead of a web page, you must use the https://msaccess prefix before the file path in the address. For example: https://msaccess/C:\Users\user\Documents\test.html 

    Trusted Domains property 

    By default, navigation via links, and automatic redirects away from the page the browser currently shows, are blocked. To allow these navigations, specify a table name or query name in the Trusted Domains property in the Property Sheet. In this case, the table or query's first output column must contain the URLs that you want to allow the browser to link to and automatically redirect to. This is especially helpful for pages that automatically redirect to a login page that doesn't exist on the same domain. 

    No Object property 

    Previously, when writing VBA for the old browser, you'd reference the Object property of the control, which allowed you to use the MSHTML VBA API built into the underlying browser engine. This was useful for performing tasks such as HTML DOM manipulation. Unfortunately, the browser engine used in the new control, WebView2, doesn’thave a built in VBA API, so we added some VBA functions directly to the control within Access. These include: 

    • ExecuteJavascript 
    • RetrieveJavascriptValue 
    • Navigate 
    • Refresh 

     

    Availability

    Edge Browser Control in Microsoft Access is enabled now in Current Channel.
    It will be enabled in Monthly Enterprise Channel in version 2307, which will be released on Sept 12, 2023.
    It will be enabled in Semi-Annual Channel (Preview) when it moves to Version 2308, also on Sept 12.
    It will be enabled in Semi-Annual Channel when it moves to Version 2308, on Jan 9, 2024.

     

    For more information, see EdgeBrowserControl methods. You can find additional info in theUse the Edge browser control on a form article on support.microsoft.com.

    We hope this new control will unlock many powerful scenarios and look forward to any feedback on the Access Feedback Forum.