Having worked with databases over twenty years now, it never ceases to amaze me how much the storing and tracking of data has been improved. Basically, at their core, databases store data for your convenience, giving you the ability to easily enter the data, look it up later whenever and however you like and print or export your results. Access is a potent tool for just that. It has been for many years, but this latest version has some really functional and powerful enhancements. As an Access database designer and Microsoft Office software instructor, I have the opportunity to both use the software in real world situations and train new users on its many features. I'd like to share some of these new features that interest me the most.



Aside from the obvious Microsoft Office 2007 general enhancements, such as the ribbon, tabs, office button etc., there is a new navigation pane docked on the left side which replaces much of the functionality of the database window in older versions. The navigation pane can be collapsed and hold a list of all of the objects in the database. Not only can it list the tables, queries, forms, reports, etc., in their respective groups, but it can also show custom groups (as before), and also automatically show all objects pertaining to a particular table.

Another impressive new feature is found in the report and form objects. In reports, you have two new views; layout and report view. With report view you get an exact picture of the report without having to print or print preview it. With the layout view you get a useful blend of design and report view. You can see your data, but you also can adjust size, format and other properties in real time and see the results of your changes on the data immediately, without having to switch between design and report views continually as before. This is great for adjusting column widths.

Along the same lines, there is a new feature in design and layout view called control layout. It allows for very fast organization of form and report controls, giving you the ability to quickly align and layout controls in a orderly manner automatically. As many of you know, matching and aligning column headings with their respective fields could sometimes take some time to do manually, especially for the novice user.

Under the category of "why didn't they think of that before" convenience features, the first to cite is the automatically generated date picker for date/time data-type fields in tables, queries and forms. Rather than typing in a date, you can swiftly pick it from a drop down calendar. Another feature is the enhanced sorting and filtering available in tables, queries and forms, which allows you to choose (via a checkbox) one or more values for a filter, or use context menu options in natural language to select a range of values. Another practical addition to Microsoft Office 2007, and Access 2007 in particular, is the ability to save to PDF file format. Reports saved this way are much more accurately rendered than with the old method of saving to RTF (rich text format). With the RTF, lines would often move or disappear, and fonts would sometimes change appearance. Last, but not least is the ability to total columns of data directly in datasheet view, no longer requiring you to view totals in a report or export the data to excel for this type of tallying.