“Do you know of an easy way to show Access query results in thousands?
Thanks DataPig.You are the like that black bird on Angry Birds – the bomb.”

Ok….so I added that last sentence. But Christina did ask a pretty good question.

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Here’s how you can format Access query fields so that they show as thousands.

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You first start with a working query. As you can see, this query shows revenue by market with an indication of how much of that revenue comes from Internet Sales. You’ll notice that the revenue columns inundate you with lots of numbers. That is to say, the revenue columns are difficult to read. Showing these columns in thousands would help readability.

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Go into Design View and right click on the query field you want to format.

This will pull up a context menu where you can select Properties.

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In the Property Sheet dialog box, you will see the Format property.

Here, you can enter any format syntax you would like. In this case, we want to enter a format string that will give us numbers in the thousands place. So we enter $#,###,.

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Once we save and run the query again, we can see that the numbers are in thousands place – making them much easier to read.

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Access can handle pretty much any number formatting Excel can. So you can get just as fancy in Access as you can in Excel.

For example, I can get fancy and add a “k” indicator to all the revenue numbers by changing the format string to this: $#,###, “k”.

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And remember, this formatting trick can be applied to Forms and Reports also (simply apply the formatting to their respective Format properties).

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There you have it Christina. I hope that helped.

Related posts:

1. Documenting Access Queries in Excel
2. Changing Sort Order of Access Crosstab Headings
3. Getting to Workdays in Access
4. Replacing the Microsoft Access Splash Screen
5. Create a Keyboard Hot Key to Start Excel or Access

You know…this guy…

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Well, here’s an old trick you can use to create your own splash screen, effectively suppressing the standard Access splash.

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Simply create a bitmap image you would like to see as your splash screen, naming it the same name as your database.

Then place the splash screen in the same directory as your Access database.

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For example, I have an access database called Tool.mdb. I created this bitmap and named it Tool.bmp, and placed in the same directory.

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Now I see this as my splash screen instead of the default Microsoft Access one.

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Of course, you could always have a bit of fun with your users. Create a splash screen that makes you look like you have real connections with the Microsoft Office development team.

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This trick works in both Access 2003 and 2007 (both mdb and accdb files). I haven’t tried it with Access 2010 yet. Maybe one of you can let us know if it works there too.

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Oh…and if you don’t want to see any splash screen at all, you can simply create a very small bitmap that can hardly be detected when it pops up.

Related posts:

1. Finding and Replacing Nulls in Access
2. Exorcizing Microsoft Office
3. Clearing Access ImportError Tables
4. Create a Keyboard Hot Key to Start Excel or Access
5. Changing Sort Order of Access Crosstab Headings

He used to be able to do this, but for some reason, things went all wonky and now he can’t. I guess sometimes Microsoft Office gets a bug up its butt and starts acting possessed.

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The good news is that Microsoft comes with its very own Father Merrin who can exorcize Office, returning it to the happy little girl it usually is. Yes…Microsoft Office is a girl.

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Microsoft Office comes with a built in tool called Diagnostics (or Detect and Repair). This tool is designed to (according to Microsoft):   “solve some problems directly and might identify ways that you can solve other problems.”


In other words:  “we’ll take a shot at fixing issues, but after this…you’re on your own”.

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If you’re experiencing strange issues with Excel 2007, you can usually fix them by calling up the Microsoft Office Diagnostics tool.

Click the Office Button -> Excel Options -> Resources -> Diagnose

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In Excel 2003, you can go up to the menu bar and click Help -> Detect and Repair.

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Strangely enough, Excel 2010 doesn’t seem to have a Diagnostics feature.

But according to Access MVP, Roger, you can run this piece of code in Excel 2010 and get the old Detect and Repair feature.

I’ve tested the code and it does indeed bring up the Detect and Repair dialog box, but I haven’t run an actual detect and repair in Excel 2010 yet.

Function Detect_Repair()
Application.CommandBars.FindControl(ID:=3774).Execute
End Function

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Anyway…I did run the Excel Diagnostic on my co-worker’s Excel 2007, and he regained the ability to send an email from Excel.

Thanks Father Merrin!

Related posts:

1. Avoiding Data Cut-Off in Excel
2. Create a Keyboard Hot Key to Start Excel or Access
3. Can’t Export More than 65,000 Rows to Excel 2007?
4. Sorting Numbers and Text Together
5. Break PivotTable Report Filters into Multiple Columns

• Help manage user login and permissions
• Create a history of who used the application
• Capture the name of each user who made the changes to data
• Personalize outputs and program messages for users

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There are literally half a dozen ways to capture a user’s domain name and user name. In this post, I’ll give you a very easy method using the Environ function.

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Environ stands for Environment, and refers to environment variables in an operating system. Environment variables are specially named aliases for specific system properties, exposed as a kind of shortcut for system administrators and programmers.

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Although majority of these Environment variables are useless to your average Excel/Access developer. There are a few that can prove to be useful. Two of these are the UserDomain and UserName variables. We can use these to capture a user’s Domain\UserName.

To demonstrate this, I’ve entered the following function into a standard module.

Function getReturnUName()
getReturnUName = Environ(“UserDomain”) & “\” & Environ(“Username”)
End Function

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Now all I have to do is call the function to capture an active user’s Domain\Username.

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In Access, you can of course call this function from a Query, Form, or Report.

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Here are some of the Environ variables that I’ve used in the past.

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 Try them out…these are fun for the entire family.

Related posts:

1. Removing User Name from Comments
2. Creating and Using User Defined Functions in Access
3. VBE Tips I Wish I Knew 5 Years Ago
4. Use Windows Authentication for your Excel and Access Applications
5. Running an Excel Macro from Access (or Another Excel Workbook)

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This screenshot shows the mess that comes from running a Crosstab with month columns. According to Access, April is the first month of the year.

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The good news is you can customize the sort order of Crosstab column headings.

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Step 1: Go into the design view of your Crosstab query, right-click the grey area, and then select Properties.

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Step 2: In the Column Headings property, enter the month columns in the order you would like to see them.

For example: “Jan”,”Feb”,”Mar”,”Apr”,”May”,”Jun”, “Jul”,”Aug”,”Sep”,”Oct”,”Nov”,”Dec”

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. Step 3: Run the query to see your genius up close.

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A couple of notes to keep in mind:

1) You must enter each column name in quotes and separate each column with commas.

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2) Accidentally misspelling a column name will result in that column being excluded from the crosstab. Instead, you’ll get a dummy column with the misspelled name being included with no data in it.

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3) You must enter every column you want include in your crosstab report. Excluding a column will exclude that column from the crosstab results.

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4) Clearing the Column Headings attribute will naturally return Access to the default behavior (displaying columns in alphabetical order).

Related posts:

1. Getting to Workdays in Access
2. Create a Keyboard Hot Key to Start Excel or Access
3. Creating Access UDFs that Accept Arguments
4. Running an Access Parameter Query from Excel
5. Documenting Access Queries in Excel