modify default ‘save’ behaviour? (A2002)

Topic

New Reply

When I click the Save button in the VBA editor, and there are several objects with pending saves, Access pops up a window asking which ones I want to save. Is there a way to revert to the same behaviour as Access 07 – i.e. to just save the current object with focus? I’ve looked thru the options for Access and VBA, but I don’t see anything obviously connected with this behaviour.
Thx.

Reply | Quote

Replies

I don’t have Access ’07 yet, but I don’t think it is possible to modify this behavior in Access ’02. I agree it is irritating, just like the disappearance of the menu options to compile just one module, and to compile and save all modules.

Reply | Quote

I guess Microsoft knows best….

Another annoying change is the removal of “@@” from MsgBox. I found them to be a very handy way to differentiate the title text in the message box. Now those two “@@” signs just look goofy.

Reply | Quote

I agree that it’s annoying you have to save all at once, or none – there’s a way to save only one object (I think by highlighting it??) but I can never remember exact sequence, so to be safe usually select “Save All”. It’s safe to say this behavior is probably “by design” hard-coded in the MS Access executable, and cannot be modified. AFAIK it is not a user option you can modify.

As for the @@ Bold formatting in A97msgbox’s, you can simulate this (to some extent) in A2K or later by using the Eval() function – see this previous post & related thread:

Re: Including @ in a message box (Access 97)

HTH

Reply | Quote

IMHO – that annoying behaviour about saving goes to the heart of user interface design. Previously, it was *my* perogative when to save the objects. In particular, I often edit several objects simultaneously, and with different “levels of confidence about their permanence”. I could switch between them at will, and when I was sure that I wanted to save the current object, then a quick Ctrl-S accomplished that one simple task. There’s an easy one-to-one correspondence — the object that I am editing is the one to be saved.

Now, with the “save all” interface, I must look thru the list of objects and decide which ones I am confident should be saved at that point in time. That’s not too tough — except now I must match my mental picture of the application with the list of names that is presented to me. Sometimes its not so obvious what’s what… (“Now which one of those forms *really* is stable…”)

Besides, with the old interface, every object was marked as “dirty”, and would dutifully ask if I wanted to save upon any Close command.

I just don’t see why it was necessary to change. I suppose it’s another one of those famous Microsoft improvements that have more to do with marketing than they have to do with productivity. Seems to me that’s a common theme throughout many of Woody’s books and articles.

I will have a look at the article about @@. Thanks

Reply | Quote

Ah, but that isn’t part of the user interface, it’s part of the developer’s interface, and that’s quite different. There was a radical change between 97 and 2000 in the VBE, and the loading/compiling of all modules was part of it. It simply brought Access into the same VBE that all the rest of the Office/VB/VBA apps use.

Reply | Quote

Point taken. I should have been more precise. I guess that “user interface for the developer” is what I really meant to say. Regardles of the name, I still think it’s a step backwards from the way it was in Access 97.

It’s entirely possible that the old method was better than the new method, but maybe that’s just personal preference. Dunno. Maybe the common interface will someday “catch up with” the way it was in the old system. But I won’t hold my breath.

Reply | Quote

Personally, I prefer it the way it is in 2000 and later. It is much more consistent with VB and other Office apps now. I hate having to go back and work in 97 because there I can only be in code or in the UI, while in 2000 +, I can toggle between them.

Reply | Quote

Fair enough – that’s what personal choice is all about.

Is there a quick way to “revert” a module to it’s “saved” state? “Close and return to Access” doesn’t discard the changes. The only way that I’ve found is to use multiple clicks on the Undo key. Have I overlooked anything…

Reply | Quote

“Close and Return to Access”? All that does is close the VBE. It has nothing to do with saving. You haven’t overlooked anything that I know of. I tend to use visual source safe, so all I need do is undo the checkout of an object to dump any changes since the last time it was checked in.

Reply | Quote

“Close and Return to Access”? All that does is close the VBE. It has nothing to do with saving. You haven’t overlooked anything that I know of. I tend to use visual source safe, so all I need do is undo the checkout of an object to dump any changes since the last time it was checked in.

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

Is there a quick way to “revert” a module to it’s “saved” state?

---

[/indent]If you are working strictly in a module, your changes to the module are not saved until you save the project as I understand it. If on the other hand, if you make changes to code behind a form, until the form is saved, your code is not saved either. Hope this helps. (BTW, I also use source safe in many situations.)

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

Is there a quick way to “revert” a module to it’s “saved” state?

---

[/indent]If you are working strictly in a module, your changes to the module are not saved until you save the project as I understand it. If on the other hand, if you make changes to code behind a form, until the form is saved, your code is not saved either. Hope this helps. (BTW, I also use source safe in many situations.)

Reply | Quote

Fair enough – that’s what personal choice is all about.

Is there a quick way to “revert” a module to it’s “saved” state? “Close and return to Access” doesn’t discard the changes. The only way that I’ve found is to use multiple clicks on the Undo key. Have I overlooked anything…

Reply | Quote

Personally, I prefer it the way it is in 2000 and later. It is much more consistent with VB and other Office apps now. I hate having to go back and work in 97 because there I can only be in code or in the UI, while in 2000 +, I can toggle between them.

Reply | Quote

Point taken. I should have been more precise. I guess that “user interface for the developer” is what I really meant to say. Regardles of the name, I still think it’s a step backwards from the way it was in Access 97.

It’s entirely possible that the old method was better than the new method, but maybe that’s just personal preference. Dunno. Maybe the common interface will someday “catch up with” the way it was in the old system. But I won’t hold my breath.

Reply | Quote

Ah, but that isn’t part of the user interface, it’s part of the developer’s interface, and that’s quite different. There was a radical change between 97 and 2000 in the VBE, and the loading/compiling of all modules was part of it. It simply brought Access into the same VBE that all the rest of the Office/VB/VBA apps use.

Reply | Quote

IMHO – that annoying behaviour about saving goes to the heart of user interface design. Previously, it was *my* perogative when to save the objects. In particular, I often edit several objects simultaneously, and with different “levels of confidence about their permanence”. I could switch between them at will, and when I was sure that I wanted to save the current object, then a quick Ctrl-S accomplished that one simple task. There’s an easy one-to-one correspondence — the object that I am editing is the one to be saved.

Now, with the “save all” interface, I must look thru the list of objects and decide which ones I am confident should be saved at that point in time. That’s not too tough — except now I must match my mental picture of the application with the list of names that is presented to me. Sometimes its not so obvious what’s what… (“Now which one of those forms *really* is stable…”)

Besides, with the old interface, every object was marked as “dirty”, and would dutifully ask if I wanted to save upon any Close command.

I just don’t see why it was necessary to change. I suppose it’s another one of those famous Microsoft improvements that have more to do with marketing than they have to do with productivity. Seems to me that’s a common theme throughout many of Woody’s books and articles.

I will have a look at the article about @@. Thanks

Reply | Quote

I agree that it’s annoying you have to save all at once, or none – there’s a way to save only one object (I think by highlighting it??) but I can never remember exact sequence, so to be safe usually select “Save All”. It’s safe to say this behavior is probably “by design” hard-coded in the MS Access executable, and cannot be modified. AFAIK it is not a user option you can modify.

As for the @@ Bold formatting in A97msgbox’s, you can simulate this (to some extent) in A2K or later by using the Eval() function – see this previous post & related thread:

Re: Including @ in a message box (Access 97)

HTH

Reply | Quote

I guess Microsoft knows best….

Another annoying change is the removal of “@@” from MsgBox. I found them to be a very handy way to differentiate the title text in the message box. Now those two “@@” signs just look goofy.

Reply | Quote

I don’t have Access ’07 yet, but I don’t think it is possible to modify this behavior in Access ’02. I agree it is irritating, just like the disappearance of the menu options to compile just one module, and to compile and save all modules.

Reply | Quote