Random Access

Some random things I noticed in Access 2003 as compared to 2000:

The new table wizard does a much better job of setting up the primary key. Now it gives you options to set the key as an autonumber and explains in more detail what that means.

The Tools/Security menu option has tools for user/group permissions and seems to let you assign them independently of the file servers permissions. (I assume the user still needs to have access to the shared volume on the server, obviously, but if you have 10 people with access to the volume and only want 3 of them to have access to the DB, you can do that within Access itself.

You can "open exclusively" when you open the DB, so you can make admin changes to it without screwing up data others are accessing at the same time. (That may be in 2000, I've never really looked at it.)

The beta let's you setup the DB as either a 97, 2000 or 2002 version. The 2002 version DB cannot be shared with 2000 or 97 users. I need to look at whether that is going to continue on between XP and 2003. I'm assuming 2000 users are not going to be able to open 2003 databases. On the other hand, you can use 2003 to create 2000 database's by default. If you're in a mixed environment, that's an important setting to make double sure you've set to default to 2000.
posted 10:50 PM | 0 comments | Links to this post

InfoPath

Today on the Office System beta home page there's a link to Using InfoPath 2003. That got me thinking about what I've seen in the little bit of time I've looked at it.

Now, keep in mind that in order to really get a look at how usable InfoPath is for everything MS claims it is, I'd have to be in some sort of Enterprise environment and have multiple users using the data generated from the InfoPath forms. Looking at it as a single user is something altogether different. Still, I can see where this becomes very, very useful. Creating forms isn't that hard to do. Turning a filled-out form into XML data is something that presents you with a ton of potential, as the scenarios in the link point out. Creating the back-end, either in some form of XML database or using SharePoint Server, is something that might involve quite a bit of work if you don't already have that, but I'd have to think that having easy access to all this information, and having it all immediately available as soon as a form is filled out online (whether it be on the internet or an intranet) would be worth it.

Like I said, creating a form and tying it to a back end database doesn't seem all that difficult. It's not really any more difficult that creating a form in Access, for example. Now if you've never created a form there before, this might seem a bit more complicated to you than I make it out to be, but even then it's probably not that hard. On the other hand, much like OneNote, all of the options are a bit overwhelming. Like OneNote, this comes, to me, as something that I've never even tried to do before. OneNote is a note-taking tool. I've never used a PC to take notes before, so I wasn't even sure where to start. InfoPath is the same way. I've never really sat down and thought about creating forms from scratch and sharing the information. I've always created forms to do data entry into a database that already existed and within the database program itself. (Access) I find myself at somewhat of a loss as to where I want to use InfoPath, although I could certainly see where businesses would use it to share information in the XML format. As a single user, who isn't sharing my info, I don't see why I would want to use this as opposed to Access. I'll have to take a look at the given scenarios and see if I can "fake" one. :)
posted 9:55 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post

Outlook and SMS

Looks like Microsoft and General Wireless are going to integrate SMS into Outlook 2003, and really, isn't it about time?

Now we really need to nail down making SMS spam illegal once and for all. Then maybe I won't have to be scared to death to get the service. :)
posted 9:05 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post

Chats

There's an upcoming chat at Microsoft's website that will let you ask questions and get information on deploying and setting up Office 2003. That might be interesting. You can also take a look at the transcripts of previous Office 2003 Beta chats. They have chats covering using OneNote and InfoPath, IRM, and new features of Word 2003 over there.

Obviously, over the weekend I was busy with other, offline activities and didn't really have much of a chance to work on the beta apps. I should be back at it some this week, and will note any interesting things as I go. :)
posted 9:43 AM | 0 comments | Links to this post