Welcome to Access-Freak.com


This website will primarily deal with an introduction to new features added in Microsoft® Access 2007 and a comparison between Microsoft® Access 2003 versus the new 2007 version.

I will try to explain many of the new added features of the Access 2007 version; however, I will not go into details about best practices like normalization, naming conventions, relationships, referential integrity, etc. If you are new to relational database development in general and the earlier mentioned terms are not familiar
to you, then check out the links section to find many good websites which focus on the "art" of database development.

I was fortunate enough to be a Microsoft® Office 2007 BETA tester and through collaboration with peers I have recognized that the redesigned user interface was one of the biggest hurdles when trying to interact with the new edition. The learning curve seems to be much bigger than anticipated; however, that does not mean that it is impossible to adjust to the new environment and that newly implemented features are not worth the time. The 2007 version will eliminate the need for many lengthy and bug-filled workarounds implemented by developers throughout time.
Furthermore, there will be no need for expensive add-ins for other functionalities which have not been native until now. It seems as if Microsoft® really listened to the development community and implemented as many updates as possible.

Instead of receiving an Access adaptation, which only fixed bugs from previous editions we are presented with a completely revamped version. It is now possible to store files within Access itself with the help of a brand new data type which is not exposed to bloating problems. Additionally, a rich text control is natively supported and eliminates third party add-ins or lengthy coding workarounds. Developers are able to utilize the PDF and XPS formats within Access or implement audit trails much easier than in earlier versions.

These are only a few of the copious amounts of new features realized in Microsoft® Access 2007. It would be a shame for anyone to miss out on this next generation product because they are intimidated by the drastically changed look and feel. This website should guide you as a developer through the transition to the new Microsoft® Access 2007 and enable you to continue building feature-rich applications for yourself or your customers.