Access 2007 User Navigation

[VTChris]

Greetings,

Just looking for thoughts, suggestions and ideas. I have used Access 2003 for years and I am finding adapting to 2007 to be a challenge, mostly because of end-user navigation.

I tend to deploy my applications as an mde (or accde if I can bring myself to make this leap) with Access runtime. Along with my own security this is meant to lock the code and protect the application.

I see that the ribbon (which is fine for development purposes, but pretty ugly from an end-user perspective) and the Navigation pane are not available in runtime. Sadly I used to use custom menus extensively (I understand that Microsoft Applications have outgrown the drop-down menu model but that doesn't mean they no longer work for developed applications, but I digress!)

For those users that have made this leap, what are you doing for user navigation? I am not a fan of canned forms such as the switchboard and would prefer not to make a menu our of forms if I can avoid it.

Are there any other options out there? If not, for former users of A2003, have you been using forms for navigation? Does one "get used" to that? At this point that seems less professional and a step backwards but I am open to ideas for compensating for this... Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, etc, etc are welcome!

 

[boblarson]

Various methods, depending on the database. But you can build your own custom ribbons if you want. Most of the databases I work on lately have been built before I got here and rely on form based navigation.

Also, if you get 2010 then you get a whole new way of navigation using a web style if you wish. You can use the new form templates which give you more of a web type navigation.

 

[Simon_MT]

I agree with Bob, Form based Navigation does have some advantages. You can mimic the look and feel with the rest of your application so you get a high degree of integration. Whether or not that is what you want or like is another matter but it does have some advantages.

Thankfully, I didn't use drop-down menus which have deprecated, forms never will.

Simon

 

[gemma-the-husky]

if you had menubars in A2003, you can still use them. You are looking for "AddIns".

Offhand, I think you need to right click the menu bar. Select hide menubar, and then click addins - you will see your old menubars.

The navigation pane never was available in run-time. Do you mean mde/accde, I think. If its hidden, press F11.

 

[Dairy Farmer]

See my post at Access Package and Deploy - Make your db a "Standalone" app
. It has info on deploying, runtime and ribbons. A lot of what the OP requires.

The Ribbon - By default, the Ribbon is not available in runtime mode. This helps prevent users from creating or modifying database objects, and from performing other potentially harmful actions, such as connecting to new data sources or exporting data in ways that you do not intend. You can create a custom Ribbon, and then associate that Ribbon with a form or report. You cannot expose the default Ribbon tabs in runtime mode.

So if you do not create a custom ribbon you get nothing.

 

[boblarson]

See my post at Access Package and Deploy - Make your db a "Standalone" app
. It has info on deploying, runtime and ribbons. A lot of what the OP requires.


So if you do not create a custom ribbon you get nothing.

This statement in your quote is erroneous:

This helps prevent users from creating or modifying database objects,

A runtime version CANNOT do design changes in ANYTHING so even if they had the Ribbon they couldn't do it. That is the prime difference between using the Runtime and a full-version of Access.

 

[Dairy Farmer]

This statement in your quote is erroneous:

A runtime version CANNOT do design changes in ANYTHING so even if they had the Ribbon they couldn't do it. That is the prime difference between using the Runtime and a full-version of Access.

Don't see how this is relevant. I was not saying that the OP should use Runtime to build the app. I was pointing out that the default ribbon is not available in Runtime and that one could create one's own ribbon.

To that end I think the ribbon is a must cleaner look than the traditional drop down menus. Added to that one could use a custom ribbon as the navigation. Think of it as a tabbed (or not) icon bar.