Copying and pasting groups of fields in report design view

[roadie3124]

I'm using Access 2016 and one of the features of this version is annoying me. I need to add an extra column to a report. I've been used to selecting all the fields in an existing column (e.g. page header, detail, group total, report total) and doing a ctrl-c, ctrl-v. In previous versions that I have a lot of experience with (e.g. 97, 2003) the new column of fields is copied on top of the existing column, with the new column selected. It's easy to just drag the new column across to empty space and then change label captions, control sources, etc. The heights of the sections don't change.

When I do this in 2016, the new column fields are copied below the existing column fields and the section heights are changed. It's easy to drag the new column to the right, but the design view won't let me drag the group of fields up to the correct top position. I have to align the top of every new field individually and then set the section heights back to what they were. This is very annoying.

Is there a solution.

 

[Pat Hartman]

There's lots about A2016 that I find annoying. Unless people complain to Microsoft, they don't know when they have broken things. Behavior like this that changes functionality for no apparent reason is especially frustrating. It makes you wonder if anyone actually tests the changes. My biggest peeve with A2016 is the narrowness of the "red" lines that make it virtually impossible to grab an edge with one try. I have been told by one of the MS Access development team that this particular annoyance will never be fixed. It will be with us forever or until someone decides to change the Look of Office again and widens all the object outlines.

 

[roadie3124]

That one annoys me too. And the way they've made it more difficult to swap between windows. I sometimes wonder if the people making these changes have ever seen how developers use the platform.

 

[Pat Hartman]

MS doesn't care much about developers (which I think is a mistake) because developers represent such a small minority of Office users. My position is - I may be only one person but I influence hundreds with my applications so I'm actually more important than most other individuals and making good tools for me and helping me do things easily lets me sell Access in a positive light.

I am told though that the Access folks do look at complaints that are logged and do consider them when possible. The problem is not enough people actually complain. It is important to send your complaint to MS because apparently I'm the only one who ever complains about these things. I used to look forward to running into Bill at bridge tournaments so I could pass him notes about my current issues. But he's not involved day-to-day any more so that is now pointless.