What's New

From Microsoft Access Help


Key new features in Microsoft Access
PivotChart and PivotTable Views


Microsoft Access 2002 introduces PivotTable and PivotChart views to tables, queries, views, stored procedures, functions, and forms. You can now perform data analysis and build rich PivotTable and PivotChart view solutions more quickly than ever before. PivotTable and PivotChart views can be saved as data access pages that can be viewed by anyone who has Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later. You can also use subforms in PivotTable and PivotChart views in exactly the same fashion that they are used with forms in Datasheet view today. Developers will also find it easy to write code behind forms in PivotTable and PivotChart views and take advantage of new events available in PivotTable and PivotChart views.


XML Support
In addition to being the standard technology for interchanging data on the Web, Extensible Markup Language (XML) is quickly becoming the preferred technology for exchanging data between business software applications. Microsoft Access 2002 provides powerful, intuitive ways of sharing XML data regardless of differences in the platform, data format, protocol, schema, or business rules. By using Access' familiar user interface, you can easily create XML data or schema documents from Jet or SQL Server structures and data. You can also use XML data from other applications in your forms, reports and data access pages. For example, suppose your data is scattered across a wide variety of sources — internal SQL servers, Excel spreadsheets, and other data providers like SAP. Since these sources use XML as their data interchange format, you could create a series of aggregation queries in Access to pull this data into views and then design forms and reports by using those views.

Access also provides methods for easily controlling your data by making it simple to create and apply schemas and style sheets. Access allows you to easily describe and deliver rich, structured XML data to and from any application in a standard, consistent way. For example, you can use Access to create a schema that describes the structure of your data and then send the schema to your vendors so that they know exactly how to expect your data to appear in their invoices.

Extended Property Support with Microsoft SQL Server 2000
The built-in integration between Microsoft Access 2002 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 has improved significantly by the inclusion of support for extended SQL database properties from within your Access project. By using extended properties in your Access 2002 projects, you can implement such features as lookup relationships, validation rules (also called constraints), text formatting, and subdatasheets. You can use extended properties with tables, views, stored procedures, and functions, just like you can with similar objects in Access data files. Using extended properties makes it easy to save column widths, row heights, fonts, and input mask settings from one Access project session to another. Extended properties make it even easier to migrate your business applications from Access databases to Access projects connected to Microsoft SQL Server.

More new features in Access
Round-tripping
You can now work with and modify Access 2000 files in Access 2002 without converting the file format. This allows you to easily share different versions of database files with other Access users.

Multiple Undo and Redo
You now have the ability to undo and redo multiple actions in Design view in all objects in your Microsoft Access databases and in views, stored procedures, and functions in your Microsoft Access project.

Batch Updates in Access Projects using Microsoft SQL Server
You can now have Access 2002 projects batch all data entry and send it to the server when the user navigates from a record, closes a form, or selects a command. You can also create a button on your form that saves all records or undoes all changes to records, programmatically.

Updateable Off-line Data Access Pages
You can now take the data access pages in your Access project offline, make changes to them on your laptop, and have them automatically synchronize when you reconnect to the SQL server. Changes to the off-line pages are made to an Access project connected to a local Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (formerly MSDE).

Conversion Error Logging
If problems are encountered when converting from Access 95 and later versions, Access 2002 will now create a table that lists information about each error, making it much easier to identify and solve problems.

Subforms/Subreports that Live in Design view
You can now open subforms or subreports in their own Design view window directly from within the form or report or from the View menu. Scrolling has also been improved so that it is easier to work with subforms and subreports in Design view.

Password Security in an Access Project
You can now change the logon password specified in an Access project connected to a Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 or later version database directly from within your Access 2002 menu.

The Linked Table Wizard
The Linked Table Wizard guides you through the process of linking your tables to a SQL Server database, and does this all from within your Access project.

Improved Support for International Complex-scripts
Access 2002 now exposes complex-script interface items easily, which means that with a simple click, you can switch the reading direction from left-to-right to right-to-left in language-specific objects.

Improved Accessibility Features
Access 2002 now provides even greater ease in working with forms and reports.

Pressing F8 in form or report Design will now display the field list.
Pressing ENTER after selecting a field in the field list in form or report Design view will automatically add the field to the form or report design surface.
Pressing CTRL+TAB will move the focus from a form or report section to a subsection.
Two additional powers (1000% and 500%) have been added to the Zoom option in print preview.
New Microsoft Office features
Everyday tasks

Office task panes The most common tasks in Microsoft Office are now organized in panes that display in place with your Office document. Continue working while you search for a file using the Search task pane, pick from a gallery of items to paste in the Office Clipboard task pane, and quickly create new documents or open files using the task pane that appears when you start an Office program. Other task panes vary per Office program.

New look Microsoft Office XP has a cleaner, simpler look to its interface. Softer colors also contribute to this updated feel.

More convenient access to Help Get the full power of the Answer Wizard in an unobtrusive package. When you enter a question about an Office program in the Ask a Question box on the menu bar, you can see a list of choices and read a Help topic whether you are running the Office Assistant or not.

Control paste options and automatic changes with smart tags New in-place buttons called "smart tags" let you immediately adjust how information is pasted or how automatic changes occur in your Office programs. For example, when you paste text from Microsoft Word into Microsoft PowerPoint, a button appears next to the text. Click the button to see a list of choices for fine-tuning the formatting of the pasted text. Smart tags and their associated choices vary per Office program.

Updated Clip Organizer Hundreds of new clips, an easy task pane interface, as well as the same abilities to organize clips and find new digital art on the Web are part of the updated Clip Organizer (formerly Clip Gallery).

Conceptual diagrams Word, Microsoft Excel, and PowerPoint include a new gallery of conceptual diagrams. Choose from diagrams such as Pyramid for showing the building blocks of a relationship, Radial for showing items in relation to a core element, and more.

Voice commands and dictation In addition to mouse and keyboard methods, you can now select menu, toolbar, and dialog box items by speaking. You can also dictate text. This feature is available in the Simplified Chinese, English (U.S.), and Japanese language versions of Microsoft Office, and has some special hardware requirements.

Support for handwriting You can use handwriting recognition to enter text into an Office document. You can write by using a handwriting input device — such as a graphics tablet or a tablet-PC — or you can write using your mouse. Your natural handwriting is converted to typed characters. In Word and Microsoft Outlook, you can also choose to leave text in handwritten form.

Improved fidelity of pictures and drawings In Office XP, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft FrontPage, and Microsoft Publisher are using an improved graphics system (GDI+). With this new graphics system, shapes and WordArt have smoother outlines and adjustable levels of transparency with true blending. Digital pictures stay sharper and clearer when you resize them.

Accessibility Office XP programs support Microsoft Active Accessibility 2.0. This technology makes accessibility aids, such as screen readers or screen enlargers, more effective.

Find printers If your organization uses Microsoft Windows 2000 and the Active Directory directory service, you can search for printers across your network from the Print dialog box in Office XP programs.

Storing documents with Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 You can store Microsoft Office documents on Exchange Server 2000 and access them through the File Open, File New, and File Save dialog boxes, as you would any other Office document.


Web documents and Web sites

Target your Web publishing efforts Save your Microsoft Office documents as Web pages for versions 3.0-6.0 of various Web browsers and give your readers the best possible viewing experience.

Share your Office documents over the Web From any Office program, you can save documents to Web sites on MSN. This gives you an instant collaboration space where you can share files with other people.

Save a Web site as a single file A special Web archive file format is available in Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Publisher, and Microsoft Word. This file format lets you save all the elements of a Web site, including text and graphics, into a single file.

Open Office Web pages for editing from the browser Office programs recognize the HTML pages that they generate. You can open an Office document that you've saved as a Web page in the program it was created in, right from Microsoft Internet Explorer.


Error Prevention and recovery

Document recovery and safer shutdown Documents you are working on can be recovered if the program encounters an error or stops responding. The documents are displayed in the Document Recovery task pane the next time you open the program.

Office Safe Mode Microsoft Office XP programs can detect and isolate startup problems. You can bypass the problem, run your Office program in safe mode, and keep getting your work done.

Office crash reporting tool Diagnostic information about program crashes can be collected and sent to your company's information technology department or to Microsoft, allowing engineers to correct these problems so they don't interrupt you again.


Security

Digital signatures You can apply a digital signature to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint files to confirm that the file has not been altered.

Increased protection against macro viruses Network administrators can remove Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, the programming language of Microsoft Office, when deploying Office. This can decrease the possibility of viruses spreading via Office documents.


Language-specific features

If you are not using the specific language version of Microsoft Office for which one of these features is designed, then the feature is only available if you have installed the Microsoft Office XP Multilingual User Interface Pack or Microsoft Office Proofing Tools for that language. In addition, you must enable support for the language through Microsoft Office Language Settings.

Improvements to changing the language of the user interface and Help More components across Microsoft Office support changing the language of their user interface. In addition, terms on the interface match the terms in Help, even when the main text of Help is in a different language than the interface. This feature is only available with the Office XP MUI Pack and a volume licensing agreement.

Hangul/Hanja converter improvements Over 20,000 new characters are supported by this converter for Korean language documents. The converter automatically uses new fonts that have the proper glyphs for the new characters.

Full support for Windows 2000 language features Microsoft Office programs now support all the languages that Microsoft Windows 2000 does. Office also supports the latest extensions to Chinese character encoding via Unicode, including support for almost 70,000 Chinese characters.

East Asian character support on non-East Asian systems Now you can enter characters from East Asian languages in all Office programs, even if your system software is a non-East Asian language version. (This was previously only supported in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook, or on Windows 2000.) For example, on a computer running English (U.S.) Microsoft Windows 98, you can enter Japanese characters in Microsoft Excel.