Dear User Group Leader:

O'Reilly is pulling together a new book called "Microsoft Access
Annoyances" and, once again, we'd like your help! As you might guess,
"Access Annoyances" ponders the problems, snarls, quirks, bugs, and 
just
dumb things about Access that drive users nuts. The annoyances will
encompass a range of topics: the Access interface, entering data, 
queries,
reporting hassles, VBA, moving data to and from Excel and SQL 
databases,
data tables, expressions, macros, deployment, security--well, you get 
the
idea.

If any members of your group use Access--be they newbies or Access
masters--and they have annoyances they'd like to see solved, have them
email marsee@oreilly.com with "Access Annoyances" in the subject line.
Just have them note what version of Access and Windows they're using.

As always, thanks for sharing. We'll make sure to get copies of "Access
Annoyances" sent to your group shortly after publication.

--Marsee


***

An example:

Long Lines In Small Places

THE ANNOYANCE: I'm trying to type a long expression into a tiny text 
box,
which is about as much fun as trying to watch a movie with a couple of
basketball players seated in front of you. How the heck do you keep 
track
of what you're typing when you can only see two or three words at a 
time?

THE FIX: One of Access' handier features is the zoom box. Hit <Shift 
F2>,
and Access opens a big, empty text area for editing a long line of 
text.
You can use this trick just about anywhere you see a text box: in the
query design grid, in property sheets, in a table design window or
datasheet. For that matter, your users can benefit from this trick,
too--it works on form fields as well. Highly recommended.

[TIP: You'll notice that the zoom box closes when you hit <Enter>. If 
for
some reason, you absolutely need a line break in what you're typing, 
use
<Ctrl-Enter> instead.]