With Microsoft busy working on upcoming versions of Access and the rest of Office System, I wonder what you would like to see. What additions and changes could make Access a more productive tool for database developers and users? Here are some of my thoughts; add yours and maybe we'll influence the Access team at Microsoft.

Back to the basics

Users still want and need the basics: tables, queries, forms, and reports. Anything Micro-soft can do that makes the job of creating these basic database objects easier, faster, and more reliable will pay off for everyone.

It would be nice to have the properties window sorted in a meaningful fashion. Looking at a command button's properties, why is "Default" right under "Transparent" and "Status Bar Text" just above "Hyperlink Address?" Sorting properties alphabetically, could make it more convenient for developers because they usually know which property they need. It's easier searching an alphabetically sorted list than randomly ordered properties.

Dimensions on Access forms are measured in inches or centimeters. Pixels are a more meaningful unit of measure. They make it easy to relate to screen dimensions. Having dimensions in inches or centimeters make sense for reports, but not for forms.

It is hard to determine a form's dimension and position on the screen at runtime. There's no reliable way (other than resorting to API calls) to determine where a form is on the screen or its current size (height and width). In a Visual Basic application, you can easily obtain this important dimension and location information by consulting a form's Top, Left, Width, and Height properties. It's also easy to control a Visual Basic form's position on the screen by adjusting these properties. Although Access forms have a Move method, it might be nice to know where the form is before you apply it.

My wishlist

Here are a number of things I'd like to see added to Access:

• Real support for ActiveX controls. Strong ActiveX support in Access would revitalize the third-party Access tools market and gives us new and innovative capabilities.

• Multiple relationship diagrams, so it's easy to isolate table relationships for a portion of an application. SQL Server has long provided multiple relationship diagrams, letting developers concentrate efforts on individual segments of large applications.

• A foolproof, strong, and flexible package and deployment wizard that's smart enough to avoid conflicts with existing Office installations on users' computers.

• Ability to compile Access class modules as ActiveX .DLLs, .EXEs, and controls (.OCX). Visual Basic has had this ability for a long time, and it'd be a great benefit to Access developers as well.

• An optimizing compiler that outputs a Windows runtime .EXE. By "optimizing," I mean a compiler that includes only the resources used by the application, and leaves out the menus, toolbars, dialogs, and other bits not involved in the application. One of the reasons Access distribution packages tend to be so big is they include every toolbar, menu, and other user interface component you see in Access, whether or not they're used in your application.

• It's your turn ...