Emmanuel Katto : How to Customize MS Access to Look Like a Standalone Application

[emmanuelkatto23]

Hi, I'm Emmanuel Katto from UK, looking for a way to make my MS Access database appear as a real desktop application. The goal is that when the app is launched, only the forms should appear, and there should be no traces of MS Access like menus, toolbars, or the navigation pane. I want it to feel like a fully functional app, similar to how My Visual Database creates custom applications.

Regards
Emmanuel Katto

 

[GPGeorge]

Hi, I'm Emmanuel Katto from UK, looking for a way to make my MS Access database appear as a real desktop application. The goal is that when the app is launched, only the forms should appear, and there should be no traces of MS Access like menus, toolbars, or the navigation pane. I want it to feel like a fully functional app, similar to how My Visual Database creates custom applications.

Regards
Emmanuel Katto

Hm. I would like to point out that Access relational database applications are totally "real desktop applications".

A database application created with Access is "a fully functional application", regardless of how it looks.

With Access you create "custom applications" every single time!

So what you are aiming at, really, is nothing more than hiding the fact that you used Access.

I understand that some people see that as an advantage, although I can't understand why hiding the role of Access should matter.

On the other hand, there are certainly ways to deploy Access database applications with some of the features you describe. I'm sure you'll get suggestions to that effect.

 

[MajP]

Control Application Interface

This article discusses how the Access application interface can be controlled including hiding the navigation pane, ribbon or the entire application interface. Some methods can help make a database more secure. The example app opens with a form 'floating independently' on the desktop. Various...

isladogs.co.uk

@isladogs has a lot on this.

 

[Engr. Matthew]

You can do that but it takes lots of steps
1. create login that give users access to login to your database
2. from your Access project click file, and then click Current Database
3. Uncheck Display Navigation Panel, Allow Full Menu, Allow Default Shortcut menu
4. Go to Google search for SSESetup
5. Download and install it run it to package Access for installation
I use it all the time.
take a look at this

 

[arnelgp]

You can also Install a Runtime version which fully standalone and no menu.

 

[Pat Hartman]

You can also Install a Runtime version which fully standalone and no menu.

Any Access application opened with a runtime version of Access loses non-custom menus and the ability to get into design view on any object. You can simulate the effect by renaming your .accde or .accda to .accdr. However, this is a trick and doesn't change anything about the database itself. It just tells full versions of Access to pretend to be the runtime engine. So, if your user knows the trick, he can just rename the .accdr back to .accde or .accdb and anything those extensions allow would be allowed by the full Access version.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

You have a lot of things to do to completely hide the Access engine that MUST be at least a part of your presentation. Part of that process is that you must design a "control panel" or "switchboard" that does everything that must be done - and does NOTHING that is disallowed to be done - by your users. This process is sometimes called "hardening" the database. You need to consider customized drop-down menus for times when users right-click on something to get a context menu. You need to consider whether your DB will involve multiple users with multiple roles. You need to assure that you have rigorous error handling. And you need to realize that despite all of these precautions, people with an insatiable curiosity or a malicious intent WILL find a way past what you have built as safeguards. Which means you should include not only some visual issues in your planning, but some operational issues (such as backup or other data safeguards). If your app is commercial, consider also what you can ask your customers to do and realize that they might have other plans.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

On another note, you appear to have two accounts - EmmanuelKatto23 and EmmanuelKatto24 - and they appear to use non-overlapping VPN servers. It seems unlikely that there are two different people named Emmanuel Katto who are also Access users and who use the exact same style of writing in formulating your questions. At different times, you have claimed to be from Dubai, Uganda, and the UK. In the "Similar threads" section below, both of these accounts appear as authors of the related threads. Can you address or explain this issue of dual identity?

 

[accessmoraes]

Hello friend, I'm talking about Brazil, tell me would it be something like this? Full screen ?

 

[accessmoraes]

I'm going to prepare some materials I have here, maybe I can give you some ideas, I have some examples that I posted in my Facebook group and I'm going to organize them and post them here on this forum

 

[AHeyne]

Hi @accessmoraes, what kind of images do you use in your menus (the images on the left side of the description, separated by a pipe)?
Are this Unicode signs?

 

[accessmoraes]

Hello friend, these are images that I use, and when you hover the mouse over the button, the images alternate

 

[KitaYama]

For those who have missed @accessmoraes 's previous post and sample files:

Modernizing The Microsoft Access Interface!

I'll leave here 3 examples of buttons and a simple Gantt schedule. Programming is an example of another site where I tried to streamline and improve the appearance

www.access-programmers.co.uk

 

[AHeyne]

Hello friend, these are images that I use, and when you hover the mouse over the button, the images alternate

So just to be clear and avoid misunderstandings: You use images and not Unicode entities, is that correct?

 

[CJ_London]

Not sure if it is the same but I use a button with an image and the caption would be for example “| caption”

Use the click event or similar to change the image - for example when using a button as a column header instead of a label to sort the form and change the image to indicate direction of sort/whether a filter has been applied, etc

 

[gemma-the-husky]

Part of the problem is that there's some really useful functionality in the bits you are trying to hide. If you don't want users to see them, and you still want to use the functionality you have to programme access to do the same thing, and most likely you won't do it as well as MS did it.