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Clint Covington: Software design, Microsoft Office Access

News, trends, and commentary about everything from software design (i.e. innovation, nailing scenarios, elegance), and my personal technology passion -- Microsoft Office Access.

Adds/cuts uncovered: The making of a new release

This is a fun time to work at Microsoft and particularly Office. One of the biggest benefits of...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 03/10/2007

Submit your own community template!

I recently stumbled across some interesting work done by our Office Online team. They allow YOU to...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 03/09/2007

Cool As Ice uses Office Live and Access 2007 with custom ribbon

Alan Cossey recently sent me a overview of how Cool As Ice is using Office Live and Access to track...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 03/07/2007

New RunCommands in Microsoft Office Access 2007

This probably isn't interesting to many of you but here is a list of all new runcommands in Access...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 03/07/2007

VBA Functions and RunCommand code samples sites

I recently came across in an internal newsgroup a couple great sites that provide lots of code...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 03/05/2007

New blog feed from the Access UA team

The user assistance team has put together a new blog that will highlight articles. Anyone interested...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/24/2007

Tips and tricks for designing forms and reports - part 3

This is the final post of a three part series on Access Tips and Tricks provided by members of the...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/23/2007

My favorite Access keyboard commands - part 2

I have a confession to make… I started hacking around in computers with Windows 3.1—never learned...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/22/2007

Web service and sample book database that uses Amazon's Web Services

Today’s guest writer is Access Program Manager Ric Lewis. Ric spent the last couple years with the...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/20/2007

Tips and tricks from the Access team - part 1

I have been working on a three part series of non-obvious tips and tricks for using Access 2007. The...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/19/2007

Open and respectful cultures create better designs

It’s not uncommon in the halls of Microsoft for a passionate Program Manager and brilliant Developer...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/17/2007

New Access 2007 books

Zac Woodall from the Access PM team pulled together a great list of books coming out on Access 2007....

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/16/2007

Macro improvements in Access 2007

Access 2007 and Macros One feature that might be surprising to many experienced developers is the...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/15/2007

Seattle PI article "Microsoft Office 2007 sales twice that of previous version"

These quotes are nice to see. I'm also hearing from online communities an dramatic increase in posts...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/14/2007

Two new developer focused articles on Excel Services

Here are a couple developer focused articles on Excel Services that were published today. Extending...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/14/2007

The Craft of Design and Jonathan Ive

A couple months ago Business Week published an article about a talk "The Craft of Design" given by...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/13/2007

How to deploy trusted locations with group policy

Those of you that have started using Access 2007 know that you can get rid of the annoying security...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/06/2007

Four new user assistance topics on authoring reports

The UA team continues to crank our new content. The latest round is about creating reports. Maybe I...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/03/2007

Good Experience blog post "Innovation and customer experience basics"

I'm a frequent reader of the Good Experience blog. These guys do a great job making me think about...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/01/2007

InfoWorld article - "Microsoft: Office training fears overblown"

This is a good interview with Chris Capossela, VP for Office Marketing....

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 02/01/2007

As part of my new role, I'm learning more about Excel Services and the ability to render...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/31/2007

Eight new query help topics available

The following eight topics are now live on Office Online: 1. Combine the results of several select...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/31/2007

The runtime and developer extensions will be FREE!

This morning we are announcing that the developer extensions and runtime will be available for FREE!...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/30/2007

MSDN article "Architecture Strategies for Catching the Long Tail"

It is a bit off topic for Access developers but I found this article a great read. I especially...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/30/2007

Web Directions North Conference, Feb 6 - 10 in Vancouver

This looks like a great conference if you are interested in growing your web development skills....

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/28/2007

Principles of MicroFormats and simplicity

I have been reading a bit about MicroFormats these days. I came across these principles that were...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/27/2007

The Excel and Access Services team is growing - we have job openings

The Excel/Access Services and Access teams have open test and PM positions for individuals who are...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/23/2007

MVP's Allen Browne's review and resource page on Access 2007

Allen Browne has put together a nice resource page on Access 2007. I'm not sure I completely agree...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/20/2007

The New York Times "Purging Bloat to Fashion Sleek Software"

NY Times has an good article about the new Office redesign. Nearly these articles are turning out...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/20/2007

UA articles on SharePoint integration

The end-user UA team just published three new articles on SharePoint integration. Control which...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/19/2007

Access 2007 Runtime information

I keep getting pinged on this topic--so let me share what information I can. There will be a Access...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/18/2007

You Tube video blog on data collection

Steve Zaske posted a blog on data collection a while back. Nice to see folks catching on to this...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/18/2007

How do you use Access?

I was browsing Business Week last week and noticed a BlackBerry ad asking people to tell them what...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/17/2007

I'm thinking about a Samsung BlackJack

I'm joining my wife's Cingular plan and need to get a new phone. The IPhone looks very cool but I...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/17/2007

The 20 Most Innovative Products of the Year - Office 2007 Tops PC Worlds List!

When we started talking about the ribbon everyone knew it was a huge bet. It is nice to get some...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/12/2007

Wall Street Journal's (Walt Mossberg) take on the ribbon

Walt Mossberg an often critical voice about Microsoft products has published his review of the...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/11/2007

I have a new job

In January 1998, I joined Microsoft as the ship PM for Access 97 SP1. My career has gone on to...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/10/2007

History of Microsoft vocabulary tag cloud

Todd Bishop from the The Seattle PI recently put together an interesting series of cloud tags with...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 01/02/2007

Interactive chart/form filtering code sample

One of the most enjoyable design challenges I have had over the last couple of years was redesigning...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 12/22/2006

Softer datasheet visuals in 3 simple steps

Yesterday I was looking at one of our templates and noticed the grid felt pretty busy. I wanted to...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 12/21/2006

Free 60 day trial download of Office 2007

Here is a link to a free 60 day trial download of Office 2007 programs....

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 12/19/2006

New site on Access ribbons with VBA and XML samples

Access MVPs Gunter Avenius and Peter Doering have setup a site with information on ribbons from...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 12/19/2006

Feedback from a customer about Access 2007

Here is some feedback I received yesterday from a customer. It is nice to see people appreciate the...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 12/18/2006

My favorite software book of the year "Get Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application"

For some time I have been a fan of the work done by 37Signals. They have a great understanding of...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 12/16/2006

MSDN article "Transitioning Your Existing Access Applications to Access 2007"

There is a good new article by Jan Fransen and Ken Getz that is designed to be a guide for users to...

Author: Clint Covington MS Date: 12/13/2006

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