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
Links to resources about Excel Services
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