The Access
Forms and Reports Assistant (AFRA) is a batch form and report
property changing utility for Access developers. It will run
with Access 2000, 2002, or 2003, and make changes to any of
those three Access mdb files for which you have the appropriate
version of Access installed on your computer.
With the AFRA, you can easily set properties on some or
all of your forms and reports at once. Do you need to set
the help file for each form and report? Do you need to remove
the close button from each form to keep users inside your
menu system? How about making sure all your forms can only
be changed in the design view or setting the auto resize
and auto center properties? AFRA can do all of these, and
more, at one time, for both forms and reports. Simply select
your database file, specifying workgroup security information
if appropriate, select the forms and reports you want to
include from a list, set the properties in another list,
and click a button. Then watch as AFRA opens your database
and cycles through all the specified forms and reports,
making the changes you directed. All changes are recorded
in an AFRA table, including both before and after property
values. A printed report is also available.
If you work with several secured databases, AFRA can keep
track of your security information so you just select the
workgroup data with two mouse clicks.
All writeable form and report properties for Access 2000,
2002, and 2003 are available except the HasModule property
(that one could be a disaster, erasing all your form and
report module code in an instant). AFRA detects the version
of Access your mdb file was created in and displays only
those properties suitable to your database. All properties
that have standard entries (other than text, command bar
names, or code) are available from a drop-down list. You
may select Design View Only for the AllowDesignChanges property
but AFRA enters the required value of True for this entry
(since it is being changed in VBA and not on the form’s
property sheet). Once you execute, Access automation opens
your database and makes the changes.
If you have multiple versions of Access installed on your
developer’s computer, AFRA will open preferentially
in Access 2000. If not installed, it will look for Access
2002 and then 2003. You initially tell AFRA what version
of Access the mdb file you want to change was created in,
but AFRA checks this when it accesses the mdb file to get
the list of forms and reports. If you specified incorrectly,
it will tell you and then use the correct version of Access
to make changes. If the correct version is not installed,
AFRA uses an installed newer version to make the changes.
