Access Accounting - Blog

Software industry should provide more tools for environmental change

The launch of our new Accounting for Carbon Emissions functionality took place in London last week at Softworld, and while I was at the event I took time to walk around the show to see what our competitors were up to. I was surprised to see that none of them had any environmental messages and there wasn’t a single product on display that was aimed at providing environmentally related functionality.

It's all part of the QA process

According to British Standard 7925 -1: 

"Testing is supposed to demonstrate that the software does what it is supposed to do as well as demonstrating that software does not do what it is not supposed to do." 

It is worth noting that testing can only show the presence of faults, it cannot prove that the software is 100% correct and it cannot prove that there are no faults.   Risk will reduce if subsequent re-work and re-testing takes place.

Outlook 2007

In this blog I am going to cover two of the new features available in Outlook 2007; RSS Feeds and the To Do bar. Both of these have real merit for personal and business users of Outlook, and allows users to access more information quickly.

RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds are updated ‘real time’ with the information that users want to know about.

Fig 1. The RSS Feeds information page – this gives users extensive information on how RSS feeds work and how to set them up, along with links to RSS Feeds to subscribe to.

RSS feeds can be set up to appear directly within Outlook. These Feeds can be used for many different reasons, such as by people needing to see updated News and Sports stories, to check their stocks and shares etc.

There are many RSS feeds are available, and in Outlook the RSS feeds can be matched to those set in IE (which are then in turn available as gadgets in Vista).

It is easy to set up an RSS feed and free (at least at the moment!).

The Feeds appear in the Navigation pane under the RSS Feeds heading (as can be seen in Fig 1).

The detail of the feed can be previewed, and users can link to the internet to read the entire article (as can be seen in Fig 2).

Fig 2. This shows the MSNBC.com feed, which has many articles. Selecting an article displays the detail on the right, with a link to view the full article in IE.

Feeds can also be marked for follow up and categorised.

For more information on RSS see http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3223484.stm and http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/reference/rss/

To Do Bar

This bar appears down the right hand side of the Outlook window. It displays calendar and task items, and can be expanded to view the detail (see Fig. 3).

Fig 3. On the left the To-Do bar minimised, showing a summary of information, and on the right it is shown expanded.

If the To-Do bar is expanded, users can see more information about the calendar and task items.

Whilst expanded clicking on a date in the calendar view, opens the Calendar for that day to allow edits/inserts etc.

Users can also insert new tasks from the To-Do bar; these are inserted with today’s date.

Tasks can also be arranged by several different options such as Due Date, Categories, Start Date and Importance.

They can also be categorised and flagged for follow up.

Kirsty Lowe

Vista Navigation

This is article 4 of my Vista Blogs. I have spent some time looking at, and working with, Vista, and have separated various new features into several different articles. In this article I am going to talk about the way in which Vista has been updated to make it easier for users to move from application to application.

Flip 3D

Although this isn’t necessarily a very helpful business tool, it is one of my favourite new features in Vista! The user interface is enhanced, and if like me you have many applications open at once, it makes it much easier to navigate around them. As with previous Operating Systems, the standard Alt/Tab functionality is there, however it shows much more information to the user, it shows the actual document not just an icon (a similar feature is available to Win XP users on a download – see the Microsoft website for more information).

Fig 1. Screen shot of the Alt/Tab view on Vista

However, the most impressive way to navigate is using the Windows Key/Tab (and then mouse scroll or use Tab), the windows are placed at an angle in quite a large size. Again all the items are shown with content, and not as icons. If one is music then the music will continue to play, if a video is playing then it will continue to play.

Fig 2. Example of scrolling through the open applications using the Windows key/Tab functionality

Preview from the toolbar

Instead of highlighting an open application in toolbar and just getting the application or document name, Vista gives the user a thumbnail of the application itself, along with a location of the item. Again, this gives the user more information to allow them to make the right choice of application to maximise.

Fig 3. Example of the preview thumbnail from the toolbar

Kirsty Lowe

Data Fragmentation in SQL Server 2005

Current commands for index management, as supported in SQL 2000 and discussed previously, are still supported in SQL 2005. However, they will be phased out & are unlikely to be supported in future releases.

With this in mind it is probably worth mentioning a few of the successors:

DBCC SHOWCONTIG - this has been replaced by the sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats ( ) function.
e.g.
SELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats(DB_ID(N'Database Name'), OBJECT_ID(N'Table Name'), NULL, NULL , 'LIMITED')

DBCC DBREINDEX - this is now dealt with using the ALTER INDEX statement.
e.g.
ALTER INDEX ALL ON Table Name REBUILD WITH (FILLFACTOR = 80, SORT_IN_TEMPDB = ON, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF)

As a final point to mention, there are quite a few parameter options and switches that go along with these new methods. It's therefore advisable to do some research into what is actually available so that you can refine your use of these methods accordingly. SQL Server Books Online is always a good one but you'll find generally find detailed information anywhere on the internet.

Oliver Cox

Vista Start Menu

This is article three of my four Vista blogs. I have spent some time looking at, and working with, Vista and have separated various new features into several different articles. In this article I am going to talk about the Start Menu.

Searching

The search bar in the Start Menu can really save a user’s time and reduces frustration when a file cannot be found - trust me it helps! You don’t have to worry about settings lots of options like you do in the Search window in Win XP either, which makes the whole process a lot quicker. The search will look for files, programs and folders, including control panel options. Users can also select whether to search the computer itself, or the internet.

Fig 1. The Start Menu, showing the search bar, screen tip and icon updates.

Pictures on Start menu

This feature sets a picture for each option, which appears in the top right of the menu. Not necessarily a huge leap forward in user interface, but I think it adds to Microsoft’s increase in user information. See Fig 1 for example.

Kirsty Lowe

Vista Explorer

This is article 2 of my Vista Blogs. I have spent some time looking at, and working with, Vista, and have separated various new features into several different articles.

In this article I am going to talk about the additional features in the Explorer window.

Windows explorer

It is now possible to not only see an icon for a document, but also preview the actual document contents.

Users can then highlight a document, see the document text and even copy and paste from that document, all without actually opening it!

There is a lot more information presented in these windows now as well, including links to edit the document, as well as all the property information, without having to right click the file and open a separate Properties window.

It is also possible to right click a file and view a list of the previous file versions, very handy if you need to go back to an earlier version!

Fig 1. Explorer with the preview pane and property information in view.

Kirsty Lowe

Internet Explorer v7

In this Blog I am going to cover 3 of the new features available in IE v7; Tabs, Phishing Filter and Quick Search. 

This new release will be sent out as a Windows update in the next few months. 

For further information on this update, including how to prevent the automatic update from occurring, what the supported O/S’ are etc. See:  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx?mg_ID=10010#ie7rss

Tabs
Microsoft have picked up on the tab user function available in other browser applications, and have integrated it in with the new IE release.

As a user that hasn’t used this functionality in a browser before, I can say that it is very handy, and it makes it difficult to go back to IE v6!

As can be seen in Fig. 1 multiple internet pages can be opened in the one browser application, by the use of tabs.

Fig. 1 Example of the multiple tab functionality in IE v7

(Multiple pages are opened by using Ctrl/left click to click on multiple URLs.)

Additionally, to make it easier for users to view all of their open web sites, in order to decide which one to maximise, Microsoft have added a Quick Tabs window, so that all pages can be seen as thumb nails.  See Fig. 2.

Closing IE then allows the user to choose to close all tabs, and to reopen them next time IE is run.  See Fig. 3.

Fig 3. This is the prompt message that appears (with options in view) when closing IE

Phishing Filter

Information from Microsoft:

Proactively warns and helps protect you against potential or known fraudulent sites and blocks the site if appropriate. The opt-in filter is updated several times per hour using the latest security information from Microsoft and several industry partners.

This filter gives the user a warning if a site is suspected of phishing.  If a site prompts this message, then users can report the site to Microsoft using a link on message.  Reports are then sent to staff at Microsoft who check the site, and then update the list of phishing sites as appropriate.  This will mean that the next person to visit the site will be told it is a confirmed Phishing Site, instead of suspected, or the warning on the site will be removed, whichever is appropriate.

For users who do not know to check for padlock symbols in their browser, to ensure the site is secure, this will be a very helpful feature.

I hope that it helps to cut down on the number of fraudulent web sites out there, to allow the internet to be a safer place to ‘play’.

Quick Search

An additional search bar has been added to the IE Browser window (See Fig. 4).  This allows users to search text on the web page they are currently viewing.

Users can select their preferred Search Provider, as well as set a default.

Fig. 4 The Quick Search Bar and menu

For users needing to find specific information fast, this is a great tool, and one that I will be making the most of.

Kirsty Lowe

Vista Sidebar

This is article one of a series of four Vista blogs which I will be writing over the coming weeks. I have spent some time looking at, and working with, Vista, and have separated various new features into several different articles. In this article I am going to talk about the Sidebar.

The Vista Sidebar is a feature that allows gadgets and RSS feeds (for more information on RSS see the note at the bottom of this article) to appear on the desktop.

I have found this sidebar to be a very helpful tool. It also allows any software house to create a gadget for their users to place on their side bar.

Microsoft has many gadgets you can download from their website; see http://gallery.microsoft.com/default.aspx?l=1 for examples. The Sidebar is set up from Control Panel \ Appearance and Personalization \ Windows Sidebar.

This allows users to select which gadgets to appear on the sidebar, and how the sidebar will be displayed. Gadgets can also be placed on desktop by dragging them from the sidebar; these items can be games, information, pictures, mini applications and more.

Fig 1 (left): Sidebar example containing calculator, RSS Feed, Note, a numbers game and an analogue clock.

Users can interact with any gadget at any time. I have found the note gadget the most helpful, as I can enter in names or numbers to store quickly, and for quick access. It works well as a ‘to do’ list for me!

RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

This is like a summary feed of information be it the news, weather or stock exchange data which is updated in ‘real time’. This is really helpful because it can set this up for a particular feed and then I don’t have to load Internet Explorer to see the information; I can just go to my desktop or stay in my current application (if the sidebar has been set to always appear on top).

Users have been able to set RSS feeds up in Internet Explorer for some time, and now with Vista it comes to the desktop, by using the Sidebar. There are many RSS feeds to sign up to, and they are free (for the moment anyway!).

For more information on RSS see http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/help/3223484.stm and http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/reference/rss/ (this gives information specific to Vista, including which RSS versions will be supported by the sidebar.)

Kirsty Lowe

Microsoft Office Word 2007 (BETA)

I am going to go over some of the features that I have found most useful in Word 2007.  I thought to help with this I would write this piece using Word 2007 BETA, and so far so good.

It took me a while to find where the 'About' option had gone to, finding that I needed to add it to my toolbar, so the location of some functions aren’t completely obvious.

I have had no formal training on the new Office 2007 product, so I am just learning it as I go.  This is something which I suspect most users will probably do.

I like the overall look and feel of the application, but this is going to take a bit of getting used to!    The ribbons are however, clear and well laid out.

For those of you that have read my post on ‘Microsoft Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System’, you will know that Microsoft say users will take on average 2 days to 2 weeks to get used to the new way of working with this software.  Once you have got a handle on it in one application, however, the knowledge will port to the rest of the Office suite - as with previous versions.