So, where do we stand in the realm of Microsoft Access as of the beginning of October, 2024?
First, we turn towards the Microsoft Roadmap:
⛐ Microsoft Access October 2024 Roadmap
The roadmap is currently comprised of 3 items:
- Access: Making 32-bit Access Large Address Aware (LAA)
Status: Launched
Rollout Start: November 2023
32-bit Access will become Large Address Aware (LAA) to address 4G of memory, rather than 2G.
- Access: Modern Chart Improvements
Status: In development
Rollout Start: August 2024
A top ask from customers is to modernize Access charts and to support better data visualization in Access. To satisfy this user request, we are integrating a new charting package called “Ivy” into Access. Ivy is a charting package written by the Office DVX team that is currently used in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
- Access: Integrate Monaco framework to improve SQL editor capabilities
Status: In development
Rollout Start: September 2024
The Monaco Editor is the fully featured code editor from VS Code with standard IDE functionality such as syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, and autocomplete.
Now, absolutely nothing has changed on the roadmap in a few months!
Thus, we find ourselves in the exact same position we were in in September, August, July, June, May and even late April when the Dev Team last updated the Roadmap.
That said, we know formally that the SQL Editor is at the very least available in Beta/Insider channel and the Chart improvements are available on the Current channel. Thus, we know the Roadmap is not up-to-date as the statuses of these items remains ‘In development’ which is incorrect.
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Microsoft Access Blog
Microsoft Access BlogNow, if we briefly take look at the Official Microsoft Access Blog for more information on this, or any other Dev Team news:
You will see that the site hasn’t had any real updates since mid-may!
They don’t even mention that these 2 Roadmap features are available for testing, nor have notes regarding monthly (June, July) updates.
Nor did they post anything regarding the major msaccess.exe bug that recently plagued the Current Channel.
As mentioned in the August review, I’m not sure what’s going on with the blog, if it has been abandoned by the Dev Team??? We know there have been updates, bug fixes, but nothing posted anywhere!
However, we did see a post asking people to join the ‘Developer Research Panel‘. That said, many were very flustered after finding out that registration had been closed within 24-48hrs of the announcement to register to participate?!
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Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Access
Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Access
Here as well, nothing new to report as the page was last updated in February.
This isn’t to say there aren’t new bugs and workarounds as there are.
For instance, there are a number with the Modern Web Browser control alone!
Weeks after it first surfaced, they have yet to mention/acknowledgement anywhere the most recent bug plaguing users!
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Feedback Portal
Feedback PortalFor once, we have some good news on this front!
In the past month, the Dev Team have invested some serious time cleaning up the major piles of SPAM that were present in the Feedback Portal and things are finally shaping up nicely.
Don’t get me wrong, this will be an ongoing battle until Microsoft implement proper SPAM filtering, but they have cleaned out some 500-600 SPAM suggestions.
I am hoping they will also focus some attention on the SPAM comments as well.
In Summary
To sum things up:
- There’s no new Roadmap items and it hasn’t been updated to reflect changes in status.
- There’s no new real Blog content.
- There are no new Fixes or workarounds.
- The Feedback Portal is being cleaned up!
It will be interesting to see what the next priorities will be for the Dev Team.
- Will they follow the Feedback Portal and proceed with the next 1-2-3 top items or will they ignore the given feedback and focus their energies elsewhere?
- When will we see the Roadmap Updated?
- Will they reopen registration to the Research Panel so everyone can join?
- Will the Fixes & Workarounds pages ever be fixed and used properly?
- Is the Blog dead?
So many question, yet so few answers.
The post Microsoft Access Roadmap – October 2024 Review first appeared on DEVelopers HUT.