How to get to Access Menu's for Coding

Question

I recently inherited this Access DB and the original Developer is not available.  I am trying to get it to display all the programming menu's, so I can start to reverse engineer the code.  I can <Right Click-->Design> on "Main", but that's about it.  I can not get the standard Access menu's to display so I can begin looking at the code.

Can someone provide me guidance?  thank you

Answer 1

Thanks Scott.

My screenshots mixed 2 different Access DB's.  The one I'm working on is the first screenshot, but I included the second screenshot to show that a brand spanking new Access DB shows a full Menu structure for designing the database.  For some reason, I can't get that menu structure for designing the database I inherited.

I do know this application imports records from an Excel file, and inserts them into an Access Table.  I am trying to debug the field mappings of this import because the structure of the Excel file changed, which is now impacting the inserts into the Access Table.  I would really like to view the field (i.e. column) mappings from Excel to Access Table.

I was hoping there is a simple way to browse the Access Table, but I can't find that view/screen in Design Mode.

Answer 2

The database sounds like it using an Import Specification.  If it is then somewhat it has one line (or maybe more) depending how it is set up.  That said, you would need to modify that or simply redo it which in your case might be easier.  You can use the wizard to walk you thru it.  This might help...

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/import-or-link-to-data-in-an-excel-workbook-a1952878-7c58-47b1-893d-e084913cc958

Answer 3

OK, When you refer to "a full Menu structure for designing the database" I think you are referring to the ribbon. If your database does not show the ribbon, there could be a few reasons for it. Off to the right of the ribbon should a caret (^). That could indicate that the ribbon is minimized. A more likely possibility is the developer has hidden the ribbon to provide his own menuing. If that's the case, try holding the Shift key down as you launch the database. This will bypass any startup code that he has running. However, he may have disabled that trick, but I doubt it, since it appears the file is an accdb. If he has, you can find a tool to turn that on and off externally.

Another possibility is to go into the VBA and enter the following in the Immediate Window:

DoCmd.ShowToolbar "Ribbon", acToolbarYes

Its likely that code is being run (with acToolbarNo) at startup.

Once you get the ribbon, You can go to File>Options>Current Database and adjust some of the startup options like displaying the Nav Pane.

Let me know if you are still having issues.

Answer 4

thanks, I will give this suggestions a shot because I do notice the ribbon flashes for about 1/2 second on startup launch of the file, then disappears.

Answer 5

BTW, I apologize for misunderstanding you initially. The top menu has been called the Ribbon for more than a decade, so your calling it a navigation menu put me off.