Access 2013–Not Your Father’s Access

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I worked this weekend to prepare for a presentation this week at the Dallas SharePoint TechFest, “Access Services 2013 – Not Your Father’s Access!”  I am covering the new features of Access 2013 as an app designer for SharePoint 2013.  While presenting on Access, I frequently say that while Access has changed drastically, Access remains familiar because key parts of the UI have barely changed since 1993.  As proof, I installed Windows XP and Access 2.0 and took some screen shots for comparison.

Creating a table:

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Creating a query:

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Even the wizards to create tables have pretty much the same elements as they did back in Access 2.0 with the ability to choose from out of box templates.

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The thing that is drastically different is the ability for end users to use Access 2013 with Access Services 2013 to create apps for SharePoint 2013.  That’s the part that I am very excited about because it provides the ability for end users to create composite applications without requiring developers.  Looking forward to speaking at the event!