AEU Meeting Date 7 Jan 2026 starting at 18:00 UK Time (UTC)                     Last Updated 10 Jan 2026



Meeting Details:

This Access Europe meeting will be on Wednesday 7 Jan 2026 starting at 18:00 UK time (6PM UTC+1) and finishing at about 19:15 (7.15PM)

The start time is equivalent to 19:00 (7PM) in Central Europe and 10AM in Seattle / PST

Please note that the UK is currently on Summer Time (UTC+1). For local times, please check World Time Buddy

We use Zoom as our meeting application. Please click this link to Get Zoom if you don’t already have it.

When the time comes for the meeting, please use the following link: Join Zoom Meeting
If you are asked, use: Meeting ID: 924 3129 5683 ; Passcode: 661210

All sessions are recorded and later uploaded to the Access User Groups channel on YouTube

If you do not wish to be part of the recording, please ensure your webcam and microphone are both switched off during the meeting.



Download Outlook Calendar (.ics file):

Click to download. Save in Outlook to create a recurring event for each month:       Outlook Calendar (.ics)



Topic outline:

Over the past couple of years, Microsoft has been gradually rolling out a significant update to the old style message box used in all Office apps for built-in messages.
Gone are the monochrome and rather forgettable messages of the past. Now we have colorful messages that catch users' attention more effectively.

Old Style Delete Message

New Style Delete Message

This has been a gradual change and, unfortunately, the new style dialog has not yet been ported across to the messages that developers create using code.

UK developer, Neil Sargent set out to replicate the new style message boxes in Access.
In doing so, he discovered a number of design features which are likely to be both interesting and useful to other developers.

In today's presentation, Neil will demonstrate his new style message box and explain the journey taken to get there.

This will include:
1)   History of MsgBox with Access
2)   Using a VBA function name to override VBA with your own code.
3)   Backwards compatibility issues and limitations.
4)   Competition: Spot the difference!
5)   How to get the new MS Fluent UI icons, how to process them and use them to best effect.
6)   The Title parameter.
7)   MessageBeep API.
8)   Borderless forms. DragFormWindow code with credit to Colin Riddington.
9)   The Shadow form trick.
10)   Enhanced Access style MsgBox formatting.
11)   Help and hyperlinks.
12)   CanShrink and CanGrow for forms. Textbox resizing. A tribute to Stephen Lebans.
13)   The Lorem Ipsum resizing trick.
14)   Scrollbars and clipboard.
15)   Timeouts, rich text and other possibilities.
16)   A new style Input Box?

The session will include an example database with all the code needed to replicate the new style messages in your own apps



Background:



Neil Sargent is a professional developer with over 25 years experience developing applications using Microsoft Access.

His company Smart IT Ltd specialises in the development of bespoke computer applications for small and medium businesses, primarily using Microsoft Access.
These often include tight integration with Outlook, Word, Excel and 3rd party applications such as Sage Accounts.



Downloads:

Click to download:

    •   a PDF of the presentation:   New Style MsgBox (PDF)     Approx 0.4 MB (PDF)

    •   the example database with all required code: New Style MsgBox (ACCDB)     Approx 1.8 MB (zipped)

NOTE: As always with files downloaded from the internet, first unblock the files to remove the 'mark of the web, then enable content or run from a trusted location.



Video:

The meeting was recorded and the video is now available on the Access Europe YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/PNepytB5z2M or you can click below:

       



Colin Riddington           Mendip Data Systems                 Last Updated 10 Jan 2026

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