AEU Meeting Date 11 Nov 2026 starting at 18:00 UK Time (UTC)	Last Updated 29 Aug 2026

Meeting Details:

This Access Europe meeting will be on Wednesday 11 Nov 2026 starting at 18:00 UK time (6PM UTC) and finishing at about 19:30 (7.30PM)

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

Please note that the UK will have reverted to Winter Time (UTC) for this event. For local times, please check World Time Buddy

NOTE: For this month only, the meeting is being delayed by one week to the second Wednesday of the month. This is to avoid a clash with the UKAUG conference in London on Wed 4 Nov.

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: Outlook Calendar (.ics). Save in Outlook to create a recurring event on the first Wed of each month.

NOTE: You will need to manually edit the date for this month's meeting from 4 Nov to 11 Nov in Outlook.



Topic outline:

In this session, Colin Riddington will do a modified version of his presentation to the UK Access User Group on Wed 4 Nov in London.

Colin will demonstrate several ways of enhancing the appearance of your applications. These may include:

•   Supercharge Your Continuous Forms
     Hide, restore, freeze, move & resize columns. Add multiselect filter. Paint Me Transparent

•   Move and resize borderless forms
     No need for a title bar

•   Personalise your popup forms
     Use an API to style the corner type, border and title bar colours together with an optional translucent title bar in Windows 11

•   Create theme-aware Access forms
     Use code to detect the Office theme & automatically update the appearance of forms and their controls accordingly. Example themes provided. Fully customisable.

•   Use the Expression Service to create new style Fluent UI message boxes
     The MsgBoxT function can replace the VBA MsgBox with 3 message styles and features including optional timeout, support for themes, Unicode and Ease of Access settings

•   Dock Your Forms to the Access Window
     This works with both standard and popup forms and when forms are zoomed

Sample apps will be supplied for each example. Each solution can be easily integrated into your own apps with very little code.



Background:

Colin has been an Access developer for over 30 years with many years teaching in secondary schools. He is the owner of Mendip Data Systems and is based in the U.K.


Colin is a 5x Access MVP having been awarded this status each year from 2022 onwards.

He is the chapter president of the Access Europe user group and has been a presenter at various Access online groups including Access DevCon, Denver Area AUG, UKAUG and the Lunchtime/Easter/Pacific and Espana chapters of AccessUserGroups.org.

He is also part of a team of current and former MVPs contributing as both author and editor to the AccessForever website run by Karl Donaubauer (MVP).

Colin is active on many forums with the username Isladogs.

His Isladogs on Access website includes many Access articles, example apps, sample code and security challenges, together with commercial applications for businesses, schools and developers. He also has his own YouTube channel.

His focus is on extending the boundaries of what can be achieved using Access.



Download:

All files from this presentation will be made available shortly after the session.



Video:

The video of this session will be edited and uploaded to YouTube a few days after the meeting.
This article will be updated with a link to the video when that happens.



Feedback

Please use the E-Mail button in the contact form below to let me know whether you found this presentation useful or if you have any questions/suggestions.

Please also consider making a donation towards the costs of maintaining this website. Thank you

Colin Riddington	Mendip Data Systems	Last Updated 29 Aug 2026

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