Random change to Query Design interface - no longer able to change table alias with Property Sheet

[Michaelb001]

Since yesterday - when all was well in my MS-Access world - a change has come over Access when in the Query Design interface (possibly elsewhere but I haven't looked further).

I don't know if it is a setting I have upset (most likely), or an overnight update to Access that makes things work differently now (most unlikely), but I cannot use the Properties Sheet to change the alias of tables and sub-queries in my query. i.e. the Query Properties are displayed but when selecting a table the properties sheet does not change to reflect the properties of the table.
Additionally the selected table has a yellow highlight border around it that I've never seen before.

Interestingly, selecting a field in the query changes the property sheet to type Field Properties but I just can't get the Table Properties on selecting a table.



I have of course googled this and come up with nothing.
Can any of you suggest how I can get my query design interface back to how it was yesterday? I need to change alias's (and not in SQL view either).


Thanks in advance.
Mick

Access, MS-Office 365
Windows 10 64bit

[ranman256]

You can't see table properties in a query.
you'd need to design the table to see that.

query alias:
bob: [field]

[CJ_London]

if you are displaying the properties sheet, then selecting a table should enable you to see the table alias. Not seen the yellow border before. It's possible your db has become corrupted so suggest try compact/repair and if that does not work, create a new blank db and import all objects. If that still doesn't work, it might be the result of a windows or office update. I'm certainly not aware of any settings that would impact this.

Other thoughts around scope - does this affect just this one query? or all queries? in all databases? Where are the tables? local to access? linked to an access backend? another rdbms?

[Micron]

You can't see table properties in a query.

But you can alter the table or query alias, which is what the post is about. If you select a field or the * first then show the property sheet, does it produce the correct sheet? If not, try a select query as I have no idea if the fact that yours is a Totals query makes any difference.

[Michaelb001]

Thanks for your responses.

First I would like to clarify that I am speaking of the Property Sheet for Field List Properties (not Table Properties as I incorrectly put in my original post).
This is the property sheet where you should be able to change the Alias, but does not appear for me, regardless of what is selected in the query (table, field or query).

The screen grab shown here is from another workstation in my office that shows what I would expect to see (but not what I get on my own workstation - see image above).



Regarding scope - this affects all queries, all databases, regardless of data sources - local, linked, table or query.
Also no difference if the query is a Total query or not.
Even tried .mdb and .accdb to see if that makes a difference.
I’ve never seen the yellow border before.
My first thought was an update to Access but there’s no record I can find of any recent update.
Tried a reinstall of Office 365 but no change.
I just have no idea what has caused this.

[CJ_London]

found this thread - same subject, but not sure it helps. If it is a new feature, something else to try - i.e. add another table

https://www.reddit.com/r/MSAccess/co...access_when_i/

[Michaelb001]

Well that is very very interesting...
Looks like a new feature.
Doesn’t explain the inability to display field list properties, which may be a bug. Hard to imagine something like that slipping through tho.
Won’t be able to test further until I’m in the office tomorrow.

[kd2017]

Office forced it's updates on me the other day too. I too now see that yellow border in relationship views. I haven't noticed the aliasing problem yet. But my DB relationship window is now crazy temperamental and buggy. Point is I don't think it's you, it was the update.... Thanks M$!

But yeah, you can now select multiple tables, which highlights them with that yellow border, and move them around the relationship view as a group.

[EDIT]
Can confirm, I'm having the same issue as you OP, I can't change a table/queries alias in the query designer. You can still change the alias in the SQL though.

[CJ_London]

also found this link

https://support.office.com/en-us/art...rs=en-US&ad=US

which comes from this link

https://support.office.com/en-gb/art...1-98a456cb3496

[Micron]

I turned off Access updates a while ago, which may be why I could still get the field list properties sheet yesterday. I think I will leave it that way for as long as possible.

[Michaelb001]

I don’t know if this is a bad thing I’ve done (cross posting) but I just posted about this in the Microsoft forums hoping to get some exposure of this issue and therefore a fix in a reasonable timeframe.
Thanks for your interest and for confirming it’s not me!
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/cannot-change-table-alias-in-query-design-view/68c28563-2f63-4203-89cb-29a478f5c34d

[Micron]

Cross posting and declaring it is not bad. Posting a link to the other site - perfect! Please do post back here and let us know if the answer you need comes from there. It will help us to help others. Good luck!

[CJ_London]

Did you see the link I provided in post #9? Unable to test but looks like you need to right click on the table, then select from a menu for the property sheet.

[Michaelb001]

Did you see the link I provided in post #9? Unable to test but looks like you need to right click on the table, then select from a menu for the property sheet.

That behaviour is unchanged from previous versions.
Simply toggles the Properties sheet between open and closed.

Thanks.

[Michaelb001]

Happy to report that this is finally fixed as of June 15, 2020