The work area does not appear
Workspace on the ribbon tab WKL SDK shows no work area, or a message says “The work area needs a task pane, and this Access did not hand the add-in one” or “The work area could not be shown: …”.
Environment
WKL Office SDK 0.1.0 and later, Access add-in installed with wkl-office addin install.
Cause
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| No ribbon tab WKL SDK at all | The add-in is not loaded: see The ribbon tab WKL SDK is missing. |
| “… did not hand the add-in one” | Access gives an add-in its task panes through the task pane factory of Office when it loads the add-in. Without it there is no work area; the ribbon commands still work and report in a window of their own. |
| “The work area could not be shown: …” | The content of the work area (the class WklSdk.Workspace, registered with the add-in) could not be created, for example after the add-in files were moved or removed without wkl-office addin remove. |
| The work area was there and is gone | It was closed with its × button, or dragged to a side and made very narrow; the add-in keeps the last state per Windows user and restores it at the next start of Access. |
| No work area in one database, although it was open in the project | It opens by itself only with the ACCDB of an SDK project (a project file beside it or up to three folders above) or with no database open. In a finished application such as Bootstrapper Manager, a foreign ACCDB or an ACCDE it stays hidden; it comes back with the next project. |
| No work area while no database is open | The Backstage view of Access covers every task pane; the work area shows again with the next database. |
Resolution
- Click Workspace (Alt, W K, W): it shows the work area, or hides it when it is shown.
- For “… did not hand the add-in one”: restart Access; the factory is handed over when the add-in loads.
- For “could not be shown”: run
wkl-office addin installagain from the SDK folder that stays in place, then restart Access. - To start again from the default arrangement (docked at the bottom, 280 pixels high), close Access and delete the registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\The White Knight Labs\Access Framework\Sdk\Workspace; the add-in creates it again.
Related topics
en/wiki/msaccess/sdk/troubleshooting/the-work-area-does-not-appear.txt · Last modified: by Wolfgang van der Stille