As mentioned in the article, Current Feature Work: Monaco Editor + Modern Chart Improvements (accessforever.org), two significant new Access features are being released this Autumn.
See the separate article on Modern Chart Improvements for details of that feature.
This article describes the Monaco SQL Editor feature which is being rolled out to current channel users with version 2410 build 18129.20116 which was released on 28 October.
Official Microsoft documentation for this feature should be available soon.
Monaco is the code editor from Visual Studio Code which has been adapted for Access. It has standard IDE functionality such as syntax highlighting, IntelliSense and autocomplete.
The most obvious change is the use of color for different sections of the query SQL.
For example:
Keywords (SELECT, FROM, WHERE etc) in BLUE
Operators (INNER/LEFT/RIGHT JOIN, LIKE, NOT etc) in PURPLE
Functions e.g. Replace / IIf in MAGENTA
String values in RED
Number / date values in GREEN
Nested brackets (various colors)
There is also limited support for comments (in GREEN) at the start of the query. Comments are stored separately in a new system table MSysSQLComments.
The font size may be increased using Ctrl + or decreased using Ctrl –.
The feature can be toggled on/off using the Enable Monaco SQL Editor checkbox in Access Options | Current Database.
The background color, and some foreground colors, change according to the Office theme in use e.g. black.
Using the right click context menu or clicking F1 gives access to the command palette with many additional options. The most recently used options are listed at the top.
The command palette provides access to IntelliSense listing available table, field, form control and function names.
It also allows users to find/highlight all occurrences of a string, identify the colors used by the editor etc.
NOTE:
The feature is only available in Access 365. Users running the same queries in all other versions of Access will continue to see the existing monochrome SQL editor.
Known Issues:
a) It is slow to load, taking about 3 seconds on my machine. The feature depends on JavaScript code from the Edge browser which will hopefully be further optimized in the coming months.
b) Changing to SQL view requires the query to be saved.
c) Changes in font size do not persist e.g. if the query window size is altered or changing views.
b) Comments are only partly implemented. For example, it is not currently possible to comment out sections of a query (e.g. WHERE) clause for testing outcomes.
f) Drag and drop a table or query into the Monaco window creates a list of fields. Repeating this either adds a second list on line 2 or it may output the table/query values.
g) Not all special characters are currently supported in the Monaco editor.
For further details about the Monaco SQL editor, see Colin Riddington’s article: NEW: Monaco SQL Editor (isladogs.co.uk)