For Access Beginners
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What is an Access Beginner?

It's hard to define what a beginner is. Here's my slant.

Are you the type who asks "What is a database?" questions

More specifically, you might be from a perspective where you often say:

  • Why can't I insert a row in the middle of a table?
  • Why can't I select a value and "Copy Down" like I do in Excel?
  • I want to be able to "copy" stuff from various rows and put them in this field and that field and I want the whole thing be consistent yet, on the other hand, maybe I want the flexibility of changing the stuff just a bit of it, here and there.
  • I don't want to program, but I do want auto-numbering of rows, but I do want to control it so that I can have ABC-123 as the full number. I also want the system to never leave a gap in the numbering sequence if I delete a row and yes, there will be several of us keying in at the same time.

If you are asking questions like that, these are not questions specific to Access. They may not be questions specific to relational database managers. They are in my opinion, fundamental "I don't like this straightjacket occupation called filing" questions. They deserve an answer because they are fundamental. But it's more a "lifestyle" that you have to commit to first.

Are you the type who say knows the answers to the questions above and have used Excel for filing (or some other lite database)

In other words, you live and breathe filing. Your data is under control (sort of) and you have visions on improving your life by making less daily work. Then you are would want to.

  • Understand the politics and administrative aspects of designing and managing a database
  • Understand the primary purpose of Access Components and how you need to make them work together.
  • Learn about Normalisation (or is it spelled Normalization?). Also see Steven Roman book Excerpt
  • Remember the terms and jargon. If you do, then you can exploit online help. Searching in Help with the wrong keywords gives poor rewards
  • Have lots of patience. Don't put too tight a time limit on getting results. You will need to be able to read and understand online help.
  • See Microsoft Access Getting Started
  • Take apart, Northwind.MDB, Solutions.MDB. Look out for the sample queries, sample forms, sample reports and Neatcode databases available from the Microsoft website.