basic beginnings

[neilp]

Hi guys.

I appreciate that this is going to sound a very general question, but i thought you guys were the best to ask.

I currently work for a company that is spreadsheet orientated. Yesterday, one of our customers mentioned they wanted various databases sent to them in access. Having seen afew access databases in operation, they always look impressive, though I have no knowledge how they work.

The question then is : what are the best learning resources for someone who has a good grasp of Excel (including VBA) but no knowledge of access?

Cheers for your patience

N

 

[Joe4]

I was in the same situation when I learned Access (knew Excel and VBA).

I started with Microsoft's Access 2000 Step-by-Step (don't buy the "For Dummies" Access intro book, it stunk!). After that, I purchased "Beginning Access 2000 VBA" from Wrox Press to learn Access VBA skills. I recommend books. Also, look for some local courses that might be offered. I took one or two Access VBA 3 day courses that helped too.

Regarding your customer, if they are currently using Access, you can send them the data and they should be able to import it directly into their Access database.

Usually, the main driving force of using Access versus Excel is the nature of your data and your end goal. If you are dealing with a lot of data that has a lot of interdependencies, and you want to perform different queries and such, Access seems like the better choice. However, if you are strictly looking for nicer looking reports, while Access reports are prettier than Excel, they are not as pretty as doing a mail merge from Excel to Word.

These are just a few of the many factors to conider when determining which is better to use. Once you have a better understanding of what Access can do and how it works, it will become more obvious which option is better for your project.

Hope this helps.