Newbie Here

[FREEBORN]

I just got a new position with my company and it includes allot of working in Access. The current person in this position will be there for only 2 weeks so I need to get up to speed fast. I'm hoping you could point me in the right direction.

At work they are using access 2003 and I have access 2007 on my home machine. I was hoping to download version 2003 (hopefully cheap) to my home machine so I can work at home and have more opportunity to learn. Is this possible?

If you were just learning and you only had 2 weeks with the current employee what steps you would take to document and get up to speed.

Lastly, are there any books or guides you would recommend?

Thanks much!!

 

[Phildaburn]

First of all, congratulations on your new job and welcome to the board.

You didn't say what kind of company you're going to be working for or what the Access applications that are already in place are designed to do. Since you have 2007 at home, I can only assume that you have some familiarity with Access already and may be looking for more in-depth information.

If you spend some time going through this forum, you'll find many links to access tutorials and videos. Whether or not they're applicable to what you need, I can't say. Regarding books - my recommendation is that you take an hour or two either at a local library or a bookstore and browse through the books you find there. In particular, look for a writing style you're comfortable with. You want the information in the book to make sense to you because if it doesn't and you buy it anyway, it will end up collecting dust somewhere.

Regarding the work with the out-going employee - take time to document any step-by-step activities they may be doing if they haven't already documented it. If the out-going employee has used code anywhere in the application, be sure you get to see it - look for comments in the code that document what the code is supposed to be doing.

Make sure you understand the tables and how they're related. Ask leading questions - questions that will get the out-going employee to explain. Avoid asking questions where the answer is yes/no. Don't rely on your memory. Three weeks from now when the out-going emplyee is no longer available as a resource, you're going to want those notes badly.

Rather than downloading an older version at home, would it be possible for your employer to upgrade to 2007?

By the end of the two weeks, while the out-going employee is still there, make sure you're able to complete any Access tasks they're doing on your own.

Those are just a few thoughts about your post. I hope they have helped you in some way.

Phil...

 

[FREEBORN]

Thanks Phil,

I appreciate you getting back to me. I'm a financial analyst and I'll primarily be focused on sales, new customer and commissions analysis. I agree on the upgrade but we will see.

I am documenting everything I can think of and am not going to rely on my memory. I have worked some with access mostly running queiries but I have not written and maintained a database.

I'll search through the site and take advantage of the tutorials.

Thanks again.

 

[xenou]

There's not much difference between Access 2007 and Access 2003, if you exclude the changes in how things look ... which is completely different. The mechanics of how to create and maintain a database (tables, queries, forms, and reports) seems to be mainly the same to me. In Access 2007 you have to get used to the navigation pane (which I still haven't). Also it uses tabbed windows, which I also haven't gotten used to yet. But of course you want to keep the 2003 file format - if you want to keep compatibility with work files.

If you're not familiar with Access and have the good fortune to be able to use Access on a daily basis, I'd strongly recommend a class at a local community college on database theory and design 101, which should also cover the fundamentals of SQL (and might be covered by your company as training, as well as allowing the time off for it). Otherwise, don't read books on Access, but instead read a book on Database Design and a book on SQL. The interesting thing about databases is that you could use one and know nothing about it except how to open a file - that is, if you are a "user" of a well designed database. But if you want to be the creator of database processes or use it for analysis there's quite a lot to learn.

 

[boblarson]

A good online tutorial set is:

Access 2003
http://www.functionx.com/access2003/index.htm

Access 2003 VBA:
http://www.functionx.com/vbaccess2003/index.htm

Access 2007
http://www.functionx.com/access2007/index.htm

Access 2007 VBA
http://www.functionx.com/vbaccess/index.htm

Access 2010
http://www.functionx.com/access/index.htm

 

[FREEBORN]

Xenou,

I think my responsibilities are between a user and a developer. I'll be expected to maintain the integrity of the current databases and reports as well as develop new and better reporting. From what I can tell the databases, quieries are pretty ruff so i am hoping to improve them. In some cases you need to run as many as 20+ simple queiries to get a report. I don't think its necessary and would like improve on it.

I'll also look for a book on database theory and SQL.

This site is great and I'll be reading through the forum as well as posting questions.

boblarson, Thanks for the links, I very much appreciate it.