Where to START! - MS Access. How is this usefull?

[pedie]

Hi,

I have never ever used MS Access. I just opened the access file then i have no idea what it does, where to go.., how to....is this like excel?Word?

I'll be glad if someone can tell me in simple language what it does and is used for???

Thanks for advice.
Pedie

 

[MrKowz]

Access is more of a data-warehouse. A place to store massive amounts of data in different spreadsheets so that you can use queries (SQL) to link together data, build forms, tables, and do basic analysis.

Yes, you can do this in Excel, but Access is much more memory effecient than Excel when it comes to querying data. Also, the limitations of Access as far as how much it can hold is FAR beyond that of Excel. To give an example, Excel 2003 can have only 65536 rows... I just used an Access 2003 file that had ~600,000 rows. And when I ran a query based off of 5 conditions, it took seconds to get the ~100,000 points of data returned to me rather than the minutes it would take for Excel to do the same thing through VBA.

I used to hold the same thought as you, why use Access when you can use Excel, but it truly does hold a special place when it comes to storing and retreiving LARGE amounts of data.

 

[pedie]

MrKowz, thanks for quick answer.
When i open access there are so many things there...I didnt know where to click so i just clicked on Database1 for now and pasted around 500 rows 6 cols data just to start....
Where is VBA in Access so that I can see if there is anything i can start with? and i have no idea what is "use queries (SQL)"

Thanks again...!

Can you please give me small example on how i go about making use of this data in database1?
Is database1 like sheet1 in excel?

 

[meldoc]

Hi Pedie

See the link, this is the only help that I can give on this topic, I have no use for Access.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnAccessByCrystal

 

[boblarson]

I would HIGHLY suggest you work through these tutorials before going any further.

Depending on the version you have:

Access 2003

Access 2007

Access 2010

 

[pedie]

Thanks alot again everyone!
Brian, i'll sure do watch the video once i'm home....lol!
I think this is a very good start!

 

[pedie]

Bob, that was very usefull...But it will take sometime for me to learn all this myself...but i will be here of and on...to ask this and that.

I inserted a form to search my critiria and a button.... it seems to be easy with lots of navigation and instructions etc....

Thanks again
Pedie