From Excel to Access

[JazzSP8]

Hi All

I was wondering if anyone could recommend any books that maybe good for learning Access when your semi-competent with Excel?

I know a *little* about Access so I was thinking about the Access Bible (I have the Excel one and found it very useful).

Has anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

 

[gingerafro]

Depends on what you want to do with Access.

If you want to learn about creating forms and reports then most books I have seen are OK.

I needed to learn about access so I could start working with bigger data sets. I bought the Microsoft book which seemed useful but had little info when I wanted to start generating complex SQL / queries.

If you are also working with the latter, I would start with what you know, and when you get stuck, ask questions here or on accessmonster.com

 

[NateO]

The following book may be of interest to you:

http://www.mrexcel.com/board2/viewtopic.php?p=1255130#1255130

One member here seemed to like it, a lot.

 

[JazzSP8]

Thanks for the input chaps, appreciated...

Trouble is I am not sure what I need to know at the moment, I've been put forward for a job and told that it will involve Excel, Access and the use of VBA.

Excel and VBA I am fairly confident that I can at least learn what I don't know already. I understand databases to a point and how to extract information and construct a fairly simple one but I've never really used it in a business enviroment apart from when someone else had created it and even that hasn't been a lot.

The book NateO suggests sounds like something I might find handy, for the same reasons I like the Excel Bible. One for the shopping list I think. I think thats the kind of thing I need.

Does anyone have the Access Bible? Is it as good as the Excel Bible?

Any and all input appreciated

 

[Andrew Fergus]

Hi

Access VBA is almost the same as Excel VBA. The principal difference is with Excel you can reference workbooks, worksheets and cells. But in Access you use either ADO, DAO or SQL statements, if at all, to access and manipulate data. I say "if at all" because you can often construct queries in Access to achieve the same outcome without using VBA. Another important point is to understand database normalisation - search the Access forum for database normalisation or normalization to get some introductory information and links etc. But as you have found with Excel, if you know where to look for help then that is half the problem solved. There are a number of knowledgable people contributing to the Access forum so feel free to ask any questions there!

Andrew

 

[SydneyGeek]

Ditto to all the above. Also, if you're planning on working with Excel and Access together, get your hands on http://www.amazon.com/Integrating-Excel-Access-Michael-Schmalz/dp/0596009739
Another book that's full of useful data crunching tips is http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Access-Data-Analysis-Unleashing/dp/076459978X

Denis

 

[JazzSP8]

Andrew, Denis - Thanks for the replies - Sage advice indeed - Thank you.

I've run through a couple of threads on the Access board already and am just about to start having a play around with it at home. I'm going to catalogue my DVD collection just to get used to it, gives me something "real" to do...

Don't worry - Shall be asking questions at some point