Introduction to Access

[Will from London]

Hi,

I'm reasonably proficient with Excel (inc VBA) but I've not really used Access. I'm going on a one day course described as Intermediate Access in a couple of weeks. (A basic course in my Office will not take place until there is sufficient demand so probably not for quite a few months.)

What would people recommend as the quickest way to get a basic grasp so I won't be totally lost. Unfortunately I won't have much time at work prior to the course as we're quite busy and I don't have it at home. I appreciate that just trying things out is the best way, but trying what?

I found a similar thread regarding Excel and there were some good posts on it (some transferrable), but I couldn't find one for Access.

For info a similar 'Intermediate Excel' course covered things like V(&H)LOOKUP, conditional formatting and basic Macros.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated,

Will

 

[bmacr]

A couple of things that come to mind:

1) Read up on data normalization and try to get a grasp on how relational databases work.

2) Have a look at the Northwind.mdb sample database that comes with Access. Look at tables in design view to see how they're made, and have a close look at queries. Try to find one with a calculated field and view it in design view, as well as SQL view to see how that works. Many of the "Excel-type" calculations happen in queries in Access.

 

[Andrew Fergus]

Hi Will
this webpage might help.
Andrew.

 

[Will from London]

Thanks for the suggestions,

Will

 

[mdmilner]

My first real learning opportunity was a book called 'Learn Access in 24 hours' - think it was supposedly 24 1 hour reading 'lessons' but it ran down all the basics you can do interactively.

But, truthfully, I never really learned things until I actually used it.

Mike