General Question

[AndyEd08]

What is the background for all you access "guru's". I really enjoy playing around with it but want to get more serious with it...where would I start...the OU is quoting a computing degree, text books quote the MCAS???

I would also like to go the whole hog and get my teeth into VBA properly.

 

[georgedwilkinson]

College gave me enough information to start learning after I got out of school.

I spent thousands on training (especially from Oracle). After that training, I still didn't know enough to do anything real. I spent pretty much every waking moment reading technical books and trying to apply what I learned to get to the next level (not sure if I ever made it).

I'd say that unless you're really gonna buckle down, IT doesn't make sense. We already have too many hacks in the field who can't accomplish simple tasks. So, determine to become a good one if you do it at all.

 

[oumahexi]

I spent pretty much every waking moment reading technical books and trying to apply what I learned to get to the next level (not sure if I ever made it).

OH, you SO have!!!

 

[AxGryndr]

I started with VB (Visual Basic) because you can do more advance things with Access if you know that. It not as bad as some people make it out to be. Yes there is a difference between VB and VBA but with a general idea of programming it will come easy enough.

 

[boblarson]

I started off with taking 48 hours of On-Hours Access training for Boeing. It went up through the use of Macros. I worked for 3 years before stepping into the VBA world and I did by starting with buying Visual Basic 6 Learning Edition and bought a bunch of books and just worked through all of that.

I then also just hung out here at Access World Forums and picked up on a lot, I subscribed to all of the various questions that people were asking so I could see what the answers were. Then I played with it at home.

I've pretty much picked it up as I needed it and then finally I had enough knowledge (after 11 years) to get a job as a full-time Access developer. (still have lots of holes that keep getting filled as needed).

But reference books and the forum have been the majority of my training.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

My background was with other database systems, but I picked up a copy of Access when I had a special project for home use. It was actually pretty easy to do what I wanted. I was so impressed that I decided to put Access through its paces for funsies.

Then work beckoned and my boss asked me if I knew anything about Access. Not being one to turn down a chance to prove my value to the boss, I agreed to help. It sort of snowballed. I'm still not considered a "DBA" by the rest of the technical guys, but I understand enough to ask the right questions at the most embarrassing moments.

This forum was a source for much of my information - as an impetus to learn by watching the problems others had and treating them as intellectual challenges. Must have worked, since I was nominated as an MS MVP for Access. I'm still a hacker. I just hack at higher levels these days.

 

[Len Boorman]

I was a slow started. At the age of 50 I had the opportunity totake a Masters course in Computing. Basically I am a time served engineer thathad got into using a computer and systems as part of my engineering job. Had no qualifications in computing.

Degree exposed me to databases and Access. The veil lifted from the eyes. Basically then started applying Access to everything. Some mistakes but learnt a lot. Found this forum... Learnt huge amounts. Did teh OU course on Databases. Re inforced the background of databases. Normalisation, Normalisation , Normalisation. I hear people say "What". If you do not understand Normalisation you are basically dead in the water. If not now then certainly later without a doubt.
Then experience. No substitute for this. You then learn when Not to apply Access but you also see wonderful, exciting opportunities for its use.

If you intend to really get stuck in then get all the training you can. Access is a brilliant grounding if you want to go further. It is however somewhatderided by those that do not really know what they are talking about. It is the best RAD tool about by far. I would always say, Develop in Access then migtate upwards SQL maybe Oracle if required. Oracle is overpriced and over rated in my opinion, It has its use. Huge numbers of concurrent users or really huge amounts of data. Apart from that it is an expensive hammer to crack a peanut. Some may disagree but we all have opinions.

Because Access comes with Office there are a vast number number of people who think they are database developers. They do not have a clue and make fundamental mistakes. Search the forum on Normalisation and you will see just how many times teh gurus on this forum point out that Normalisation or lack of it is the basic problem.

So there are a few words, Quite a lot actually.

My advice. Spend the money on OU to get good grounding on techniques and the real underlying knowledge that is essential to understand ALL databases, Oracle, SQL etc. They are all basically the same.

Exploit every opportunity you get to use and develop databases cos that is where you will learn.
Len

 

[NigelShaw]

hi

My background ( not that I think I'm a guru or anything ) is not programming. I'm actually a shopfitter designer working in 3D visual and cosmetic retail design and build!

I started about 5yrs ago with excel building basic formulas to suit my needs. This progressed in nested formulas. During this, I was using autocad and got in macros using diesel. I made some pretty good tools too

I moved company as a GM and introduced an Excel based quote system. Only problem was, no-one could use excel so quickly had work a solution. That's when I got a vba book. Made complete vba controlled excel book and that's when I guess I got the bug.

I first used access about 1 yr ago. Got some books, used my old excel knowledge and went from there. This forum has really been my hub for information and learning. By reading other posts, I got to understand the logic and became able to advise as well as ask!

That's about it. Thanks for reading.


Nigel

 

[Rabbie]

Hi

I started many years ago as a computer operator and then moved into programming. I got into access almost by accident when my wife set up her own practice and we needed to computerise her billing system. After an unsuccessful attempt to do something in Excel I bought a copy of Access 97 and went on from there. Because of my programming background I found it easy to use VBA and I have never used macros.

I bought some books and quickly got into RDB design and normalisation.