so the guy in the Computer Shop says "why do you want to use Access? MS will be discontinuing it soon"

[ButtonMoon]

Access would be a very strange and counter-productive choice for an appointment management application IMO. It has no browser-based, cloud or mobile device based option and there are plenty of free or cheap appointment management alternatives available. Microsoft isn't discontinuing Access AFAIK but most other people already have done. Microsoft have intentionally neglected Access to the point where it is at least 20 years behind the rest of the industry.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Even stranger to use Access for appointment management when Outlook will do that for you decently.

 

[amorosik]

Even stranger to use Access for appointment management when Outlook will do that for you decently.

Each task can be performed in many ways, adapting to the available tools, and currently there are countless tools to perform practically any task
But if you want to perform a certain activity in a certain well-defined way, the only possibility is to create something from scratch
In this sense, even a simple personal data register can find its reason for being created from scratch

 

[DickyP]

Even stranger to use Access for appointment management when Outlook will do that for you decently.

By extension you'd never use Access for anything that's available commercially. In general this is good advice, but...!

I wrote my Accounts package because none of those available did exactly what I wanted. Same for my Address Book DB. Luckily I have time available to me to do this as a pastime.

 

[GPGeorge]

I get the point of doing things for the sake of gaining practice or experience. I don't get the point of recreating an existing commercial application such as Outlook or Quicken. I've spent countless hours on hobby projects for the sake of learning new techniques, keeping skills up to date, and just trying to see if I could make something work. I couldn't resell those products for anywhere near the investment made in them when a commercial product does the same things, better and cheaper.

 

[DickyP]

I get the point of doing things for the sake of gaining practice or experience. I don't get the point of recreating an existing commercial application such as Outlook or Quicken. I've spent countless hours on hobby projects for the sake of learning new techniques, keeping skills up to date, and just trying to see if I could make something work. I couldn't resell those products for anywhere near the investment made in them when a commercial product does the same things, better and cheaper.

The whole point I was making is that Quicken and Sage etc just don't do the things I want the way I want them to. My Address book is just that- no contact management etc and actually took only 2 days to build. If I was in business I wouldn't be using them -for instance I would be using Sage for my company accounts because it handles interaction with HMRC, which mine doesn't and couldn't without changing and getting it approved by them - mega bucks!

And building them was fun!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

And building them was fun!

Despite being a proponent of carefully considering extant utilities in a make/buy decision, I agree that your "fun" reason is perfectly valid.