This forum got me in trouble...

[Villarreal68]

Hello all active members of this forum,

Like I stated on the title, this forum got me into trouble. By following the reading in this forum and some recommendations from the regular users I have created thre database for the place I work at. now they want me to be the official DB admin!

So now I'm coming back to you guys for more advice... what reading should I do to better my Access knowledge over all.

Any recommendation is welcome.

I have already contacted th local college and they do have a distant learning class for Access and I will be taking it the next semester, but I would like to do some reading into becoming a REAL Access programmer with a solid foundation.

There must be some good books out there to purchase to get me started. So all are welcome to give me some feedback.

Thanks!

René

 

[Villarreal68]

I don't know why this double posted! I guess it's not ONLY an Access issue!

 

[boblarson]

This

http://www.amazon.com/Special-Using-Microsoft-Access-2000/dp/0789716062

has been my main reference manual for a long time. It's not necessarily the greatest "read" but it has been extremely helpful to me.

This forum has also been one of my major sources of learning. I pretty much have learned what I need as I needed it.

 

[Villarreal68]

Mr. Larson,

Thank you for your feedback. I'll use the link and this forum wisely!

Thank you!

René

 

[boblarson]

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I bought a few Visual Basic 6 books to learn to code (there are some slight differences in VB at times versus VBA in Access, but they are just usually slight and some tweaking done). I actually bought the Learning Edition of VB6 to learn VB and the tutorial disc in there seemed to help, but I would recommend just finding some good tutorials on the web as there is a lot of free resources out there.

 

[pbaldy]

I haven't read the book Bob recommended, but the book I like best is:

http://www.amazon.com/Access-2000-D...8490534?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178039087&sr=1-4

But as he mentioned, forums like this can teach more than any book.

 

[Villarreal68]

Question for you Mr. Larson...

They have the Access 2003 version out. Should I go for thatone instead or do youthink the Access 200 version should do since both versions seem to be very similar??

Just wondering...

Thanks again!

This

http://www.amazon.com/Special-Using-Microsoft-Access-2000/dp/0789716062

has been my main reference manual for a long time. It's not necessarily the greatest "read" but it has been extremely helpful to me.

This forum has also been one of my major sources of learning. I pretty much have learned what I need as I needed it.

 

[boblarson]

For 2000-2003 it probably doesn't matter which one as the stuff is all pretty similar. If you currently use 2003, then I'd go for the 2003 version.

 

[Villarreal68]

Thanks for your response.

Hi Pbaldy,

Thanks for responding. I'll take a look at that book also. Why do you like this book? just wondering...

thanks!

René

I haven't read the book Bob recommended, but the book I like best is:

http://www.amazon.com/Access-2000-D...8490534?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178039087&sr=1-4

But as he mentioned, forums like this can teach more than any book.

 

[Villarreal68]

Thanks!

Thank you! I'll go for the 2003 then! I saw that the guy is working on the 2007 version already so I may have to upgrade soon!

René

For 2000-2003 it probably doesn't matter which one as the stuff is all pretty similar. If you currently use 2003, then I'd go for the 2003 version.

 

[Villarreal68]

Same question for you Pbaldy...

There is a 2002 version...which should I get. I ask this question because sometimes the sequal is not as good as the original. So I rather ask than finding out later that I should hvae gone with the other one!

Thanks for your feedback!

René

Hi Pbaldy,

Thanks for responding. I'll take a look at that book also. Why do you like this book? just wondering...

thanks!

René

 

[pbaldy]

Same question, same answer. There's probably no significant differences, but you might as well get the version equal to the Access version you use.

 

[pbaldy]

Oops, I missed the earlier question. I like it because it's very thorough, and has real world solutions to real world problems. I will say that it's more of a reference guide than a step-by-step learning type book.

 

[Villarreal68]

Thank you!

Thanks for your reply! I will purchase the 2002 version and have a read.

Thank you both (Bob and Pbaldy) for your responses.

René

Oops, I missed the earlier question. I like it because it's very thorough, and has real world solutions to real world problems. I will say that it's more of a reference guide than a step-by-step learning type book.

 

[boblarson]

I forgot to mention that one of the ways I learned a lot on this forum was to subscribe to threads I saw that were asking questions that I wanted to know what the answer was. I didn't have to post to the forum to do so, you can go to Thread Tools and select Subscribe to Thread.

 

[Len Boorman]

Good luck with the new job.

Advice so far is very good. My suggestion would be to learn the principles of Relational Databases's.

That is design. Conceptual design, logical design. Entity relationship, Normalisation

These are the bits you need before youdo anything. All applies to Oracle,SQL Server, Access

These items are where most people fall over. They are the building blocks to good design and therefore good applications.

You will see in many posts that the words "Your data is not normalised" appear with alarming frequency

Good luck

L

 

[boblarson]

Good luck with the new job.

Advice so far is very good. My suggestion would be to learn the principles of Relational Databases's.

That is design. Conceptual design, logical design. Entity relationship, Normalisation

Good point Len!

 

[tehNellie]

Again I'll throw my recommendation for O'reilly's "Access Database Design and Programming". usual Caveat that it won't teach you much about doing forms and reports, it will however give you a solid grounding in the fundamentals of Database design, SQL/Writing queries and some good information regarding VBA programming.

When you've had a bit more a chance to cut your teeth with VBA "VB/VBA in a nutshell" also by O'Reilly is an excellent reference guide. Emphasis on reference, it's a rubbish tutorial book.

And again, I really like this forum for widening my view of what people are trying to do with Access. I have a very narrow view of what I want Access to do for me which is crunch a lot of analysis between text fields rather than run "traditional databases" and this forum has helped me no end over the past couple of weeks broadening my outlook on the sort of things that Access is perfectly capable of doing (and most of the people are nice too ).

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I'm with Len on many points.

First, GOOGLE-search "Normalization" and limit your reading to the .EDU sites for colleges and universities you recognize. For Access, MOST of the time if you can get to 3rd normal form, you are good. There are clear definitions for 4th, 5th, and specially-named normalizations, but depending on just what you are doing, they might not even apply.

Second, find some books on DESIGNING computer applications. I'm going out on a limb here, but it is probably a good idea to NOT limit yourself to just Access design. ORACLE has some books out there on design, too. Not that you will use ORACLE to implement anything, but they might give you valuable insight to the design process.

Third, search this forum for many posts on how to approach the problem of database design. I know I have posted at least a dozen different times on this one subject. Many others have done stellar jobs as well.

Fourth, don't be afraid to ask us questions, but first search the forum for the topic. As long as this forum has been in place, the odds are that we have touched on your question more than once.

Fifth, other forums exist with good membership and good history. We like to think we are good, but hey, we have no exclusivity on that goodness.

Sixth, if you find any really good Access books in your search, please tell us about them. So far, none of us have reported anything really great.

Seventh, and in its own way, extremely important: Don't expect your databases to work worth a tinker's dam unless you fully understand the problem you are trying to solve. Access, being a Microsoft product, is about as dumb as a box of rocks. The brainpower will be yours, and there is NO substitute for knowing your problem before you start.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

As a side note, I wish it weren't this way, but I've seen it a thousand times. Once you show the ability to do something, it is yours. Like in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, this will become the albatross around your neck. The moment people know you can do X, for all eternity you will be saddled with X.

Now, if being saddled with X means more money, that's great. As long as the guys in the saddle don't sharpen their spurs....