When you are starting off writing an Access database the temptation is to launch straight into it. My advice is to start off with a large white piece of flip chart paper and map out all your data tables with their fields and relationships on it. This will really help you to focus on the data which is most important and where fields should be stored.

A lot of people approach using Access like they do with Excel, “I’ll jump straight in and pick it all up as I go along I’m sure?”. They load up the package like they would do Excel and think that they will be able to start using it straight away. However that is not necessarily how Access works, you have to create data tables with fields and relationships before you can utilise Access to create Queries or Reports.

Top five tips for creating a database

• Map out your data tables on paper first (this can help you visualise what you want to achieve)
• Don’t duplicate data fields other than the primary keys where necessary
• Test out using data table entry first before creating forms
• Introduce some simple queries to test out the relationships
• Always involve your customers from the start – never develop in isolation

For Computer Services Worcester, including Access training courses as well as Microsoft Excel Training in Birmingham, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire get in touch on 07903 840105 or email us on johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk.

We have a number of hints and tips on our website. A lot of them are within the Excel package as that is the topic that people most find useful, however we do have some in Access too! To take a look at some of these hints and tips, click here to browse through the ones we have created.

If you liked this hint and tip, why not take a look at our previous one on the different faces of the SUM function?

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MS Access has been around for a long time now though not as well spread as Excel is in the commercial world. It may be that it is not well understood but since its part of MS office professional and many of you will have it installed it may be worth a few minutes consideration as to how it may be used.

Excel tends to be a package that people can ‘muddle’ through and pick bits of knowledge up along the way, however Access is a bit more involved and it is very hard to ‘muddle’ through with not much knowledge. Therefore it is often more important to go on a course to learn about Access and how to use it.

Key pointers for using Access

• If you have differing sets of data tables you wish to link and extract information from then Access is probably a good tool for you
• Examples of its use we’ve come across are personnel system, ordering systems, control of food production, insurance claims, course control
• The key to success is a good relationship model between all the data tables
• It’s better than Excel in our opinion for Reporting from the data sets
• Excel is better than Access though at calculations and charting
• However you can import and export to and from Excel to Access
• Some of the terms are similar to Excel e.g. criteria in Access are similar to filter in Excel
• You can start off with just a couple of tables and build up from there
• Once you have created a database, Access has what can be described similar to an ‘auto-save’ and you do not have to keep saving it before you close it down.

We run courses for Access and from experience with our 2 day course you are up and running with all the basic tools for tables, query, forms and report creation.

See our website for more details.

If you liked this post, why not take a look at our previous post on top tips in Microsoft Office?

The post MS Access – where do you start off when you want to use Access? appeared first on JPL IT Training Ltd.

During our training courses over the years we’ve been asked several times when to use Access instead of Excel. The “isn’t it best to just use Excel for everything?” question can often be one on a number of peoples minds. Excel is a great package for use in a number of areas of businesses and with your day to day work (and it is often the most used package in a lot of companies) however sometimes Access can be the package that will stand up to the mark when the time comes compared to Excel.

As we all know Excel is great for calculations, charting and data analysing. It’s not so good at data validation or linking together different sets of data for report purposes. Here is where Access steps in!

Using Access Databases

Access databases consist ideally of a number of tables which contain primary keys which are then linked together in the form of Relationships. Once the relationships are constructed its possible to build forms, queries and reports across the tables in the Database. Queries are the prime way of extracting data across many tables in a sorted and filtered way. Reports are really smart looking and make queries look more presentable and easier to read and present to others.

If you wish to explore the power of Access databases then perhaps consider our two day course which covers the key functions of tables, relationships, queries, forms and reports. For more information you can see on our website, or please do not hesitate to contact us on our contact page with your query. If neither of those suit you, then feel free to just send us an email with your query to johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk.

You’ll be a database designer in no time at all!

If you liked this post, why not take a look at our previous one on tips in Outlook?

The post Access Database Management – When to use Access or Excel? appeared first on JPL IT Training Ltd.