Not for the feint-hearted! (MS Office Access 2003)

Member Name: DarkestGrey

Product:	MS Office Access 2003
Date:	04/03/09 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Powerful, reliable, fairly quick.

Disadvantages: Poor error messages, expensive unless bought as Office Pro.

Microsoft Access is a database program which is extremely powerful.

Unfortunately, because it is so powerful, it is notoriously difficult to use to its full potential.

The first thing to note is that there are a number of sections where you can store different items:

1) Tables: These contain your data
2) Queries: These can perform filters on the above data
3) Forms: Display and edit your data on the screen on a nice looking page
4) Reports: Display your data in a pleasant way, mainly for printing
5) Macros: Perform a set of commands (simple programming)
6) Modules: Visual Basic programming language (complicated programming)

Now, you don't need to know how to use all of the above to get a database working.

Some parts of the program are very simple to use, such as designing tables. You can choose field names for your information and the data type. So, you might have "Email" as a text field and "Age" as a number for example. This will stop someone from entering "ABC" into an age field in your database.

Queries can be simple or complicated. These are one of the worst designed parts of the program. When they work, they are amazingly powerful. If there is an error in there, the error messages you get often don't really help at all, they don't tell you which field it even applies to.

Forms are easier to design and really help with data entry. Rather than having your database table set out like a spreadsheet, these allow you to move the fields where you want.

Both Macros and Modules are easy to use if you can already program a computer. Macros are fairly simple even for non-programmers.

One of the fundemental parts of the program is manipulating your data: getting the records you want. For this, you would obviously need to use a query, but as stated above the error messages given are most unhelpful. On occassion, I have deleted an entire query after a few hours work and started again. Although I have been sure it was the same, sometimes starting again can be quicker than fixing a problem.

It is a shame as it can let the whole program become frustrating. On the other hand, I have written a few programs in Access that can control a whole aspect of a business and in a couple of cases, the whole business. When I worked in an education department, the software was written in Access. This shows the sheer power of the software.

For simple databases, this may be a little too steep a learning curve for many. If you are willing to put the time in to get exactly what you want from your data, it is a powerful piece of software. The speed it can execute queries sometimes amazes me.

Relational databases are simple to set up: where two tables are linked to each other through a common field.

There are many things that are simply not possible in Access as standard. Fortunately, they have included the programming language. This makes almost anything possible, but you may need a bit of technical knowhow. I have been trying to get it to make cups of tea for me, but so far I have been unsuccessful on getting that to work. It can't do the ironing either, but other than these flaws, it has been able to do everything I have asked of it.

The software is very reliable and I have had it running for 8 weeks (24 hours a day) without any problems. Sometimes the computers need restarting, but this has always been the fault of other software.

There are a few problems however. The software is expensive to buy on its own and is often best purchased as Microsoft Office Professional. Many people get the standard Microsoft Office and you may need to know whether you would need Access before you order a computer. It would be nice if Microsoft could offer an upgrade for those who have the standard Office suite already. Error messages can be most unhelpful, sometimes only telling you that there was an error. The in-built help system is useless and the Microsoft Access section on the Microsoft website is overly technical and complicated. Good job other people have better websites to help you with issues with Access.

Sometimes it tries to assume what you want to do and will fill or autocomplete bits you are typing in. Unfortunately, I would prefer the software to do what I ask it to do rather than do what it thinks I want it to do.

All-in-all, I wouldn't like to have a computer without Access. The power and frustration that it can cause can save hours of work, when you eventually get it all work correctly. For simple, one-table databases, I would recommend you look elsewhere, otherwise, this is worth considering just for the power.

Summary: Recommended for those who need power over their databases.

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