Combining Access Databases into a unified application

[PEGWINN]

Hello,

I am interested in building an Access application as a gift for my employer.
Essentially I am looking at Order Processing, Service Calls, & Product
inventory as the main functions.

The templates included with Acc2003 include databases for each.

I know I could create a new database and essentially import all the template
items. Then I could eliminate duplicates and work on relationship issues. It
would essentially mean a lot of modification without having to design/build
each table, form, report, etc.

Is this the best way? It would be given as a gift in a runtime version.

I am not just trying to be lazy, so if anyone can point to reference
material along with answers/advice I would appreciate that as well. I am a
computer hobbyist and recognize that my "education" is lacking since it is
all self-taught and learn on the fly. So, please, little words and type
really slow.

Thanks,
Phil

 

[Pat Hartman]

Personally, I find modifying an app in a lot of cases to be more trouble
than starting from scratch. But if you have never done any Access
development, the templates are a place to start just be aware that they are
designed for the lowest common denominator. They may not be correctly
normalized and they may use table and column names that contain spaces or
special characters - both of which are frowned on by developers because when
used in VBA you must either surround the non-standard names with square
bracket or replace the non-standard characters with underscores. You will
also notice that event names may be different from what you expect because
they need to be massaged to be acceptable to VBA. An example - Savings
Amount % and Savings Amount $ Will BOTH translate to Savings_Amount__ so
one of them will end up named Savings_Amount__1 <-- notice that the name
ends with two underscores because there are two non-standard characters to
replace.

 

[PEGWINN]

Thanks for the tip. I have built applications from scratch before and am a
semi-literate VB guy. I was looking at the templates and they each work well
by themselves. But, the users are not power users and so unification is a
must.

-Phil