Studying Access

[SageOne]

Hi,

I am a new user to Access 2003 and a recent grad from Penn State University.
My degree is from the PSU Smeal College of Business in Economics and
statistics. About 8 months ago I started to study and use access 2003 and
have been jumping head first ever since. I have read "Microsoft step by step
Access 2003" and " Microsoft Access 2003 Inside and Out ". I am currently
living in Pittsburgh, Pa working as a Business analyst for a healthcare
company. So far, I have built two access databases with user friendly data
entry and reporting functions. I am looking for some direction in my self
study program. What book should I read after " Microsoft Access 2003 Inside
and Out ". Should I try to certify for Microsoft Office User Specialist?
Some of the consultants in my company say to learn SQL language next but I
don't know what book I should get. I see a lot of people referencing Stephan
Lebans in the posts but that looks like he uses Visual Basic Code. Any
educational or occupational advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[John W. Vinson]

Hi,

I am a new user to Access 2003 and a recent grad from Penn State University.
My degree is from the PSU Smeal College of Business in Economics and
statistics. About 8 months ago I started to study and use access 2003 and
have been jumping head first ever since. I have read "Microsoft step by step
Access 2003" and " Microsoft Access 2003 Inside and Out ". I am currently
living in Pittsburgh, Pa working as a Business analyst for a healthcare
company. So far, I have built two access databases with user friendly data
entry and reporting functions. I am looking for some direction in my self
study program. What book should I read after " Microsoft Access 2003 Inside
and Out ". Should I try to certify for Microsoft Office User Specialist?
Some of the consultants in my company say to learn SQL language next but I
don't know what book I should get. I see a lot of people referencing Stephan
Lebans in the posts but that looks like he uses Visual Basic Code. Any
educational or occupational advice would be greatly appreciated.

Lots of references available:

Jeff Conrad's resources page:
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie/resources.html

The Access Web resources page:
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html

A free tutorial written by Crystal (MS Access MVP):
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html

MVP Allen Browne's tutorials:
http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials

The Access <version> Developers Handbook by Getz, Litwin et al is probably the
#1 reference book for serious Access developers.

Both SQL and VBA are essential skills; SQL is the basis of all queries (the
query grid is just a tool to create SQL), and understanding how it works will
let you create better queries and understand how they work. VBA is used for
making forms and reports stand up and do tricks, and to customize applications
to be more user-friendly.