Access is a good choice for desktop or small-to-medium sized workgroup
database applications, but it would be foolish to deny that it does require
learning, for which you should be prepared to devote some time before
developing any real world databases. Jumping in the deep end is not the best
way to start.
I would strongly endorse Albert's recommendation of getting some good books
(sorry Wayne!). There are many general primers, such as John Viescas's
'Running Microsoft Access'. The Microsoft Press 'Step by Step' series of
books also provide a gentle introduction and are more task oriented. They
are also quite reasonably priced.
One thing I cannot stress too strongly, however, is the need above all to
gain a good understanding of the database relational model. There is a vast
amount of literature on this, some of it quite abstract, but a useful little
book is 'Inside Relational Databases' by mark Whitehorn and Bill Marklyn ( I
should declare a small interest here as I'm an occasional contributor to
Mark's magazine column). This little book is Access based (Bill Marklyn was
the original Access Development manager at Microsoft), but is concerned more
with how a relational database should be structured to correctly model the
part of the real world with which it is concerned.
Once you feel ready to start designing your database(s) be sure to spend
plenty of time first drawing out its structure on paper in terms of the
tables and the relationships between them and mentally testing the structure
by considering whether it will correctly model your business and provide the
information you require from it based on the data you put in. Getting the
'logical model' right is by far the most important part of designing a solid
database application; get it right and the interface, with its forms, reports
queries etc, will fall into place naturally; get it wrong and you'll find
yourself jumping through hoops to work around deficiencies in the logical
model.
Study other databases, such as the sample Northwind database which comes
with Access. You can also get the Orders and Solutions databases, which used
to ship with Access, from the following link (the site is a source of much
other excellent stuff as well)
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/downloads.htm
Lastly, help is always available here when you need assistance with specific
problems.
Ken Sheridan
Stafford, England
