Suggestion for Newbies Like Me

  • Thread starter Thread starter DannyD
  • Start date Start date
D

DannyD

I really messed up while tweaking a startup form ... I couldn't exit out of
it, leaving me no way to get to the rest of the database (tables, forms,
queries, ...). I literally had to 'CTRL-ALT-DEL' and stop the program to get
access to anything on my PC! I luckily thought to create a new dB, and import
all dB objects EXCEPT for the form I messed up - phew! I would've lost a
couple of days of work.

I don't know if this is going against dB development convention, but I've
been copying and renaming my dB file before any significant change. That
leaves me the previous version to fall back upon if I mess up again.

Best wishes to all you brave newbies out there, and thanks to the MVPs to
have helped me. I hope this is helpful to someone.

Danny
 
Making a backup copy of your database is a very good idea.
As to not getting in. Did you know that if you hold down the shift key
while you open an Access database, it will bypass any startup macros or forms?
 
I tried 'Ctrl' click, and "Alt' click - never tried 'Shift' click! Thanks for
the advice!

Danny
 
Danny:

Far from 'going against dB development convention' making copies of each
version of your file as you develop it is a good idea. In addition to this,
however, it would be advisable to split the database into separate front and
back ends if you haven't already done so. The built in database splitter
wizard will do this for you. The result is two files, one containing just
the tables, the other containing the forms, queries, reports etc and links to
the back end file (the latter's file name is given a _be suffix by the
wizard). In a shared environment on a network the back end would be in a
shared folder on a server, with a copy of the front end on each local
machine. The built in Linked Table Manager allows the links to the back end
to be refreshed if its location is changed.

As you develop the front end each new version will automatically use the
same data in the back end. You should also back up the back end regularly of
course to protect the data, which you can do in the same way by copying it
under a new name. This also allows you to fall back on an earlier version of
the back end if you make any design changes to it, e.g. adding tables or
amending table definitions, but bear in mind that the back up versions will
not reflect any changes to the data made since the back up was created.

Ken Sheridan
Stafford, England
 
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