troubke with table wizard

[John Keith]

I've decided it is time for me to learn to use access and see if it is
better for some applications I am currently doing in excel. I've
started to play with Access 2003 and it seems the table wizard is not
behaving properly. I am at the step where I can select the fields to
use in my version of a table and after ppicking a field name (or all
of them) nothing appears in the "selected" window. Fields are actually
selected because if I keep stepping through the wizard I do get a
table with all the filed headings, they just don't appear in teh
window (I would like to change some of the names but can't because
they don't appear.) What I am doing wrong??? Please help this newbie
out!


John Keith
(e-mail address removed)

 

[tina]

you don't need to build your table(s) using a wizard, you can do it
manually. and if you do use a wizard, you can always open the table in
Design view after it's created, and change fieldnames then.

as a newbie, and especially a newbie with a strong Excel background, you may
make a number of common newbie mistakes, influenced by the fact that Access
tables bear a *superficial* resemblance to Excel spreadsheets (a whole lot
of us have been there, done that <g>). suggest you go to
http://home.att.net/~california.db/tips.html and read tips 1 and 2 before
you move forward with your database development.

hth

 

[Larry Linson]

I don't use the Table Wizard to design tables, except for demos to my user
group, but when I did demo the Table Wizard in Access 2003, I did not
experience this phenomenon. Thus, I am sure it is not expected behavior nor
an error in every copy of Access, but I haven't searched the Knowledge Base
to see if there's anything written up on the issue. You'll find the
knowledge base at http://support.microsoft.com, and it's worth taking a
look.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[John Keith]

Thanks Tina and Larry for the pointers! I always appreciate some good
web links for more insight. I got started with Allen Wyatt's tutorial
on access at:

http://www.learnaccessnow.com/

I understand I don't have to use the wizard but they are handy at
times, plus when I see erroneous operation like this it makes me
wonder what else might be wrong!?

Yes, I can see where excel experience can cause some confusion. By the
way, one of the first things I want to do is take my excel spreadsheet
"database" and import it into access. I'm hopin gthis will be fairly
easy? (800 records and 25 fields)


John Keith
(e-mail address removed)

 

[tina]

well, frankly, i despise importing data from Excel. sometimes it's easy, and
sometimes it a royal pain in the gluteus maximus. but regardless, getting
spreadsheet data imported into an Access table is only the tip of the
iceberg. the real work begins as you move that data from the "spreadsheet"
table into normalized and related tables.

hth

 

[David W. Fenton]

I understand I don't have to use the wizard but they are handy at
times, plus when I see erroneous operation like this it makes me
wonder what else might be wrong!?

I don't see that the table wizard makes anything at all easier. I
use lots of other wizards, though (after over 10 years of Access
programming).