What is the best way to learn?

[David S]

I have had the basic Microsoft Access courses, Introduction,
Intermediate, and "Advanced", but I want to progress beyond that in order to
be able to automate routine tasks, set up forms for others to use for data
input and report generation, automatically transfer data to other Microsoft
applications like Excel, etc. This I believe will require knowledge of
Visual Basic.
I would really appreciate some guidance on how to best approach this. I
have looked at "Application Development" books, but they appear too advanced
for someone just starting out. I have at least one person who told me to
not try to take this step unless I am committed to spending full time in
learning to become a programmer because it is too complex.
Any input and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
David

 

[Mike Painter]

I have had the basic Microsoft Access courses, Introduction,
Intermediate, and "Advanced", but I want to progress beyond that in order to
be able to automate routine tasks, set up forms for others to use for data
input and report generation, automatically transfer data to other Microsoft
applications like Excel, etc. This I believe will require knowledge of
Visual Basic.
I would really appreciate some guidance on how to best approach this. I
have looked at "Application Development" books, but they appear too advanced
for someone just starting out. I have at least one person who told me to
not try to take this step unless I am committed to spending full time in
learning to become a programmer because it is too complex.
Any input and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
David

Most of what you have said you want to do requires little or no coding
especially if you follow relational design.
So the first thing would be to read a little about that.

There is a massive amount of information in help and the Northwind database.
There are any number of books on the subject and a visit to a bookstore is
in order to determine which is best for you.

I get a lot from help and from here, in that order. Personally I also get a
lot from books but little from tutorials. I need a real project to actually
learn the stuff.

Programming is a woodshop, not philosophy and I believe you can only learn
by doing as opposed to thinking about it.

Start your project, push F1 and come here when you have individual
questions.