[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Access Follow-up



All,

Some time back I requested help from the list on using MS Access for a
database I was creating for one of our departments.  Through no fault of the
respondents, I wasn't able to figure out what I needed.  I did, however,
take a shot at the ACCESS-L list, a mailing list (like our own) dedicated to
MS Access and offering advice, help, and discussions about using Access.

ACCESS-L turned out to be an enormous help to me; not because I understood
99.999999999 percent of the conversation (which I did not), but because they
were polite enough to direct me to some useful sites and offer some sage
advice.  One site in particular was very helpful:

http://www.RogersAccessLibrary.com

Roger Carlson, one of the list's resident experts, has a bunch of sample
items there that one can download.  I admit freely that I simply copied the
code for one of his samples (leaving his attribution at the top of the code,
of course) and fiddled with it to fit my needs.  I've learned enough to do
what I want, and I've gotten it to work to my satisfaction - we'll see how
the users care for it.

I've also learned (no surprise) that Access is a royal pain in the kiester.
Flat out - you need to know some basic (small b) programming to get this
damned thing to do what you want.  I don't know any, and it's by hours of
fussing with it to try & get my very simple needs (relatively speaking) to
work properly.  I needed to set up VERY user-friendly interfaces for my
clients, and it's quite difficult to do unless you understand the
programming, or you can "liberate" the code from someone else.  I don't
really know why what I did worked - I'm happy enough that it's working.

This leads me to a point about the Access list - while they were very polite
and helpful, it seems to me meant for a higher class of computer geek than
I.  They expect on the whole that list members will already have tried to
solve their problems, speak code, and have dealt with the basics.  They're
not there to answer the "what's a database?" question.  One other caveat -
to cut down on spam, only subscribers can a) post to the list, and b) search
the list archives.  I think they're a great resource, but caveat lurker -
know what you're talking about, or risk even more confusion than you had
before.  URL for ACCESS-L:

http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/access-l.html

If I've learned one thing, it's that I stand by my usual battlecry - stick
with Inmagic's DB/Textworks if you want to avoid the complications of making
Access do what you want.

DS


______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>