Course List - Access 101

Student Interaction: Microsoft Access 101

Richard on 1/1/2007: Getting started with Microsoft Access? This course covers all of the basics. Create a customer table, queries, a customer form, and customer mailing labels, printing, more.

Richard Rost on 10/12/2007: Sorry folks, my email address 'richard@myolp.com' is no longer valid. Spammers destroyed that one. If you need to contact me, post a message here, or use the contact form on the web site: www.599cd.com/contact. If you do need to email me, make sure to include [599CD] in the subject line (yes, include the brackets).

John on 10/17/2007: I took Access 101 and I finally got it! I want to make a database for a school of 190 students. I know I can do it after a few more lessons. However, I need to know if it is possible to make Access 2003 forms larger and the font larger. I think the clerical people at the school will have trouble using the small print. The resolution on the computer I am using is 1024 x 768. Do I have to change the resolution, or is there a better sol [more...]

Richard Rost on 10/17/2007: John, all you have to do is increase the dimensions of your form by dragging the borders out. You can then resize all of the elements on the form (text boxes, labels, etc.) and change their font sizes. We cover a lot more with formatting forms over the next couple of classes.

Eric�Valencia on 10/23/2007: Hey I advertise on Craigslist and want to catalog all my competition's ads in access (including the html of the ads). Is this the right program to do this in? Access?

Richard Rost on 10/23/2007: Sure, you can catalog anything in Access, it just depends on what format you're getting the data in. I'm assuming you're typing it in yourself and then just copy-n-pasting the HTML?

Virgil�DISSMEYER on 11/19/2007: Richard some time ago you told me how to enlarge the small screen used by Amicron player. I don't like the small window and lost your instructions.

Richard Rost on 11/21/2007: Virgil, just click on the "EXTERNAL" checkbox inside the player and it will force the videos to open in Windows Media Player. I'm working on a solution to allow you to resize the videos directly inside the player.

Carol�Case on 11/30/2007: Excellent class. I plan to order more. Will a future class tell me how to password protect a database? I would like to create a db and publish it on a website so users in many locations could access and edit the data. I would like to password protect it and give the pw to a select group of users. I would also need to be able to change the pw if a user left the group.

Naveed�Ahmad on 11/30/2007: I really like the course and most likely i loved the way he teahes the lessons.I have a question , is there any way i can buy the whole access bunddle and it will save me money as i would like to go for it rether than buy it seperatly. Thanks Naveed

Richard Rost on 12/9/2007: I cover real basic database security (setting a single db password and creating an MDE file) in Access 307. I have not yet covered REAL database security because it changes in every version. I'll probably make a single class coming up soon that will cover security for Access 2002, 2003, and 2007 databases. Now, as far as making an online database, I strongly reco [more...]

Richard Rost on 12/9/2007: If you select multiple courses, our shopping cart will automatically gift you a quantity discount starting with 2 items. The more you buy, the higher your discount. This is in place of (and actually better than) the "Combo" packages we used to have. Just select all the courses you need, and the more you buy at once, the more you'll save.

�IC on 1/20/2008: Have been trying to understand ms Access but there s still lots of confusing areas.what do I do or do you have a simplified example for me to follow? Thanx isaac

�Kamuste on 1/23/2008: Hi sir, Can i complete and master acess without taking visual basics and java courses

Richard Rost on 1/23/2008: Well, my Access 101 class is the perfect place to start. It's got step-by-step videos and a sample database for you to work with. You can't get any more basic than that. Of course, if you have specific Access questions, post them here and I'll do my best to help you.

Richard Rost on 1/23/2008: Yes, you can. Microsoft Access is a stand-alone program, and you don't NEED to know Visual Basic or Java (or any other programming language) to use it. In fact, after taking my Access 100-level series of courses (101-104) you'll be able to develop a perfect working database without ANY programming. Thru the 200-level series, I teach you more power-user techniques, but still you don't need programming. I'll begin touching on Visual Ba [more...]

Fran�Raymond on 2/9/2008: Hi Richard, you strongly recommended that we not use spaces in the FieldName. I have a table in which i have used all kinds of spaces in the FieldName. (I did this befoe i took your course! ) This table is related to a number of other tables in my database. My question is this: Is there a way for me to safely eliminate all the spaces in my Field Names and not screw up all my relationships?

�dreamer on 2/14/2008: thanks richard..i had learn basic microsoft access through this tutorial.

JAMES�STANZIONE on 2/26/2008: can I use a date as the primary key?

Richard Rost on 2/28/2008: There's nothing in Access to stop you from using a date as a primary key. Personally, I wouldn't do it because it's a bit sloppy, but you can if you want. Just be careful because different computers might be set to different regional date formats. Take 4/5/08 for example. You might see this as April 5th. Someone in Europe would see May 4th. If I were to use a date as a key field, I would make a custom format like this: YYYYMMDDHHNNSS [more...]

Richard Rost on 2/28/2008: In Access XP and higher, Access should automatically keep your relationships OK as long as you are certain to rename the fields in both tables to the same thing. MAKE SURE you BACKUP your database before trying it though. If you have GLOBAL relationships, Access might not let you change the fields until you remove the relationships, however.

Richard Rost on 2/28/2008: You're welcome.

�Terry on 3/4/2008: Great class Richard, I'm sure I'll be visiting your site again. I've always had Access questions and other tutorial information was extremely long. I really appreciate your help. I believe you've made my Jobs a bit easier. I actually have the 2007 version so finding some of the keys/buttons is difficult do you plan to show in '07 version too. Have a great one.

�Gonas on 3/5/2008: This microsoft access you can do programs with it. But if you want to make games what program should i use.If u know tell me something.

Richard Rost on 3/13/2008: Terry, I'll be working on Access 2007 upgrades very soon. First will be a seminar for people transitioning from Access 2000/2002/XP/2003 to 2007. The learning curve is HUGE even for me - everything's in a different place. Next will be a new series of beginner tutorials for NEW Access 2007 students.

Richard Rost on 3/13/2008: If you mean games involving GRAPHICS and things that move around on the screen, I would recommend learning Visual Basic first. See www.599cd.com/VB for a beginner VB course. Most professional games are developed in the C/C++ language. I used to teach C years ago, but I haven't had any demand for it lately.

�Rajneesh on 3/30/2008: It is recommeded in some other tutorials (e.g. Allen Browne) that the data should always be added through forms and never directly into tables. Is it just one of their styles or something else?

Richard Rost on 4/1/2008: I agree with that - mostly. The point is that you don't want your END USERS having direct access to your tables. For one thing, aside from real simple table-level data validation, you really have no control over what they do to your table. Unless you set up user-level security you can't, for example, prevent them from deleting bunches of records. So I would mostly agree that you should have your users always access data through FORMS. [more...]

�Derrick on 4/19/2008: I have designed a database for tracking marine personnel and generating specific forms, etc. I need some info on actually synchronizing a database on the ship with a master database ashore. Replication seems to be the way to go, but I need some better info than I can find in the manuals.

�paul casaclang on 4/21/2008: this is really GREAT stuff sir...thanks so much to people like you!!!

Richard Rost on 4/21/2008: A REPLICA is probably what you need in this situation. For everyone else, a REPLICA is when you make a copy of your Access database that you can take on the road with you, or send to a different location that doesn't have Internet access. Any changes made to the Replica can then be merged back into the main database when you are able to bring them together (copy on a CD, for example). If you're out on a ship and you need access to th [more...]

Richard Rost on 4/21/2008: Paul, thank you very much for your compliments.

Richard on 4/24/2008: No, you cannot change the BACKGROUND color of a checkbox. You can only change its border color, style, and "special effect." We'll talk about those more in future lessons.

1littlechickie on 5/9/2008: Regarding Access 101 lesson 9 time index 6:50... I have set up my customers in CustomersT with the customer number being the key and auto number. First record comes out number one, but when I put in the second record it comes up 5! I don't know what to do. Thanks, 1LC

Randy�Sims on 5/20/2008: Deleting cut records? My table and forms have different "ID's",AutoNumber. I think it started when I cut a few records from the table.

Richard Rost on 5/24/2008: 1LC, this is a common question I get all the time with regards to AutoNumbers. You put one record in and it comes up "1" and then some time later you add another one and it's "5". Why is this? Well, somewhere along the line you inserted 2, 3, and 4, and then perhaps DELETED them. Access will NOT reassign them again. They're gone. That's why the next record is 5. You see, once an AutoNumber is used, it can NEVER* be reused. This i [more...]

Richard Rost on 5/24/2008: Randy, if your form is BOUND to a table, then it would be impossible to have different IDs than the table has... unless I'm not understanding your question properly. Could you please elaborate?

ted�hayes on 5/28/2008: Access 97 used to let me package a db essentially as a separate program. I believe it was an .mde extension. User did not have to have a copy of Access. I got away from programming for a few years, and now we have .accdb's. Is there a way to package a current version db as a "stand alone" program?

Willis on 5/29/2008: I am trying to get two dates to calculate. I watched your video on date and time. That showed more about time. I am trying to use the current date function to calculate a date of birth 28 May 08 - 24 Jul 66 which at this time should be 41 years old. I hope that my question make sense.

�Wiley Redding on 5/29/2008: Would like to incorporate a self-generating confirmation number macro. How do I build such a macro.

shykh�Ahmed on 6/7/2008: is this the same as Access 2007"

Richard Rost on 6/13/2008: Ted, an MDE is not a standalone program, but rather an Encrypted ("E") version of your Microsoft Database ("MD"). You can however download a tool from Microsoft's web site called the "Microsoft Access 2007 Developer Extensions" which will let you take your AC2007 database and distribute it. This tool is free, unlike previous versions. Here's the link.< [more...]

Richard Rost on 6/13/2008: Willis, the easiest way to calculate someone's AGE is to simply subtract the two dates (Now-DOB). Now, simply divide that result by 365 and you get a "close enough" age in years. If you need anything more accurate than that, it involves some programming (which I can cover in a future lesson if anyone REALLY needs to see it).

Richard Rost on 6/13/2008: Wiley, you could use an AUTONUMBER field and just set it to RANDOM instead of INCREMENT. That's the easiest way to generate a random number without bounds. Of course, then you can't use a standard AutoNumber for your ID field. Anything more is going to require some programming and the use of the Random function. Ask me about it when you get to the 300-level classes. :)

Richard Rost on 6/13/2008: Shykh, Access 2007 has changed a lot since 2003. The database itself works just about the same, but the interface has undergone a huge facelift. I will be covering the differences in an upcoming lesson.

Kelly�Little on 6/26/2008: Why should I not put spaces when entering phone numbers? The problem with this is, when I pull the database into excel, then there are no dashes or spaces and makes the phone # difficult to read. Thanks!

Richard Rost on 7/1/2008: Kelly, I recommend NOT including dashes or spaces for various reasons (some of which I go over in the video) but mostly because it keeps your format STANDARD. You don't have some with dashs, some without, some with dots, etc. If you only allow DIGITS to be entered, it keeps the data homogenous. Now, if you're having problems READING the phone number on a form or report, remember you can always use a FORMAT to display the number, like [more...]

�Tracey on 7/3/2008: If I've updated my customer list since the time the Mailing Labels report was created, do I need to update this report in some way, or does Access do this automatically?

Richard Rost on 7/22/2008: Tracey, if you've added any fields, you will need to also add them to your mailing label report. If you've just CHANGED the name of any of your fields, Access MIGHT have picked up the change for you automatically, but it's best to check.

Sri�Nair on 8/3/2008: Richard, that was GREAT.

�Jeanie on 8/20/2008: How do I bring in more than one table to link together.I understand the link part, but I can not bring in my second table.

Elia�Gore on 8/31/2008: Job well done Richard.I have leaned a lot since I enrolled in your affordable well structured,and well deliverd computer courses.I am looking forward to my favourite Microsoft Publisher 2003 courses.God bless you Elia Gore

Richard Rost on 9/8/2008: Jeanie, linking tables is a concept covered in Access 201. It's a bit too advanced for Access 101. You have to link tables in a QUERY. When you FIRST go to create your query, you can select multiple tables, or click on the Add Table button. See Access 201 for more help.

�raffai bardin on 9/9/2008: Dear Rost How refresh my form after data entry?

Richard Rost on 9/10/2008: Raffai, when you move to a different record or close the form, your data is saved to the underlying table. If you want to MANUALLY save the data (or refresh other information on the form, like calculations) then you can create a command button using the Command Button Wizard to do this. The two commands you might want to use are under "Form Operations > Refresh Form Data" and "Record Operations > Save Data" depending on what [more...]

�Matt B. on 10/8/2008: Great chapters so far, "evil wizards" hee hee. I want to learn how to let the user of a form choose a customer, and then have the other customer data fill in from the customers table.

Richard Rost on 10/15/2008: Matt, you can certainly do that, but it's WAY beyond Access 101. It involves some programming in VBA code. You need to use something called a DLOOKUP function and an AfterUpdate event, which I cover in much later classes. See this free tutorial for an idea.

Kelwyn on 11/6/2008: Thanks for a very educational session, Richard. I'm moving on immediately to Access 102. You've earned yourself a truly long-term customer.

Richard Rost on 11/7/2008: Kelwyn, thank you for the compliments.

Rich�Castillo on 11/11/2008: I'm using Access 2007 on Microsoft Office 2008 (absolute beginner) and the ledger is completely different. I can follow part of your lesson plan, but it diverges enough to not follow through the entire lesson. What do you suggest?

Richard Rost on 11/14/2008: Rich, just hang in there. I'll have Access 2007 lessons out very soon.

�javed Farooq on 11/14/2008: Excelant Teaching...

�Ashley on 12/12/2008: Um... Yeah, these tutorilas rock. Thanks for the hard work. (Well to us it was hard, for you probably not so much.)

�Lisa on 12/18/2008: Great teaching! I am learning very quickly!

�Analyst3 on 1/16/2009: Thank you sooooo much You are a gifted teacher,will definitely purchase the rest

Waqas�AHmed on 1/19/2009: great Job Richard I have learnt a lot from your course.WIll definately be moving on from here to next level. Keep it up.

Deborah�Glenn on 1/26/2009: You are an excellent teacher! You make learning fun again.

Bijaya on 2/11/2009: Every time I try to add Command Button in the form using wizard it hanged at either clicking "Finish" button or "cancel" button. Week before it was working fine. I am using Access 2007

�Lisa on 2/12/2009: These tutorials have made me very popular at work because now everyone comes to me for info. I might even get a promotion!

Richard Rost on 2/12/2009: Bijaya, this could be due to any number of things... I would first try reinstalling Office. Have you installed any other programs between the time that this worked and stopped working? Could be a conflict.

Richard Rost on 2/12/2009: Lisa, that's awesome. Make sure you name-drop 599CD.com around the office then! :)

�saba on 2/15/2009: I really enjoyed the lectures but actually i wanted to learn about the replationships between different tables.n u haven't told anythng about that in your lectures.

Sam�King on 2/15/2009: Fantastic tutorial! Wondering if there is a simple way to attach a time stamp to a form so that every time a change is made to a data entry the time and date of the change is noted and shown on the form. Thanks for the help! Sam King

Richard Rost on 2/18/2009: Saba, relationships between tables in an "intermediate" topic that I start covering in Access 201.

Richard Rost on 2/18/2009: Sam, this is certainly possible with a little bit of programming. You'd need to learn how to create an "AfterUpdate Event" which is something I start covering in the 300-advanced series. Also see this free tips video: http://599cd.com/tips/access/afterupdate-event-vba

�Linda Stern on 2/19/2009: Thank you for the review. I have a new job and did not remember a number of things in access.

Mark�Bennett on 3/8/2009: I am putting together a table to collect answers to questions. Some questions have text answers, others are scored according to the response (Yes=5, No=0, etc.). Should I set up 2 different types of questions categories or can these be in the same category?

Richard Rost on 3/9/2009: There's nothing wrong with having both types of answers available in the same table. You could have AnswerID, AnswerNumeric, AnswerText as three fields for the same record, and then store the appropriate response in the field it needs to go in. You also *could* store a numeric answer in a text field. It all depends on how you want to implement it.

�Nutty on 3/13/2009: Hello,sir. How do use clock times to display on the form when the user opens the form?

�Nutty on 3/13/2009: If you have tables, ex: customer table, and invoice table which contain the same field names that means you have to enter data again in the table, isn't there a way to get the other table updated if it is the same information without having to enter many times?

Richard Rost on 3/13/2009: You want to display the current time on the form? I'm assuming you want to just default a specific field to the current time? You can do this by setting the DefaultValue property of the box (or table field) to: =Now() This is covered in depth in Access 104.

Richard Rost on 3/13/2009: Nutty, yes, of course. This is the whole point of a relational database. I begin talking about this in Access 201.

�Jack Zentmeyer on 3/15/2009: I'm getting so much out of your tutorials! Can you tell me what course talks about linking/importing files into Access? Thank you!

Richard Rost on 3/15/2009: Jack, that all depends on what kind of files you're importing. I show you how to import data from plain text files, Excel sheets, and other Access databases in Access 308.

Paul�Logue on 3/30/2009: Great presentation ...knew 98%..... still looking for info on using photos in Access.. Hopefully 102 will help ..

�Lynn Robbins on 6/21/2009: Any Plans To Offer training for current Microsoft Access I need it

Richard�Bogen on 6/21/2009: I've deleted some records, but the autonumber field doesn't change so that now there are gaps in the sequence. Is there anyway to renumber the records?

Richard�Bogen on 6/21/2009: I changed a field from integer to decimal. When I enter a number like 2.5 it still shows as 2.

Richard Rost on 6/25/2009: Yes, of course! In fact, I'm working on Access 2007 tutorials now.

Richard Rost on 6/25/2009: Richard, you can't reuse AutoNumbers. Those are numbers that Access uses for internal purposes. The only exception is that if you delete a bunch of numbers at the END of your table, you can COMPACT the database to get those back - but gaps inside other numbers, nope. Can't do it. See this post I made earlier for details. If you ever need the ability to re [more...]

Richard Rost on 6/25/2009: Richard, check the number of DECIMAL PLACES (field property) and make sure it's set to 1 or 2 (however many you need). If it's set to 0 it will not show any decimals. I've also noticed that in some versions of Access if you switch from Int to Decimal like that, the AUTO setting somehow gets messed up. Manually change it to 1 or 2 and you should be OK.

Brandon on 6/30/2009: How can you add information to the form from more than one table or query?

Richard Rost on 7/1/2009: Brandon, to have data from more than one table, this involves setting up relationships between the tables. I don't cover this until Access 201.

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