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Poll Results By Richard Rost 
3 years ago
Did you do your part to save the planet by answering my poll? If not, shame on you. If so, yay! You can sit at the cool kids' table. Poll
IntroIn this video, I review the results of a recent poll I posted on my YouTube channel asking viewers what topics they want to see more of in future tutorials. We'll talk about your most requested subjects including advanced VBA in Microsoft Access, database design theory, new database builds, Excel and SQL Server coverage, web design courses, and more. I also go through many of your specific comments and requests, sharing my thoughts on upcoming content and priorities based on your feedback.TranscriptSo I did a little thing. I posted a poll about a month ago and got some results, and the results are in. Let's talk about them.A couple of weeks ago, I dropped this January poll on my YouTube channel. I wanted to get my finger on the pulse of what you guys want to see me make more videos for. We got 161 responses. Let's take a look at some of them. Right off the bat, I see you guys want to see more advanced VBA stuff. That's most of you. Also, more database builds like the association database--that one surprises me. We do not get a lot of views on the association database videos. I was actually not going to do more, but according to the poll results, most of you like them. Maybe I'll do another one and see what happens. I tend to go to what gets more views of course. It's a YouTube channel. But yeah, we'll try another one. I see a lot of you also like database design theory. That's a surprisingly high number too. Beginners, not so many, but beginners are where I find most of my beginner students--people that find my YouTube videos. They Google search something like how to do something in Access. Fortunately, one of my beginner videos shows up. So I'm not going to stop doing the beginner lessons. I have to keep making those because that's how I get new students and new members. But I definitely see most of you guys want to see the advanced stuff. Excel is not surprising--a decent number. Word, PowerPoint, Windows again. Yeah, I'm probably going to just redo my beginner videos for these and see where that goes. I'm probably not going to spend a ton of time redoing the intermediate Excel stuff because most of that stuff hasn't changed. With Excel specifically, they've added a lot of new functions and new features. But the core functions that were there before really haven't changed. I mean, there's some new stuff like XLOOKUP instead of VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP. But most of the old material I've got is still perfectly valid, especially for beginners. SQL Server for sure--I'm going to be doing more on that. ASP and JavaScript, what I want to do is a web design class based on my web design experience. A lot of people criticize my website, saying that it looks very nineties. It's got a very retro look. I like to stay functional. I do not care too much about being pretty. I have the "What's New" videos in the middle here, new releases over there, quick list of courses over here. You click on something like the split function and it takes you to that page, and my goal is to get you here to watch videos and teach stuff. I'm not trying to be an Instagram where everything's all pretty and stuff. I personally think that this website is perfectly functional for what I'm trying to do. I know a lot of you want to build database websites. I keep saying "databases" so much because I'm constantly making database videos. But a simple website like this using HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and of course, ASP and SQL Server in the back end is extremely functional too. Nice and fast most of the time, and it does what I need it to do. I've been using this site for 20 years with upgrades here and there, of course. I'm going to put together a web design course using the tools and technology that I know. If you want to learn the new stuff that's out there, well, I'm not your guy. I do not make pretty stuff. I make functional stuff. Now, this down here is exactly why I usually do not put polls together where you can add your own stuff. I get stuff like this--for Adam, temp bars. Come on, Adam. Seriously. At least you are not alone. Someone else wants temp bars too. This is a good list, but I see most of you did not bother to check and look down the list to see what else was on there before adding your own. Let's see what we got here. This is a good one--customized look for your database, make it look like LCARS. For those of you who do not know, that's basically the Star Trek: Next Generation computer screen. It is called LCARS, the memory serves Library Computer Access Retrieval System. Yes, I'm a Trekkie nerd. Diagnose table relationships: view from Access, top templates, maybe Northwind. The Northwind database that comes with Access is actually one that I learned on back in 1994 when I first started learning. Now that I've been using Access for nearly 30 years, I've got some criticisms about how Northwind was originally built. I would have done things differently because it includes some things that I would not use, like multivalued fields and stuff like that. The new one, I know there are currently a bunch of MVPs redesigning Northwind and I cannot wait to see what they end up coming up with. I'm going to take a look at it and go over some of that. I'll make some videos on it. Maybe once they finish Northwind, we'll take a look at it together. VB not .NET? Yes, eventually. It's not high on my priority list. C++--I've never used C#, but I have done a lot of C and C++ programming back in the eighties. I'm dating myself. But yeah, I would love to do a beginner C class, not C++, just C, because I think C by itself, the traditional classic Kernighan and Ritchie C, is a great language, especially for beginners to learn. SQL Server to Access connections: I've got a whole seminar on that already. Access ribbon development: I get a lot of requests for this. This is definitely coming up in an Access developer class very soon. I'm going to go through it a lot. I'll probably make a tip video or two about it, but the bulk of that will be in my developer course. ChatGPT to write code: Yeah, I played around with ChatGPT to ChatGPT. I played around a lot, but the jury's still out on whether I'm going to rely on it to write code. More VBA definitions: I do not know what that means. QuickBooks: I don't know. I did a QuickBooks class back in 2006. There's one QuickBooks 101 class--it's real old, it's on my website. Lots of people used to ask me about QuickBooks, but I released a class and it did not sell very well at all. So I do not know if I'll be using QuickBooks in the future. So we'll see. Using classes in Access, VBA classes: Yeah, that's something that's on my to-do list. Honestly, in the 30-some years I've been programming, I've never really needed classes for a database. I've never needed it to build one in Access. So I'm probably going to cover it just from a theory standpoint, but with Access, I really have not needed to use them. SAP connectivity: Never used it. Can't help you there. Database design theory: Yeah, more theory is coming. More seminars are coming. VBA in Excel: Yeah, I'm going to redo some of the Excel classes first. ABCD: Yes, that's definitely coming. Stuff like the one you did for MathCalc using a text box. Okay, that was the video where I showed you how you can type in a formula in a text box like you can in a cell on Excel. That's pretty handy. I use that all the time in my own accounting database. Kitchen Helper developer, ingredient tracking, batch numbers: Yeah, more of this is coming. Web automation and web scraping: The Access team is currently redesigning the web browser control that goes with Access. I believe they're making it compatible with the Edge browser. So when that is released, I do plan on doing more web automation because I want to get more into it myself for my own personal uses, to have my Access database control different websites that I use, including my own. There's just stuff you really can't do with the current control. You can use API calls, but from what I've seen and read, this new web browser control coming out is going to do a lot. So I'm looking forward to that. Forms with multiple related tables: Yeah, that's basically subforms. I do not make forms that have data sources under them with multiple related tables. A lot of people do that. You'll take a query, bunch five different tables in it, and make that a record source for your form. I do not do that. If it requires multiple data sets like that, use subforms. Working with incomplete dates: I've done a ton of videos on these. Go to my website, search for "dates." You'll find lots of it. I've got ones where you only type in the year, and it will just assume January 1st. I've got others where you type in month and day and it'll assume the current year, and there are all kinds of different ways you can handle that. R programming: Never done it. Can't help you there. Ribbons: Definitely coming up in a developer class. Temp bars again: Okay, yeah, I get it, guys. You want to see temp bars. It's coming. Network settings: Yeah, I'm going to be doing some Windows classes. One of my big things for this year is I want to redo my Windows and my Office beginner classes--Word, Excel, PowerPoint, that kind of stuff. Those shouldn't take me too long; they're relatively easy classes to put together. But one thing I do want to do is setting up a Windows network because a lot of people ask me about it since they want to learn how to do it for Access databases--set up a small network in your office and then connect your Access databases together. So that is definitely going to be on the list. Deep dive into the new Access charts: Yeah, as soon as they finish them. The new modern charts still need a lot of work. I'm not happy. I still use the old charts myself. The new charts are just lacking in so many features. The Microsoft team needs to get working on that. SharePoint: I've got a SharePoint seminar already. Go to my website and search for SharePoint. I personally do not use SharePoint for myself. I put together a seminar to show everyone else who does use SharePoint how to use it. If you've got SharePoint already for your organization, then fine, you can connect your Access database to it. But personally, I recommend if you aren't already using SharePoint, then go with SQL Server. It's much better. Access non-VBA: Oh yeah, lots of that. I've got lots of lessons coming out for that. My entire Expert series is non-VBA. There is a lot you can do with Access without using VBA. But like I always say, if you learn a little tiny bit of VBA, it goes a long way. Oh, I have to make that a saying now: Learn a little VBA. It goes a long way. How to combine three or more different tables to work together: That all depends on your tables. Usually, when you've got multiple data sources like that--multiple tables--you put them together in a query. You may or may not be able to edit those, and that's just a matter of how complicated they are. I strongly recommend you use subforms. Your parent record: If it's a one-to-many relationship, that's easy. Many-to-many, you can still do with a subform and a junction table. You can't always just put multiple things together like that. You can play tricks; you can use unbound fields and then use code to insert stuff. Give me some examples. Post some examples in the forums on my website of what you want to see as far as using multiple tables like this, and I'll see what I can do. Now you get to the fun part--the comment section. In addition to all those, we've got actual comments that people left. Number one: Create courses for Udemy. I've looked at Udemy before. I do not see any benefit to me setting up my courses there. They have a decent platform, but they do not really bring anything to me. I get 99 percent of my traffic from YouTube. From there, people come to my website. So it would be a lot of extra work for me to also put my courses on Udemy. I'd have to pay them a commission too. I have everything on my website and on YouTube. Unless you can tell me why I should use Udemy, then I do not know. TwinBasic is on my list. I actually was emailing the guys putting together TwinBasic, and I know Mike Wolf is involved with that as well. It's just a time thing for me. I've got so many other things on my plate first, but yes, I definitely do want to make some videos to show people how to use TwinBasic. It's pretty cool. I've only played with it a little bit myself, but I used to do a ton of Visual Basic programming back in the day. Rubber ducking: I haven't done a lot with this, so I'm not an expert in that. I will skip that one. Trying to build a dairy in Access: I do not understand what you mean by build a dairy--diary? Maybe spelled wrong. Steve, give me more information. Compare a single serial number to a serial number: If you've got specific questions you're trying to get help with, this isn't what I'm looking for with this poll. I'm looking for topics, things you want to see, not answering specific questions. If you've got specific questions on problems you are having, go to the ASK page on my website. There's the address right there--599cd.com/ask. It'll take you right there. If you're a student of mine already, a member, you can contact me here. You can post in the forums. If you're not a student, you can post in the Visitor Forum. That's the best way to get help with questions you have about your database. I do not have time to troubleshoot everybody. That's why if you have a question, post it, and if I can make a video out of it, I will. I get hundreds of emails a week. I can't possibly answer them all personally. Sorry, I love all of you, but there are not enough hours in the day. If I answered all the emails, I would not have time to make videos. That's why I pick out the good ones and make videos about those--the ones I see over and over again. If I get the same question from people multiple times, then I'll make a video out of it. If your question is comparing two serial numbers with fields from another date and a DLookup, that's too specific. I got 2016. Should you upgrade? Well, that all depends. Generally, I'm of the mindset that I like to stay current. Obviously, I have to teach this stuff. The only time I do not recommend someone upgrade is if you've got a mission-critical database where, if that database has a problem, your whole business is down, then stick with what works. Set up a non-important computer with the latest version, try your database there, run it yourself for a week, and then you can upgrade the entire network. That's what I used to tell my clients to do. I personally recommend the Microsoft 365 subscription. It constantly stays updated. Do bugs happen? Sure, but bugs can happen with any software. No software is perfect. But at least as soon as the bug is discovered, you get an update right away. More recordsets: Yeah, I covered tons and tons of stuff in my developer classes about recordsets. I've got multiple lessons on it. Advanced SQL: I've got a whole SQL seminar series available. ABCD: A lot more coming, at least a couple more parts of that coming. Setting stuff in Word: I plan on doing some automation between Access and Excel and Access and Word, like creating a document from Access that's more than just an export. You actually create a document in VBA, and you can specify all kinds of cool things on it. So that is definitely coming. Automated numbering: Yep, got tons of videos on this; go to my website and search for "sequential numbering." A dating database matching shared interests: I've heard of this. A few people have asked me how to do this, so I might throw something together as one of our sample projects. That's on my list. It could be more than just for dating; for example, you could be selling carpets or window treatments and ask a customer what features they're interested in, go through and select them, and then based on their selection match them up with the product that has the most of what they're looking for. That's definitely something I could see being useful. Google Forms: Yeah, I use Google Forms a lot. In fact, this poll is a Google Form. As far as online registration, you can do that in Google Forms. It will save to a Google Sheet. You can then take that Google Sheet, put it in Excel, and pull that in Access. I think I have videos on that. I've already covered it. Thank you guys for the compliments; I appreciate that. Designing better queries and reports just comes with experience. The best way to get good at it is just to do it. The best way to get good at driving is just to drive a lot. It's the same thing with Access. I've been doing this so long that I make it look easy, but you just have to do it. The best way to learn and to make it stick is to have fun with it. Don't just always associate it with work. I talk about this in my Beginner 1 class: find a hobby that you have. When I first started doing this, I had a baseball card collection, a comic book collection; I put those in a database. I made a D&D character generator out of Access and VB and all kinds of stuff. Whatever hobbies you have, make a database for that. That's the best way to learn. Music database--that's a great idea. Is it better to have a brand new database or amend the current one? That's a question I can't answer without seeing your current database. I will tell you, though, that the process of learning programming in general, but Access specifically, means you will want to scrap what you build at least three or four times before you're happy with it. You learn a little bit, get excited, build something. Then you learn a little bit more, and you have to go back, fix what you just did, or redesign it. It's a struggle. That's why I tell people, when they take my beginner course, don't start building the database you want for your company after just taking my beginner classes. You're going to spend a lot of time on relationships, subforms, combo boxes, and really cool stuff. If you don't know that stuff when you start building your database, you're going to wish you hadn't. So take your time. If you don't have the time to go through my entire course, at least get through the Beginner series and the first couple of Expert classes, and then you'll start to see how databases come together more once you know more. Once you get to programming, it's a whole different story and you'll want to change it and start over again. I scrapped my database at least three times when I first started learning how to do it. As far as monthly or annual membership, that's up to you. I can offer you a 20 percent discount if you sign up for the year. But yeah, bills come first. Feed your family first, but I've tried to keep my Silver membership nice and cheap--it's six bucks a month. Plus you get a free class with that every month through the Beginner series. So I try to keep it as affordable as possible. Is this supposed to be "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller?" Batch or lot numbers in a stock inventory database: I covered a lot of inventory stuff in my high-end Access developer lessons. More temp bars: Yeah, temp bars is high on the list, guys. Okay, you can stop bugging me. Did Adam send you? I know Adam sent you for the temp bars thing. The calendar seminar remake: Yes, I did mention this in 2022. I do have a calendar seminar. The purpose of that seminar was to teach you how to make a monthly calendar, either as a form or report, because it's not something that's easy to do in Access. That's one of the first seminars I did, probably 2010-ish, I'm going to say. But I do want to redo it because instead of using list boxes, I want to use subforms because then you can add colors, conditional formatting, and all kinds of cool stuff. Plus, I know a lot more now than I did then. I was planning on doing it in late 2022. A lot of things happened, including a hurricane, so projects got pushed back. Now I'm in the middle of moving, so things got pushed back again. But yes, it is definitely on my list. One thing that I never do is I never give timelines or deadlines or estimates of when stuff's going to be finished. I'm horrible at it. I work on what I can when I can. My goal is to release a video every business day, and I've been pretty good at it for the past year. So sometimes the larger projects can take a little longer to get out there, but they're coming. Form events: Yeah, I've covered these in detail in my developer classes. There are a whole bunch of different events, what the timing is, when they go off. So look through my developer series for more on that. The "TechHelp" and the "Fast Tips" videos: They are little bits and pieces, nuggets here and there. But if you want a more comprehensive lesson, go through the developer series, of course. The format of the association progression: Yeah, that's good. I'm going to do another one of these, hopefully more. There's a big twist coming in the association database that I haven't gotten to yet. We're going to be making a major design change to it. I've been talking about it in the forums with a couple of members. That's something that happens when you build a database--sometimes you need to make a major design change. So you'll see how that goes. AI: It's coming. I know, I know, better start learning it. Scheduling database: I've got a couple requests for something like that. I'm sure something like that will come along soon. Not sure what this means: "VBA like do come me." Sorry, I'm not sure what that is. Sports card collection: Yeah, I built one of these when I was about 22. I'll put that on the list. That would be fun to do. I do not have any cards anymore. They were all lost in a basement flood along with a lot of my very expensive comic books. Yes, they were inside sealed plastic too, but it was a complete flood and everything was submerged, moldy, and nasty. I lost thousands of dollars, which at the time was a ton of money for me. SAP is quite specific and I've never used it. Sorry. Unless I learn it myself. One of my skills is learning something and being able to turn around and teach it relatively quickly. I taught a Photoshop class before I had even used it. I'm going back to the nineties, but still--if I haven't done it at this point, chances are it's probably not going to get done. I'll look into it. If enough people want to see it, I'll look forward to another year. Yeah, me too. Outlook automation from Access is coming as well. I'm going to be doing some automation classes in my developer series--automating Word, Excel, and Outlook too. Many, many, many-to-many relationships: I've got more videos on these coming out. I cover a lot of examples in my regular course. Yes/no check boxes: When I talk about that, a lot of people will put, for example, on the product form, "Is hardware? Is service?"--they'll have a bunch of check boxes when really those could be subform items. I just use a continuous form in the subform and do the same thing. I think I've got something on the list already for a "TechHelp" video. Linking a form to a table or query: Again, it depends. I usually recommend linking directly to tables if you can; it's usually faster. If you need to bring in other values, then you can use a query if you want to. But again, that might not be editable; sometimes if your query is really complicated, you lose the ability to edit the record. It all depends. If you don't want to see a number or a junction table, just don't bring them into the form. That's why I like forms; you can display whatever fields you want--you don't have to see all the fields. Converting inventory ingredients into completed parts: A lot of people have asked me for that. I'll be doing that in the developer class. I do something similar where we can make bundles or packages. If you're selling computer systems, for example, when your inventory comes in, you've got a hard drive, a monitor, a keyboard, whatever, then you can bundle that into a computer system labeled "Alpha" or whatever. When you sell one of those, it knows that it takes all those parts. Some people also have asked me about baking ingredients--eggs, milk, etc. You take four gallons of milk and it goes into this product. You want to remove that from your milk inventory and add a finished product to the product inventory. That is coming. We're going to be doing that in an upcoming developer class. "Don't know what I'm doing yet, but thanks to your videos, I know enough to be dangerous." Well, that's awesome. Keep on rockin' on and get dangerous. Just remember, back up your data and you do not have to worry about breaking anything. Try to break stuff--that's how you learn. The full database, start to finish: They haven't been as popular in terms of views as I'd like, but hopefully that'll pick up in the future. Seminars, my favorite: I do not do those as much anymore. I do a seminar when I get a good topic that deserves a seminar. Seminars are very time consuming--some of them are ten hours long. Ten hours of video is like forty hours of work because you have to prepare it, record it, edit it, go over it, put it all together, write up the web page for it. When I put together a 20-minute "TechHelp" video, that's about three or four hours of work. It's not just sit down and talk. But a lot of my videos involve some work and editing and stuff. The seminars are usually pretty time consuming. I have to plan them ahead of time, put them together. I try to do them when I have a good topic to do one on. Church database: That's probably the number one reason why I started the association database, because I heard from at least a dozen people that were like, "I want to build a database for my church, what do you recommend?" A church database basically is the same as most other types of membership organization databases. That's why I picked "association," because it's a name that can be used for all kinds of stuff--churches, bridge clubs, homeowners associations, etc. I'm glad you learned something new from my videos. I try to learn at least one new thing every day. If I don't learn something new, it wasn't a good day (work-wise). "I'm building a text-out database for my mother because I promised her I would build her a database when I was in grade four and I'm a high school student now and I know about computers. I'm building it." Good for you! Your videos made me think it's possible. It definitely is possible. Just stick with it. Plan everything out, like I show you in my Beginner 1 class, and keep doing it. I learned how to program when I was in second or third grade. I got my first computer and was doing BASIC programming on my Tandy Radio Shack CoCo. You're never too young or old to learn how to do this stuff. "I love that you leave the bugs in and explain why." Yeah, I like to do this because, in my experience, people learn better when they see me make mistakes. Learn from my mistakes--because if I come across that mistake in a video, chances are you will too at some point. If you've never seen it before, you'll be confused. Some people complain that they do not like when I leave the mistakes in the videos because it's a waste of their time. Well, sorry--there are plenty of other people on YouTube teaching this stuff. Go find someone else. I think it's a good learning experience to see mistakes--that's why I leave them in my videos. If you do not like it, well, you know where the door is. Managed data entry forms and restrictions or rules on user input: There are validation rules, and I've covered a lot about those. You have Before Update events--I have videos on those where you can check the conditions of the data that's being entered. If you've got something specific, go to the ASK page and post your question there. Searching in large data sets: I've got a whole search seminar that covers all kinds of different search techniques. I've covered a lot of this, but again, if you've got specific questions, post them on the ASK page. One of these days, I want to see how Dataverse works with Access. Yeah, me too. I'm still dipping my toes into Dataverse, so I'm not going to chime in on it until I consider myself an expert. I used SQL Server for probably ten years before I did anything training-wise related to SQL Server. I wanted to make sure I was an expert first. Same thing with Access--I used Access from 94 until probably 2000 until I decided to start teaching it. I do not chime in until I know exactly what I'm talking about, so as soon as I'm more versed with Dataverse--see what I did there--things like Power BI, I'll be making classes on them once I consider myself an expert. Lots of comments on the forums: Yes, I have my moderator to thank for that. They do an excellent job. They are volunteers and they keep the site running. If it was not for them, I would not have the forums online because I would not be able to answer questions and keep up with it myself. I have those six guys to thank for it. Databases that are not normalized and how to fix them: Yep, I've got videos on that. Start with this one--very good one. Can't see any other way than to not have duplicate data. I would need to see an example. Go to the ASK page, post your question and some screenshots. I need questions to be specific but not overly specific. Some people post like 80 lines of code--like, what's wrong with this? I'm not going to sit and read 80 lines of code. Sorry, I just don't have the time. School management is another popular topic. A lot of people want to see school management. I've never managed a school. I had my own training center, so I had students and scheduled classes and invoiced them, but I've never run a high school or college. I guess I could do some reading and see what I'm missing. If you want to submit ideas, go to the forums and post them there. "In the beginning, there was Access. Now you're richer, there's Access and beyond." That's awesome. Thank you. Content is always top class. Thanks, appreciate that. "Like to be a member, but I can't afford it." I understand. The economy is rough for everybody. That's why I have Silver membership at six bucks a month. I try to keep it cheap. But I will always post free videos on YouTube, so feel free to keep coming back and I'll keep making more. I get this a lot too--cost for some people in different countries based on the exchange rates. I feel for you. But if I lowered my prices for some countries, it wouldn't be fair to the people in the United States, Canada, and UK who pay full price. I do not know how to answer that question right now. "I know it's been 18 months since I dropped ABCD Part 5." I do not want to make you cry. Sorry. I'm working on Part 6. It's coming. Relax. Settle down. I had some stuff happen--went through a hurricane and a whole bunch of other stuff. It's getting there. It's very high on my to-do list. It's the Amicron Business Contact database. It does not even have contact management yet, so yes, I feel your pain. It's coming. I want to make it right; I do not want it to be one of those things where I just sit down and go, "What are we going to do today?" It's easier for me to put together the "Fast Tips" videos because it's just a quick thing. I can sit down and get it done in an hour or two. But ABCD is something that I take my time and plan out and build ahead of time sometimes to make sure it will work properly. I'm putting my signature on this one, so it's going to be quality. Dates and recreating them--I've covered this, dates recurring, fortnightly (you must be in the UK; only you guys use "fortnight"). I've done recurring stuff before; go to my website and type in "recurring." There are recurring bills I cover in the Payables seminar, which is accounts payable. You can set up your recurring bills--every week, two weeks, fortnight, every three months. I've got "TechHelp" videos on that. The next appointment--when's it going to be, if it's every week or every two weeks? Membership database sending email on a regular basis--I've covered recurring dates a lot. Developer 41 covers it. So that's something I've definitely covered to death. If you find something I haven't covered regarding recurring dates, let me know. Hi, Richard. See, I do not know who these comments are from, but I think I can go in the spreadsheet and find out. Let me see, hang on. I almost didn't catch it, but if you look carefully, this is actually part of the same comment here. I didn't realize that until I opened up the spreadsheet--this is Donald. Hi, Donald. Oh, look right down here--Don, there you go, I didn't know you signed it too. I had to look in the spreadsheet. Looking forward to how you handle finances. Yeah, we're going to be doing that in the database. See more of why you do something one way as opposed to another. If I have two conflicting viewpoints and can recommend why I do one thing over another, I will. Recordsets, good or bad? Recordsets are neither good nor bad--it's like any tool. They can be used for good or evil. Recordsets are basically a programmatic way of looping through your records. You can say, "I have this set of records--customers from Florida, let's say--and I want to loop through them and do stuff." Now, I grew up programming in BASIC, then in Visual Basic, and so my brain tends to work in loops. I tend to think in code that way--For Loops, While Loops. So I tend to rely on recordsets more than I should sometimes, because I learned database development a lot later in my programming career, so I don't think in terms of SQL. Sometimes I will build a recordset to do something that an SQL statement could do better and faster. When I say "Recordsets, good or bad?" well, it depends on what you're doing. If you're just doing something simple, like setting a whole bunch of values to zero, use an SQL statement. But if it's something where you have to loop through each record and do something that's pretty complicated, for example, take a record, look something up on another table, do this to it, check over here, etc., then you might need a recordset for it. Recordsets are almost always slower than SQL statements. I always try to think, "Can I do this with SQL or not?" So it depends on what you're doing--it's not good or bad; it's a good tool to have in your box. I would not say they should be avoided if possible. Sometimes what I do is I'll build it--if my brain works on recordsets first--and I build a solution with a recordset, sometimes then I'll look at it after I'm done and go, "Can I do this with an SQL statement instead?" because it's almost always going to be faster, and if so, I'll rewrite it. But at least I'll have a working solution in the recordset. I hope that clears that up. User management login system: Yeah, I have one called the Security Seminar that covers everything you want to know about user logins, logging stuff, and checking things out. I've done a bunch of free videos too on tracking logins and such. It's all in there. Can I help you with it? I already did--go to my website, search for "user login." ASP development using newer coding tools: I'm going to teach ASP development using the coding tools that I use. They're not necessarily the newest, but they're good, solid, and they work. I've run my website off them for 20 years now. Cross-tab queries: I assume you mean cross-tab. I think I have a free video on that. I cover cross-tab queries in more detail in my Expert series. I talked about this earlier--the Microsoft team is redoing the browser control with Edge. I'm just as curious as you are to see what they come out with. It was supposed to be released last quarter but got pushed back, as always with Access. Microsoft needs to put more effort and money into the Access team to get this stuff done. More lookups on forms: I have many different videos on how to do searches and sorts. Go to my site, search for "search," and you will find all kinds of different ways. If you want to search for an order number, put a box on your main menu, put an After Update event with a DLookup, and you can find whatever you want. I've covered searching lots of different ways. Building a database to replace a flat single-table database: Good luck. That's never easy. Old dates: I've got some videos on dealing with old dates. "BCE Dates": If you have to track dates going back to the first Olympics, or you just have your mom's birthday, any kind of date format, this video pretty much shows how to handle it. This plus my genealogy database, because Access cannot go back to 1620, so I show you different tricks for that as well. Transpose of matrix: That's a good one. Send me an example--go to the ASK page if you can. Power Query Access connector: That's on the list coming up. SQL: I've got a whole series on SQL. Vehicle maintenance: Most of these activity type things like deadlines is coming up. Creating an alert: I've got videos on that too. If you have a question, just go to my website and search for it: reminder, alert, etc., and you'll probably find it. Absentee ballots/check-in: That sounds like a good one. Post this on the forum with specifics and we'll see if that's something we can help you with and make a video out of. Reservation/Pilot Billing System: That sounds cool. Accepting payments via credit card: Yes, you can do it, but there are so many different laws and regulations depending on your state and country. I've kind of avoided doing that. I know what the laws are for me. I used to be in New York, now I'm in Florida. I use PayPal for all my credit card transactions--they've got a service called PayFlo, and it's very good. It's easy to integrate right into your Access database or website. I've had code that I've built for it 10-15 years ago--works great, but I do not know if that's something I want to make a lesson on. We'll think about that. Sales tax: I cover sales tax to death in my Access Expert classes. If you go to my site and search for sales tax on the Access Index you'll find lots about it; I cover the wall table, sales tax rates, and so on. I've got a lot on sales tax in the Work Order seminar. So I've covered a lot on sales tax. Got a reference to a 20 percent discount--as a Platinum member, I get the course free because you get the free course every month. Might not be better to send the Platinum members a sales email because it might irritate new members. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I've got my database programmed so that if you've taken a class and it sees you do not have the next class after a month, then it will send an email and say, "Hey, I see you do not have this class, here's a discount, get 25 percent off." That routine was written years ago and it does not take into consideration membership discounts, so you're right. If I had a team of developers to keep up with this, it probably would not have been a problem. I'll look into it. I appreciate that. Stop, stop, stop, way too much good stuff. Thank you, I appreciate that. Modern chart question: I'm going to stop you right there. I do not like the modern charts. I've said this in my classes, I've said this in a couple "TechHelp" videos--they've got problems. I do not like them. The modern charts just need so much work done that I'm disappointed with how poorly they work. The guys at Microsoft need to finish it, make it work, get it as good as at least half as good as Excel's charts. Please. For basic charts like a simple bar chart or line chart, I use the classic old chart control. If it's anything complicated, I drop the data into Excel. I do not use Access for that. That's one reason I'm doing Access automation classes--to drop the data into Excel and build a chart off it in code. SharePoint: I'm probably not going to do much more with SharePoint. I did a basic seminar to teach people how to connect to SharePoint from Access. I don't use it myself, so I'm probably not going into more depth with it. It's not a solution that I recommend personally. I prefer SQL Server. If you like SharePoint and are using it--great, but you're probably not going to get a lot more SharePoint lessons from me. Sorry. Mobile version of Access for the iPhone: I've talked about this in a couple videos. I do not use an iPhone, I never will. I do not like Apple products. Go watch this video on how to use Access on a phone. Averaging the best eight of the last twenty scores for a group of people in Access: Is it all the same field? Post this on the ASK page and maybe I'll make a video out of it. Thank you very much. More query building/reports: I do not spend a lot of time on reports, but yes, I'll do some more stuff with reports because I usually build reports when I'm done with the rest of the database, and reports are similar to building forms with just a couple differences like grouping. Why isn't my stuff working? I do not know. If I could build a troubleshooter... Actually, I do have a troubleshooter on my website--just go to the trouble page, and it takes you here. I have a fifteen minute video and a list of things to check in order. If your database works, but something is not working... I do not know. If I had a copy of the database and could play with it, maybe I could figure it out, but that is extremely time-consuming. I do not have the time to troubleshoot people's databases. I used to do that kind of stuff way back, but I do not like doing it, so there is really no amount of money you could pay me that would have me do that all day. I like teaching how to do stuff properly, not fixing what's not working. If you build it properly, then you should usually not run into too many problems. That's what the forums are for--post your problems there; maybe the guys or I can figure it out. Connecting different database programs together: Access and Excel, definitely. Access and SQL Server. I do not have a lot of experience with other database platforms like MySQL or Oracle; I've never used Oracle, in fact. That's about all you're going to get from me--Access, SQL Server, Excel, text files. That's about it. I've built my own custom database formats using binary files and BASIC, but you don't want to do that. That's a pain. That's it. Those are the results and comments from the January 2023 poll. Thank you, everyone, for filling it out. It definitely gave me a lot to think about and some things to change on my list of what I'm going to cover. Yes, temp bars are coming. Adam, relax. I'm probably not going to do a poll every month--maybe once a quarter. Possibly look for another one in April. Until then, thank you. I appreciate it. Keep learning, and we'll see you next time. QuizQ1. According to the poll results discussed, which topic did most viewers want to see more videos about?A. Basic Excel techniques B. Advanced VBA topics C. QuickBooks training D. PowerPoint basics Q2. Why does the instructor continue to make beginner videos even though advanced content is more popular in the poll? A. Beginners generate the most ad revenue B. Beginner videos attract new students and members C. He personally prefers beginner topics D. YouTube requires beginner videos Q3. What is the instructor's general philosophy when it comes to web design for his website? A. Focus on making the site as visually appealing as possible B. Prioritize speed and functionality over appearance C. Only use the latest web design trends D. Outsource all design work Q4. What technology stack does the instructor primarily use for his website? A. ASP, SQL Server, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS B. PHP, MySQL, React, and Bootstrap C. WordPress, SQLite, and jQuery D. Python, Django, and PostgreSQL Q5. What advice does the instructor give for combining data from multiple related tables in Access forms? A. Always put all tables in the form's data source B. Use subforms for multiple data sets C. Only use unbound forms for this D. Only combine tables in reports, not forms Q6. Why does the instructor recommend not immediately starting large, important company databases after only taking his beginner classes? A. Access cannot handle large databases B. Beginners need to learn advanced features like relationships and subforms first C. It is too expensive to build company databases D. Microsoft Access does not support business solutions Q7. How does the instructor recommend learning database design and Access effectively? A. Only build what is required for work B. Practice by building databases for hobbies or interests C. Memorize all syntax before experimenting D. Only follow textbook examples Q8. What does the instructor say about using recordsets versus SQL statements in Access? A. Recordsets are always better than SQL B. SQL is always better than recordsets C. Use SQL when possible, but recordsets are useful for complex operations D. Recordsets and SQL are not interchangeable Q9. Which of the following does the instructor say about Access reports? A. Reports are more important than forms B. Build reports only after the database structure is complete C. Reports cannot be customized in Access D. Reports are identical to forms Q10. How does the instructor approach software upgrades, for example, moving from Access 2016? A. Never upgrade to new versions B. Wait five years before upgrading C. Prefer to stay current, but recommends testing mission-critical databases on a spare machine first D. Always upgrade immediately without testing Q11. What is the instructor's opinion on using SharePoint for Access databases? A. Highly recommends SharePoint as the best solution B. Prefers SQL Server unless SharePoint is already in use in your organization C. Never use SQL Server with Access D. SharePoint is required for all databases Q12. How does the instructor suggest students get help with very specific Access questions? A. Email him directly for individual support B. Post in the forums or the ASK page on his website C. Wait for monthly Q&A livestreams D. Only use YouTube comments Q13. What is one of the instructor's key reasons for leaving mistakes in his video tutorials? A. He doesn't have time to edit them out B. Mistakes are a waste of time for viewers C. People learn better when they see and understand how to fix mistakes D. It was a YouTube policy requirement Q14. According to the instructor, what is the best way to build a user management or login system in Access? A. Use Excel to track users B. There is no way to build a login in Access C. Follow his Security Seminar or related free videos D. Use only Microsoft-provided templates Q15. Which skill does the instructor emphasize as especially helpful for building and understanding Access databases, even minimal knowledge of it? A. Learning VBA B. Mastering Photoshop C. Becoming a WordPress developer D. Learning only SQL Q16. What does the instructor say about classes in Access and using object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques like VBA classes? A. OOP is necessary for all Access databases B. He rarely needed to use classes in Access, but will cover them from a theory perspective C. Classes cannot be used in VBA D. All Access developers must use VBA classes in every project Q17. When designing a database to replace a flat (single-table) database, what advice does the instructor imply? A. It's easy, just add more tables B. Normalization and careful design are necessary, and it is a challenging process C. Never use queries when replacing a flat database D. Add all fields to every table Q18. In reference to recurring or incomplete date handling, what approach does the instructor suggest? A. Always use full dates; anything else is not possible B. Use various techniques covered in his videos to handle partial dates and recurring events C. Never allow recurring dates in Access D. Only handle dates in Excel first, then import Q19. The instructor's thoughts on "modern charts" in Access can best be summarized as: A. Strongly prefers them because they outperform classic charts B. Thinks they are not ready and still uses classic chart controls or exports to Excel for complex charts C. Finds them essential and flawless for all reporting needs D. Does not use charts at all in his databases Q20. What is the instructor's overall content philosophy as evidenced by this video? A. Focus exclusively on latest technology and internet trends B. Make learning accessible, emphasize practical solutions, and adjust topics based on user interest and feedback C. Only cover programming theory, not practical tasks D. Only make content for professional developers Answers: 1-B; 2-B; 3-B; 4-A; 5-B; 6-B; 7-B; 8-C; 9-B; 10-C; 11-B; 12-B; 13-C; 14-C; 15-A; 16-B; 17-B; 18-B; 19-B; 20-B DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks. SummaryToday's video from the Access Learning Zone is all about reviewing the results from a recent YouTube poll I posted in January. I wanted to get direct feedback from all of you on what kinds of videos and topics you'd like me to cover in the future. We received 161 responses, so let me walk you through what the poll revealed, along with some thoughts and comments on each of the recurring requests.The overwhelming majority of you want to see more advanced VBA content. That was clear right away. Interestingly, there was also a lot of support for more full database build series, like the association database. That one caught me off guard since those videos haven't historically gotten a lot of views, but the poll results have persuaded me to give another one a try. Database design theory was another surprisingly popular choice. While beginner lessons weren't at the top, I recognize that a lot of students first find my channel because they're searching for basic Access help, so I'll continue to create beginner content to help new learners discover the channel and get started. The advanced content will definitely remain a focus based on these votes. Excel lessons came in with a respectable amount of interest, as did Word, PowerPoint, and Windows. My plan is to refresh my beginner-level classes for these programs since the essentials haven't changed much, apart from a few new features in Excel, like XLOOKUP, which replaced older lookup functions. Most of my older beginner material will still serve those just starting out. On the SQL Server side, you can expect more content. I also see interest in ASP and JavaScript. For web design, I'll be focusing on the stack I know best: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, ASP, and SQL Server. My website might look retro, but it works well for teaching, and functionality is my top priority. If you want the latest design trends, I'm probably not your best resource, but if you want practical, functional web lessons, I invite you along. Occasionally, I get some strange requests when I allow respondents to add their own poll options—like a recurring interest in temp bars, which keeps popping up, almost as a running joke. But there were good suggestions too, such as making a database interface resemble Star Trek's LCARS system, or addressing specific templates like Northwind. Speaking of Northwind, the original was what I learned on, though I think it could be designed better. I'm looking forward to seeing how Microsoft updates it and plan to make videos covering the new version when it's available. Suggestions related to programming languages like Visual Basic and C also came up. I might eventually cover classic C in a beginner-friendly course, but not C++. As for connecting Access to SQL Server, I've already put together a full seminar on the topic, so I encourage you to check that out if you're interested. Access ribbon development and VBA class modules are also on my list for coming lessons, especially for more advanced users. Although, after decades of programming in Access, I still rarely need to use class modules, so I'll likely approach that from a concepts and theory angle. Support for Excel VBA came through as well, along with interest in automation between Access, Excel, and Word—something I'll be covering more deeply in the future. Regarding QuickBooks, I made some courses back in 2006, but since demand has dropped off, it's low on my priority list. Some suggestions were out of my realm—like using SAP or R programming, which I haven't worked with, so I can't provide much there. For those of you wanting more database theory, rest assured more content is coming. Web automation and web scraping will be addressed once Access's new browser control is released, as the current control is limited. When the update arrives, I'll demonstrate what you can do with it, especially using Access for tasks like automating website interactions. Questions about subforms and handling multiple related tables, as well as working with incomplete dates, have already been covered in several existing videos—just search for "dates" on my website for tutorials on handling partial dates or custom date input. In the comments, I received requests about placing my content on Udemy, but since nearly all my traffic comes from YouTube and my website, I don't see the benefit in managing another platform at this time. TwinBasic is another interesting topic on my radar—once I have time for it, I'll put out some beginner guides. I always encourage students to post specific questions to my website's forums or ask page. However, polls are best for suggesting future video topics, not for troubleshooting individual code problems. Regarding upgrades, I recommend keeping your Office installation current unless you have a mission-critical database that can't risk any downtime. In those cases, test updates on a nonessential machine before rolling them out organization-wide. I personally prefer the Microsoft 365 subscription model for its regular updates. Recordsets and advanced SQL also came up, and both are well covered in existing materials on my site. I'll continue to expand those areas, especially with developer-level content. For those interested in matching algorithms, like for a dating database or product recommendation system, that's a great project idea and I may put something together. Many of you also wanted to see examples of ingredient tracking and assembling products from inventory—think bundling parts into a finished product, or bringing together baking ingredients. These topics will be featured in future developer classes as well. Questions on recurring dates, automated numbering, or combining multiple tables are already addressed in various "TechHelp" and seminar videos, and as always, you can suggest new ideas in the forums or request clarification if you can't find what you need. Some of you raised more business-related or administrative questions—like managing memberships, scheduling, or financial tracking. Those uses are typically just differences in how you set up your tables and relationships, and I've covered many approaches in sample databases and lessons for associations, churches, and clubs. A recurring theme was the desire for more in-depth, start-to-finish database build videos. These full builds are time intensive, but I am planning more of them, even though their views often lag behind shorter, targeted tutorials. Many asked about revisiting older seminars, like the calendar seminar. I do intend to remake that one, replacing list boxes with subforms for more formatting options—though I never give a fixed timeline since larger projects depend on availability and other factors. Reports and advanced query building will also get some attention, although I tend to focus more on forms and data entry until database structure is finalized. Cross-tab queries and other specialized reporting are covered in the Expert series. In the forums and comments, I hear about concerns ranging from data normalization, school management, reservation systems, and inventory to requests for integration with other tools or systems. While I specialize in Access, SQL Server, Excel, text files, and some custom flat file solutions, I don't have direct experience with platforms like Oracle or MySQL. Membership and course pricing came up several times. I appreciate that the economy impacts people differently around the world, so I try to keep Silver membership affordable and will always provide free videos as well. Regarding troubleshooting personal databases, I unfortunately can't dig into everybody's files—that's simply too time-consuming. That said, the forums are a great place for peer-to-peer help, and my moderators do a fantastic job keeping things organized. Wrapping up, I want to thank everyone for their insights, encouragement, and suggestions. This poll has helped shape the direction of future lessons and revealed that some less-watched topics still have a dedicated following. I'll try to run similar polls every few months and keep adapting my content to the needs and interests of this community. The next poll will likely be in April. Until then, keep submitting your ideas and questions, keep learning, and don't worry—temp bars are coming, Adam! For a complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here, you can find it on my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends. Topic ListThis video outlines and discusses the results of a community poll, detailing which topics the instructor plans to prioritize for future tutorials, based on student feedback and specific requests. |
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| Keywords: poll 2023 jan poll2023jan results PermaLink Poll Results Jan 2023 |
