I am trying to determine if Microsoft Access is the best tool for my project.  I work at an administrative office of a large group of physician/provider offices.  I need a database to maintain all our contacts (doctor offices)--some who have joined our group and some who are still in negotiation to join (or not).  However, there are several physician offices, many have one group name and one address; however, there are some group practices that have one group practice name, several doctors in the practice and several different addresses(office locations).  I watched your tutorial Level 1 and am considering Level 2, but I think I really need help with associations which don't seem to be covered in Level 2 course.  I am familiar with forms.  Is Microsoft the best software for this?  Is associations the way to go--it's the darn multiple addresses that is giving me concern and multiple physician names--I will need fields also on each doctor--e.g., degree, specialty, board certification, status (prospecting, In-Negotiation, Signed Contract, Retired).  Can I know your thoughts?  Thanks in advance.

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Reply from Richard Rost:

Hi Brenda. Yes, Access is the PERFECT program for this. In fact, I can't think of a better program unless you buy something "off the shelf" already designed by someone else. Now, I don't want to scare you, but setting up multiple contacts and such will take a bit of know-how and some time... but in the end you will have the BEST possible custom solution that you can tailor to your needs.

You're right. I don't cover using multiple tables and relationships in Access 2010 Beginner Level 2. In fact, the next couple of classes (Beginner 3 through 5) won't talk about relationships either. My goal for BEGINNERS is to get them up and running with the basics (setting up tables, forms, reports, queries, etc.).

In Access 2010 Expert Level 1 we'll start talking about relationships and building forms with subforms. This is what you'll need to track multiple doctors for a practice, for example. Now, I already have covered ALL of this material before in my Access 2003 classes. The classes you'd want to start at for this would be Access 201 and 202. Those are the ones that cover relationships.

The bad news is that those classes cover Access 2003, so the screens are a little different than 2010. The good news is that once you're past the basics, those differences don't matter that much. Aside from the changes to the menu (the Ribbon) the rest of Access still functions the same way. Most people tell me they have had NO problems following along.

PLUS, if you buy the 2003 editions now, you'll get FREE UPGRADES when the 2010 editions are released. I'm working on levels 3 to 5 right now. Expert Level 1 will be out (probably) early next month. So you'll get those free if you buy the 2003 lessons now.

Hope this answers your question.