Obsession with MS Access

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I think I have a sudden new special interest in MS Access. Anyone else use it?

I just got a trial version and have created a sales database and am in the process of creating forms and coding some functions into them. Gonna hammer away at that for a few more days then go onto some .net app programming

Did some stuff in it around 1999 in an office that was copying and pasting hundreds of Excel spreadsheets to use as templates. Moving to Access was an easy and huge improvement in productivity over that.

I've been using Access since v 2.0, which had the very first OLE embedding interface. Ask me anything you'd like about it. (Oh, and welcome to the wonderful world of data modeling!)

Access is still the best roll-it-out-as-fast-as-you-can database. But once you get going, start looking into more advanced DBA magic that you can get with pro DBs, like mySQL, SQLServer, or Oracle.

Obsession with Access could be very profitable. Nice!

Find what you like to do and then figure out how to make money doing it.

For years I developed Siebel software, but always had to do some microsoft stuff too. I used Access years ago at work. But for the past two years or so have only done bits and pieces. so it is stimulating getting back into it.

Here's a couple books that could help out a future DBA. To save $, focus on the last version of Access than what's out, since there are rarely radically new features in the newer versions anyway:

Access I/O

This is huge and has everything. If you have the time, and if your passion is strong enough, read this. You will become a complete master.


Excel & Access
Data Analysis with Excel

These are "money" books, in that they will help you make money. Read these if you have the time. In my career, I've found that recalling some arcane book's coverage of some esoteric concept has saved people's necks many, many times. Reading these money books has been the reason that I have a reputation as a miracle worker.

Hi thanks for those links I may get the book if my obsession continues.

I am at a point in my career where I need new skills and I think microsoft products are more interesting than oracle which is what I been working on.

Today I have extended my database and now have about 12 tables, I am making a dummy sales and marketing system and getting back into coding VBA.

But can I ask I have my forms all tested and working how I want but I now want to open up the database in "user" mode so that the access ribbon and controls are not visible. Is there an easy way to do that? I only have the trial version of 2010.

Try using this site as a resource: DatabaseDev

This is the introduction to securing an Access 2010 DB. It's a lot of work, but will pay off on step # 7 where you can control which forms and viewable items that a user can see. Don't worry if you can't get it all done in an hour--there's a reason that DBAs are paid the big bucks.

Good luck!

Thanks I looked at the site and tried to follow the steps on this page: http://www.databasedev.co.uk/access_security.html

But I cannot find the system.mdw file and I wonder if its because I have the trial access 2010 version.

But I have managed to save an executable database that opens on the main page and does not show the navigation pane or the access ribbon, so that is a start.

Good job. It's a good idea to keep poking around a new tech once you start getting used to it, so see what else you can do.

I used to work on Siebel so I have now created my own mini version of Siebel with the Access DB. But I will probably have to buy Access to do what you suggest.

Can I ask does Access get used a lot in industry for main systems? My experience with it in the past has been as a simple one of DB that is used by a department or as part of a project etc. Does access have enterprise wide capability? to be used like oracle or sql server?

So did I.
I worked on the CRM extensions, which were new at the time.


See if you can get the student version, since it has most of the features but still works well enough.


Access is used for all of the small ad-hoc databases, but never for the main source. It's too limited to be used enterprise-wide--the main limitation being that the entire DB has to be sent over the network wire to have multiple read/write.

If you want to get real DBA skills, you have to choose one of the big DBs like Oracle or SQL Server. Note that mySQL is a nice in-between DB that can do all that you need, big or small. Plus it's completely free.

What did you think of siebel? I think its a great system but I did it for 10 years and I think its starting to have had its day. It is getting too broad, trying to cover all business areas now.

What do you think of the IT function nowadays? Businesses seem a lot more clued up to it than they used to and the business side are taking a more accounting attitude towards it. I always did software development but now when I get interviewed they are expecting I have lots of people skills etc, its not enought to be technical minded.

Siebel is/was a very well organized sales tool. Moving it over to other silos was incorrect, as it soon became too unwieldy to optimize and maintain. That was v 6, but I'm guessing not much changed in the later versions.


IT is dead. Any job that is technical only is now outsourced to India. You can go into the field, but don't expect to pull in the $ that was had back in the 90's.
The jobs today are all part IT/part business relationships. You have to have good people skills, etc. I changed careers 5 years ago when that started happening. (I've switched to researching autism.)
If you want a job in IT, I wish you well.

Several years ago, I became a bit of an expert on Lotus Approach. The databases in question were used by about 20 people max. Then our office changed to MS products and the databases had to be converted to Access. I'm sorry to say that the majority of the workload was handed out to a contractor and our IT team and I was just the liaison person. I could easily get hooked on Access, just as I was on Approach.