Is MS Access Worth Learning in 2021?

[MGadAllah]

Hi,
I read How to ask "good" questions -- READ BEFORE SUBMITTING A QUESTION! and I can not really find an answer by searching as some articles or other forums threads talk about parts of my needs but no one yet places a full roadmap to learn ms access.
Is MS Access worth learning still in 2021?
If YES then please suggest a roadmap.

I mean in terms of finding jobs online remotely.
Thanks
Mohamed

[NeoPa]

Hi Mohamed.

Welcome to Bytes.com. I have to say that the mere fact that you've read How to ask "good" questions -- READ BEFORE SUBMITTING A QUESTION! shows you know how to approach a problem intelligently.

As an Access MVP who cares deeply about Access and what it can do, as well as someone who has an appreciation of computer systems over the years including many in the past where the lack of interoperabilit y across the internet was a problem for flexibility where & when work could be done, I do understand that MS Access is very limited in that respect. Newer cloud-based applications are certainly more sexy and offer far greater flexibility than MS Access when it comes to working from phones etc and other portable devices.

However - and this is extremely important in my view - please don't assume that this is the be-all & end-all of computer software. Some work requires more than most of these lighter weight apps can provide. Don't get me wrong, Excel and some other applications are very powerful in their own way and fully cloud enabled. Such software is sexy, quite rightly, because it releases the user from various restrictions in how, when & where they can work. That's all great, but it should never be misunderstood to mean that flexibility of use is the only important factor.

MS Access handles large volumes of data from many different sources, both internal to a local network as well as external & cloud-based, and for the last 25+ years there's not been an application to touch it for manipulating and reporting on data from across a business.

In short. Yes. MS Access is still a very important application for at least someone to be able to use within a company. It isn't easy to use on portable devices and it doesn't currently scale too well in as much as it usually requires a fair amount of screen space, but its power and usefulness on a desktop system (It also works well on laptops of course.) is second to none.

As for where someone might start I'd be happy to point you to the website of a fellow MVP - who incidentally can be contacted for one-on-one training - that shows a number of resources that should help you to get started.

The link is Microsoft Access Tutorials (Strive4Peace).

Best of luck in your journey :-)

[NeoPa]

Hi again.

As I needed to contact the owner of the site in order to determine the problem I also had another one suggested that you may find helpful :
Some helpful videos.

[MGadAllah]

I prefer textbooks instead of videos because textbooks has more info while videos in my opinion depend on what the presenter does understand and sometimes he/she has a misunderstandin g for the topic being explained.
If there is a book or more then one that are comprehensive to study it that would be awesome.
Thanks

[NeoPa]

I'm not sure that's a very reliable assumption. Most authors nowadays post videos too. The ones I linked you to are by someone currently in the process of writing a new book which will be aimed at power users learning Access. I'm actually working in it with them, along with a few others. I believe all of us have previously blogged and done videos on how to do things using Access in our time.

Nevertheless, if you're more comfortable with books then get yourself a book. I can't help you there personally as I never saw the need for a book to start learning Access from. That's not to say that it's wrong for you; just that it wasn't required for me. I have a different history than you.

If you do go for a book - make sure you choose one that is targetted at people of your current understanding or level. You haven't shared that with us yet so recommendations can't take that into account. At least we now know you're specifically after a book. That should save some time from being wasted.

Good luck anyway.

[MGadAllah]

I am sorry if I was impolite or rude, apologized.
I never used Access ever before but read that it can be used to develop different software.
My background is just a regular book keeper (accounting, budget, finance...etc) with total of 23 years of working experience.
So I know the business but never used Access to develop anything for business.
That was one of the reason to think about access as when I googled I read a thread on other forums that some developers do not understand the business very well and that lead to develop incomplete application.
Regarding the link, I am totally appreciated.
I will listen to your advice, and will go on with videos.
Thanks
Mohamed

Note: I like this website a lot and I am in and out from time to time but never participated before as I am a member since Oct 16 '06.

[NeoPa]

Much to deal with here.

First, as it's important to say, You were neither rude nor impolite. Nothing to apologise for there. You had a valid way of thinking that I was hopefully able to throw a bit of extra light on. Disagreement needn't be disagreeable - and you certainly weren't. I am pretty experienced in the field so I know much that wouldn't be known generally. In fact I enjoy dealing with you as your behaviour is exemplary.

In my experience accountants, and to a lesser degree book-keepers and others who deal in numbers, are among those who best understand working with data. This is a necessary pre-requisite for working with databases. Many of those I now know who work in Access started life as accountants or similar. When you have one that is looking into working with Access, and who already has experience of the business the work is for, you often have good results - eventually. It isn't an easy set of skills to develop & generally takes some time. Nevertheless you can get benefits even in the early stages.

Go with the videos - if you decide that may be helpful. I think it will be but I'm not you of course. Here's another link for you (Database Normalisation and Table Structures) that I know many beginners before you have benefitted from greatly. It isn't about learning Access per se but it does cover an extremely important concept that will put you on the right track.

16th October 2006 is a date I know pretty well. It was three days before I signed up myself. Your Bytes.com ID is 49860 & mine is 51203.

I look forward to more of your question threads.

[GazMathias]

Totally agree.

Even if you do not use it for core application development it is a fantastic tool in your arsenal. Many of my peers baulk at (VB)A in general - fools!

I generally employ Access at a middleware level now, most commonly as a printing interface or for one off data transformations , though I do support and maintain several very large and non trivial line of business applications that have been doing their thing for 10+ years. Access' reports and designer are unmatched IMO. I have to build Crystal Reports into our applications frequently and I find Its designer clunky and lacking, its report generation unbearably slow, and it is the 'Industry Standard'!

It still bugs me that after all these years, neither designer can zoom!

Gaz

[isladogs]

I have code that allows users to zoom forms when in form view.
If interested, see page 2 of my tutorial on Automatic Form Resizing.

[GazMathias]

That's pretty cool, but as I'm sure you're aware I was specifically referring to the report designer.

Gaz

[isladogs]

Yes I was aware of that but have you considered using the Windows Magnifier tool. Its available under Ease of Access and allows zooming to 200% or more as needed

[GazMathias]

Yep - I use it often for such tasks. Seriously though, the designer should have this functionality built in so the property sheet and the rest of the controls remain the same.

Up to probably Office 2013 It wouldn't have been difficult to render everything to a surface first, scale that, and swap it though I admit complexity comes when a user interacts with controls but its not so different to what they already did in almost every other core Office application.

Office applications have moved to using a more web oriented UI framework and rendering paradigm (like most everything else!) but still, other Office apps zoom the panel containing the user editible surface.

Gaz

[isladogs]

Yes I agree the zoom feature should be built in to design view in both forms and reports and also to form view.
Its there for report print preview so why not forms? At least my code helps with the form view!

[GazMathias]

I guess Access is low down in their wishlist priorities - just take a look at the what's new in 2019 post!

Otherwise we would already have designer zoom, native sqlserver functionality, a better IDE, MDI, proper ways to package and deploy, etc...

I don't want to put the OP off, it is still a fantastic piece of software.

Gaz

[NeoPa]

I would agree Gaz. Signs are that Access isn't getting the love it deserves.

It's still an application that is very successful and more than earns its keep - after all it may be unsexy and not in accordance with the MS mantra of everything cloud - but it's still enormously heavily used around every country in the world and most businesses of all sizes.

One of Microsofts success stories - but alas - not cloud based so ... It reminds me of the story of the Emperor's new clothes. People see what they want to see - no more & no less.