Microsoft Access Tutorials

Create a form where you can search any text field in a table
In Access 2003/XP/2000/97, I'd like to have a button on a form that when clicked will open a popup form. On the popup form, the user can select (from a combo box) one of the field names contained on the original form and text to search on.

Taking a Closer Look
By the time you finish this tutorial, you will understand the following key concepts: how to change an existing table's structure, the data types that Access supports, why you should add comments to your table design, what field properties are and how you can change them, how to perform editing functions on entire tables.

Populate a combo box with a list of values (not from a query)
I've created a combo box in Access 2003/XP/2000/97. I don't want to populate the combo box with an SQL query. Instead I want to add my own values. How do I populate a combo box with a list of values that are not generated from an SQL query?

Turn on or off the speech recognition microphone
Turn or or off microphone with voice command.

The Records of a Database
After creating a table and its column(s), you can populate the database with data. You and the user can use either the table or the form but as mentioned previously, the form is sometimes the appropriate object to do this. Data entry consists of filling a database with the necessary values. A series of values that corresponds to same levels of columns is called a row or a record. Topics: SQL and Data Entry, Record Navigation.

How to Do an Access 2007 Update Query
Access 2007 is a database program created by the Microsoft Corporation. It is an important part of the Microsoft office suite because it allows users to effectively track items, make professional reports and share information. Update queries allow users to update data in a set of forms or records. Doing a update query in Access 2007 only takes a few minutes when you have the correct information.

Link Data From Another Database
Linking data allows you to create and maintain one database that can be used simultaneously in different applications. Access will automatically create a database and link data from another open application.

How to Join Two Tables in a Relational Database
The power of a relational database such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL and Access is the ability to relate two or more tables based on common fields. Here is how you can join two tables on a common field. I am using MS Access's Northwind database to write the SQL statement.

MS Access Modules & Macros
For Visual Basic programmers, Modules object under the "All Access Objects" group provides the coding ability. It's because of Modules you can automate certain tasks that you have to do manually e.g. if you have Linked tables in your MS Access database pointing to Oracle Database, every time you open the database, the login/password screen will pop up. Utilizing the Visual Basic coding environment in MS Access, you can automate the login to Oracle Server (or MS SQL Server). We will learn in detail how to do this in the articles ahead. Teaching Visual Basic is beyond the scope of this book. If you are already a MS Visual Basic programmer then this section would just be piece a cake for you .

Prevent a query from timing out in Access 2000
In Access 2000/97, I keep getting an ODBC timeout error when I run my query. How can I prevent the query from timing out?

How to Prevent Duplicate Values
You can keep your Microsoft Access database free of confusing clutter by preventing duplicate values. These instructions are for Access 97.

No Data and Report Error
Report Source Query or Table can end up with no output records. In that case some of the controls with formula on the Report will show #Error on them.

Add or delete a shortcut from the My Places bar
Learn how to add or delete a shortcut from the My Places bar.

Conditional Statements
One of the goals of computer programming is telling the computer what to do when something occurs, and how to do it. This is performed by setting conditions, examining them and stating what decisions the computer should make. To perform the necessary conditions, you have two main options: Microsoft Access or Microsoft Visual Basic. Microsoft Access is equipped with a series of operators and functions destined to perform various operations. To use a condition in Microsoft Access, if you know the structure of the conditional statement, you can write it after typing an assignment operator. Because most conditions in Microsoft Access are in the form of functions, we will study them later on. For now, we will learn how to write conditions in the Microsoft Visual Basic language. Topics: Topics: Logical Operators, The If...Then Statement, The If...Then...Else Statement, The If...Then...ElseIf Statement, The Select Case Statement, Looping and Counting.

Referencing a Subform
Part-2 video tutorial, learn Referencing a Subform. (video tutorial)

Get Top Values per Group
In this video tutorial learn about Get Top Values per Group in MS-Access queries.

Applications that work with Access
Microsoft Office Access 2003 provides features for working with other programs.

Cardinal Text Format in Access
The other day one of my colleagues asked me to open MS-Word and type the expression =Rand() on a separate line and press Enter key. It was a magic that I didn't know till that time.

IF-THEN-ELSE Statement
In Access, the IF-THEN-ELSE statement can only be used in VBA code.

Configure Outlook for Lotus Notes
We have seen that sending EMails from MS-Access is easy enough like any other method you are familiar with. With few clicks we can send an email with MS-Access Objects as attachment to the mail. Depending on the object selected for attachment the output format options available may be different. The attachment format for VB Code module is Text format only and will be converted into this format before attaching it to the mail.