MS Access Tutorials FAQ

Return to tutorials home page

Disclaimer Note that the Access tutorials were created to support courses which I teach and are offered as-is for use outside of my classroom. I appreciate feedback about errors and omissions. However, I am not responsible for any bad things that happen (e.g., airline disasters, nuclear meltdowns, corrupted hockey pool results, etc.) as a result of the information in the tutorials.

Q: I cannot open the tutorials (PDF files). Are the files corrupted?

A: You should use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 3.0 or greater to read the tutorials. Version 2.x results in rather cryptic errors here and there. You can download the Acrobat Reader free of charge from http//www.adobe.com/. The PDF files that are available for downloading have been used successfully on many different computer configurations. If you are having a problem, my guess is that you need to re-download or re-install the latest version of Acrobat Reader.

Q: You mention an assignment and some other files (e.g., inventory.xls) in the tutorials. Where can I find these files?

A: Students who take this course typically have to do an assignment. A "dummy" assignment guide (which contains pointers to the inventory file, etc.) can be found at http://mis.bus.sfu.ca/tutorials/MSAccess/pages/tps_guide.html. Note that the support files need to be unzipped (using WinZip or PKZip) before they can be read by Access or Excel.

Q: I have downloaded the files for the Access tutorial; however, when I attempt to run the Install.bat file, I get the DOS window message "Bad command, File not found". This leads me to think that I am downloading an empty icon.

A: The contents of the .bat file are simply

    part1.exe -d
    part2.exe -d
    del part1.exe
    del part2.exe

This batch file is used to ensure that you run the .exe files (self-extracting archives) with the -d flag. This flag is used to maintain the directory structure of the tutorials and indexes on your computer during the unzip process. Once the files are extracted, the Del command is run to delete the .exe files. In some cases, the Del command gives the error message above (I don't know why, but it is a minor issue).

You can type these commands yourself from the DOS prompt, or use a program like WinZip to extract the files. The important thing is that the directory structure not be changed (or else the full-text searching across all chapters will not work). You can delete the .exe files after unzipping or keep them. It does not matter.

Q: I have a problem with <insert problem here>. Can you help me?

A: Unfortunately, I am getting out of the free consulting business. Most cities have an Access or database users group that you can use as a starting point to contact experienced programmers and consultants. I will do my best when the question comes from a non-developed country, but I make no promises.

Q: When are you going to upgrade the material and fix all the typos?

A: I don't know. It has become a low priority at this point. Ideally, I would like to redo the whole thing with screen-cam videos to better explain the tricky parts, but this is on the back burner for now.

Questions, queries, comments to Michael Brydon (mjbrydon@sfu.ca)