Instructions

The goal of these tutorials is to provide you with sufficient skills to build a simple database application for processing business transactions.

Microsoft Access Tutorials: On-line version

	Table of Contents	8.	Combo Box Controls
1.	Introduction to Microsoft Access	9.	Advanced Forms
2.	Tables	10.	Parameter Queries
3.	Relationships	11.	Action Queries
4.	Basic Queries Using QBE	12.	An Introduction to Visual Basic
5.	Basic Queries using SQL	13.	Event-Driven Programming Using Macros
6.	Creating Basic Forms	14.	Data Access Objects
7.	Subforms	15.	Advanced Triggers

Support files for the tutorials (you will need these files to complete the tutorials)

	univ0_v2.mdb (zipped)	Tutorial file for users of Access version 2.0 and Access Version 7.0
	univ0_v7.mdb (zipped)
	depts.xls (zipped)	Department information to import

Microsoft Access Tutorials: Self-contained package

	install.bat	These compressed files include all the PDF tutorial files plus the index files and directories required for full-text search. Each file is small enough to fit on a 1.44 MB floppy disk. use the Save As command in your browser to save install.bat to a file (or remember the commands in the batch file and execute them yourself), copy all three files into a suitable directory, run install.bat to extract the files and index directories.
	part1.exe
	part2.exe

Microsoft Access Tutorials: Print-only version

2up.pdf

Print-only version: The tutorials are combined into one PDF file and formatted in "2-up" mode (two pages of content per piece of paper). The hypertext links do not work in this document--it is intended for printing only. Note that the images print best on a PostScript printer. Results are less certain using non-PS printers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Two hints on using the Acrobat Reader:

1. Version 3.0 provides a plug-in that works with most WWW browsers (e.g., Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer) and allows the PDF document to be shown within the browser window. This is a convenient way to view one tutorial. However, the links between the tutorials and the table of contents may not work from within the browser.
2. You can download a version of the Acrobat Reader that includes the Acrobat full-text search plug-in. The self-contained version of the tutorials provides an index that can be used by the search plug-in to search across the entire set of tutorials. This may be a useful feature.

For those people in the Internet community who have stumbled upon these tutorials (i.e., for those not taking my course), I have created a quick-and-dirty FAQ. Please note that you are free to use these tutorials for educational and non-commercial use. The standard disclaimers etc. apply.

Go to tutorial FAQ

Comments about content or information concerning typos and other mistakes are always welcome at mailto:mjbrydon@sfu.ca?Subject=MS Access Tutorials.

Colophon

These tutorials were created using Adobe FrameMaker 5 for Windows 95/NT. Each chapter was printed as a separate PostScript file and Adobe Acrobat Distiller was used to convert the PS files to PDF. Acrobat Catalog was used to create the index. The screen shots were done with SnagIt and Corel PhotoPaint.

The advantage of FrameMaker for this type of project is that it automatically generates PDF bookmarks for the hypertext links and cross references within the FrameMaker document. It also automatically generates the table of contents and the list of bookmarks that shows in the left-hand column when you select View > Bookmarks and Page.

The reason I used PDF instead of HTML is that HTML provides relatively little typographic control (at least for HTML non-wizards like myself). My goal was to make these tutorials readable on screen. As such, I wanted to use a large sans-serif font, narrow columns, and a page size that fit on most monitors without constant scrolling.

In addition, I wanted to exploit Acrobat's full-text indexing and much greater control over printing (printing is a requirement when viewing the tutorials at a resolution lower than 1024 x 768).

News

Given the demand for these tutorials from people in the Internet community and the positive feedback I have received over the years, I have decided to create a new site for people who are not enrolled in my courses but would like to learn about the use of information technology to solve business problems. The new site will feature:

1. Expanded and improved tutorials.
2. Coverage of all versions of Access from 2.0 to 2000.
3. Lessons illustrating techniques for using data in decision making contexts (advanced querying, data warehousing, OLAP using Excel).

Since I use much of this material in my undergraduate and MBA courses, it will continue to be freely available for educational and non-commercial uses. An enhanced version on CD-ROM will also be available for purchase on the site for about US$20. The enhanced version will feature:

1. Screen videos in each lesson to demonstrate the trickier concepts and techniques
2. Lessons illustrating web-database integration using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) and Active Server Pages (ASP).

If the enhanced version generates some revenue, I intend to create new tutorials covering different business problems.

I expect that the new site will be up and running by the start of summer (May or June 2000).

This date was a bit optimistic given my other commitments. But I should be ready with the new material this month (September 2000).