AL: Tips & Shortcuts for the Beginning Access Developer, Part 1, by Maria Barnes & Crystal Long

Join Crystal and Maria as they go through a fast-paced tips and shortcuts presentation for beginning Access developers. Even if you've built with Access for a long time, you'll probably pick up something useful. Special thanks to the experts who were connected and shared valuable comments.

Overview of Tables, Queries, Forms, and Reports. Then, more in-depth with different ways to create tables and paste data in from other places. Relationships and Indexes. Shortcuts to navigate, edit, launch features like the Zoom box or Spell Checker, do Window things, enter data, and more. Properties and some settings for options. Creating queries. Please let us know in the comments what you liked the best! ... and anything you'd like to see in Part 2 -- thank you :)
... and your questions about anything we covered if something wasn't clear.

Tips and Shortcuts for the Beginning Access Developer, Part 1
29 December 2020

Crystal's Favorite Shortcut Keys for Microsoft Access

Maria's presentation slides:

Get Northwind Database template for Microsoft Access

Problem names and reserved words in Access, by Allen Browne

Crystal's YouTube Channel

(00:53) Northwind database template
(01:43) Four basic types of objects are Tables, Queries, Forms, and Reports
(02:45) CRUD (all data stored in tables)
(03:48) Names should be concise yet descriptive
(05:17) create table using datasheet view
(05:25) make a new field by choosing a data type from the dropdown in the Click to Add column at the end
(06:30) Paste as Fields to create fieldnames and data
(07:32) Look at Table Design
(08:21) reserved words
(10:23) Primary Key
(12:23) Indexes
(18:33) Index size isn't dynamic
(19:49) Lookup fields (not everyone thinks these are a good idea)
(19:59) use round numbers when sizing text fields -- bump by level like 10, 50, 100 not 73
(21:00) Subdatasheet
(22:34) Relationships
(24:34) enforce referential integrity
(25:36) Question about Cascade Update
(26:02) Cascade Delete
(27:55) Datasheet navigation
(30:22) Mark records for deletion with IsActive field
(31:40) Shortcut keys
(38:35) Pencil indicator in record selector box
(40:08) question about Zoom
(43:05) create query
(46:36) avoid using spaces in names

Lunchtime chapter lead by Maria Barnes
Last Tuesday @ noon Central time CT -- join us!

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[mariabarnes]

This was really fun, Crystal. I loved how a couple of other developers chimed in with tips. I also agree with your definition of developer. If you design queries, forms, and/or reports in Access then you are a developer! You do NOT have to write code. The next session will focus on queries, forms, and reports. Please join us!

[LearnAccessByCrystal]

Here are links to all the presentations in this series:
Part 1: overview and shortcut keys (54:03)
Part 2: Forms, Reports, Macros, QAT (52:16)
Part 3: Queries! (57:12)
Part 4: VBA (1:00:27)