G'day from New Zealand

[CatDad]

G'day! I'm relatively new to Access and have spent the past year working with a database that generates stationery for cat shows, including Judges Sheets, Catalogues, and it even kind of handles some points scoring. It was passed down to me by its creator, who was retiring at the time. Before that, I had never used Access let alone seen it, so learning it in around a month before my first cat show felt like being thrown into the deep end of the Mariana Trench. Most of it worked, some of it kind of worked, while other parts seemed kludged together for editing in Excel.

Despite the challenges, I managed to get through around five cat shows last year, thanks to a lot of perseverance and a great deal of help from ChatGPT. Now, I think it's time to properly learn Access so that I can get everything working smoothly and efficiently. I'm hopeful that by understanding the fundamentals, I can make it work as intended and maybe even improve it a little further.

 

[Jon]

Welcome to Access World! We're so happy to have you join us as a member of our community. As the most active Microsoft Access discussion forum on the internet, with posts dating back more than 20 years, we have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with you.

We're a friendly and helpful community, so don't hesitate to ask any questions you have or share your own experiences with Access. We're here to support you and help you get the most out of this powerful database program.

To get started, we recommend reading the post linked below. It contains important information for all new users of the forum:

https://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/threads/new-member-read-me-first.223250/

We hope you have a great time participating in the discussion and learning from other Access enthusiasts. We look forward to having you around!

 

[Gasman]

Check out YouTube as well. Plenty of videos on their about most aspects of Access.

 

[NauticalGent]

Welcome aboard! If learning Access is your goal, I suggest Steve Bishop's video series on YouTube. Once you get the basics down, there are a few series on using VBA, the programming language the drives Office applications.

And of course, if you have a specific question regarding your inherited application, this forum is the perfect place to do it.

 

[jdraw]

Welcome to AWF, CatDad!
The articles/links in my signature may be helpful to your learning Access and database.

 

[theDBguy]

Hi. Welcome to AWF!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Since that was your first post and you claim to be a novice at working inside Access, I'll just offer this advice. When asking a question, try to be specific and - if it is related to something about your shows or about cats - be sure to include at least some minimal background. Not all of us are cat experts. If you get an error message, don't say "I got an error" ... say "I got this error:" and then tell us what it was,

Sounds like I'm being picky? No, what I told you is how YOU get the fastest possible answer.

 

[CatDad]

Welcome aboard! If learning Access is your goal, I suggest Steve Bishop's video series on YouTube. Once you get the basics down, there are a few series on using VBA, the programming language the drives Office applications.

And of course, if you have a specific question regarding your inherited application, this forum is the perfect place to do it.

Thanks for the welcome and the recommendation to watch some Steve Bishop videos. I have a Python background so I can figure out most of the basic stuff, but I've gotten to stage now where the ideas I'm having in order to improve the database are way beyond the basic stuff and require a few more skills. Have started watching Steve Bishop's serious on Programming in Access

 

[CatDad]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Since that was your first post and you claim to be a novice at working inside Access, I'll just offer this advice. When asking a question, try to be specific and - if it is related to something about your shows or about cats - be sure to include at least some minimal background. Not all of us are cat experts. If you get an error message, don't say "I got an error" ... say "I got this error:" and then tell us what it was,

Sounds like I'm being picky? No, what I told you is how YOU get the fastest possible answer.

Thanks for the welcome and the excellent advice. I understand fully what you mean by the lack the background information that some provide when they're trying to resolve something. It's been one of my pet peeves also while hunting for answers through Google.

 

[NauticalGent]

but I've gotten to stage now where the ideas I'm having in order to improve the database are way beyond the basic stuff and require a few more skills.

Most people who come here from programming backgrounds come here with the same thought. But, Access is different - the more you know how to do Access, you will realize that nothing does Access better than Access. A lot of people fall into this trap and realize that had they known "The Access Way" (with apologies to @Pat Hartman), they could have saved themselves much gnashing of teeth, wringing of hands, hair pulling,. etc...