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#1
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WHY
Well then let us hound microsoft to make Access easier to use than
Filemaker.. I know you can go and start typing stuff in in access.. it's like one of the options when you start a new table all i know is that i was working as a video game tester 7 years ago; and there were 30 of us that had to write queries in a database in order to look for duplicate bugs.. i know that all 30 of us learned it without fail in about 2 hours. We could all write queries; using wizards; schedule a bunch of queries using macros.. its' like childs play.. it just seems like that would be in the best interest of 90% of the worlds computer users-- sit everyone down and spend 2 hours how to use access.. i just love how easy it is to use.. it is powerful.. i mean-- excel just won't work for reporting out of a database.. and access is too hard to learn so you guys think that microsoft should include access as a part of the standard edition of office? would that help?? i just know that excel is a disease; and i want to know why more people have that sneer in their voice when they say 'oh, you mean microsoft access?' i wish that microsoft would do something about their marketing problem it's like access and excel are lovers.. some prefer the men; some like the women.. thats your perogative.. but i for one; refuse to spend all day long in a girly-man program i just am one that realizes the efficiences that are available in my office suite. and i wish that microsoft would make acceess sexy again. that's microsoft's problem in the database market--- they are pigeonholed into a marketing problem with access; and SQL Server rocks-- but Microsoft doesn't deliver a consistent marketing images that say 'databases are sexy; here are our offerings' microsoft has a marketing problem in access and that's why they're not more successful in the database market.. is because all the excel people sneer at Access. "Bill Sharpe" wrote in message ... Excel is not a database, although it can handle smaller flat-file databases easily. Get into relational databases or a large number of records and you will run into problems with Excel. A lot of people use Excel because they don't have Access on their computers. And Access isn't that easy to use -- FileMaker Pro is much more user-friendly. I have taught Word, Excel, and Access in an introductory computer class. Students can start typing immediately in Word or start filling in cells directly in Excel. But they have to go through the steps of creating a new database to get started in Access. Bill wrote in message ... How is Access not intuitive? Can I get specifics, please? I will work to get it changed.. I've been doing Access for so long my fingers bleed DAO lol I've tried to teach a dozen friends how to use Access over the years; and they just dont understand it.. I just feel like maybe I need to get some sort of professional trainer training-- aka how to be a trainer. I've had a dozen friends that have been out of work these past 4 years.. and they can't get a real job.. and trying to teach them Access just isn't working. Or what I really wish; is that there were college-level programs that focused on Excel, for example.. Not accounting, not finance, not VBA-- Excel. I would gladly take night-classes for a year if I could be an Excel Super User-- I like a lot of thigns about Excel.. but I can't.. It just makes me sick to think about being forced to type stuff in spreadsheets all day long. I dont think that there are courses that are challenging enough in order to be of any interest to me. I mean-- I just dont get it I would gladly take a course in excel; if it had real-world spreadsheets; of real-world situations where poeple use Excel to report out of a database. But it's not the best platform for the job. They just need to make a whole family of certifications for Excel power users; I think... I think that would help these people to grow-- because as it is; i just see a whole bunch of Excel novices that throw numbers around and cut and paste.. i mean-- i don't think that very many excel people are that skilled at it-- i mean; there aren't that many people using Lookups and stuff-- its just like copy and paste; or referring to other cells.. I mean-- 3 or 4 certifications-- from entry level to advanced users to developers.. "Nick Hodge" wrote in message ... Aaron Some interesting thoughts and many quite valid. People do blindly use Excel for things it really isn't made for, but when you have a tool which, for most users is quite intuitive, they will automatically try to move to it. I've seen photo albums held in Excel and have a financial controller who finds Access daunting as it's interface for the standard user is just not intuitive. On the specific point of reports. I use an Excel front end to summarise over 250,000 records into a pivot table. The data comes from an Access database which is updated each week and takes around 3-4 minutes with no user intervention. It has multiple row and column fields a series of charts and with about an hours training is used throughout my organisation for everyone's needs from Finance through Marketing to Sales and Logistics by the user simply dragging and dropping fields. The data is accessible and graphically presented to even the most reluctant user with ease. None of which could be claimed for Access alone I love both tools, but then I love data! -- HTH Nick Hodge Microsoft MVP - Excel Southampton, England HIS wrote in message ... why is it that people like Excel so much? I hate it with a passion-- it's like-- my job for the past 4 ot 6 years.. has to been to run around and fix 'excel messes'... automate such and such excel report it's like-- if you guys would just stop using excel-- treat it as a drug-- and start doing stuff in Access-- this world would be a much more efficient world. it's like-- people _never_ have clean data in Excel... there is no validation.. people use it for data entry; and keeping track of stuff-- and it just boggles my mind that people use this POS program for reporting. I mean-- it isn't a reporting tool. It isn't in the same league as Access and Crystal Reports. It's like Access can automate what Excel people do; and then you won't get stuck writing the same report every week. Why don't more poeple hate Excel like I do? I just am frustrated.. because I've seen enough Excel in my life that it makes me sick.. It really is a drug, or a disease.. And when I grow up; and I'm in charge of an IT department.. the first thing that I'm going to do is to Uninstall Excel from _EVERYONE's_ machine and start with the basics. It's all about reusability-- and I dont see excel having any. And I just want to know why is it that poeple think that using Excel for reporting is an acceptable route? It's like a travesty-- 50% of all people in the modern workplace-- all they do is make the same report in Excel; week in and week out. and I don't understand why Microsoft doesn't try to really help these people to use their time more efficiently. It's not about needing sharepoint-- i dont need sharepoint to help me to track my spreadsheets-- that makes the problem worse. Aaron |
#2
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wrote in message ... Well then let us hound microsoft to make Access easier to use than Filemaker.. I know you can go and start typing stuff in in access.. it's like one of the options when you start a new table ------ Access is up to version 11. I wouldn't hold my breath about MS making it easier to use. I open Word and start typing immediately. I open Excel and start typing immediately. I open Access and I can't start typing yet. And Excel does have validation. Bill |
#3
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1) you can start typing in access, you idiot
2) is it really benefical to type the same spreadsheet every month?? Long-term-- is that how you increase in efficiency?? Access is about saving effort; and reusing business logic.. building queries that you can reuse in multiple places.. instead of copying spreadsheets and having a maintenance nightmare I've seen this in every company i've ever been in-- and i've also seen a LOT of Access in my day.. but I've easily seen 100 spreadsheets for every Access database I've seen in the 20 companies i've consulted for. But I've seen a LOT of Access in my day; I've seen ~~100 Access Applications in at least 3 companies i've been at. i just dont understand it.. Access is a MUCH superior product; but there is a lil marketing problem; and Microsoft can't win the database war without confronting it. Microsoft needs to 1) make Access sexy again 2) make it easier to use 3) include it with every version of Office That is what they need to do to get traction in the marketplace. So get it done, Microsoft-- there is my Christmas list to Microsoft.. 1) make Access sexy again 2) make it easier to use 3) include it with every version of Office 1) make Access sexy again 2) make it easier to use 3) include it with every version of Office 1) make Access sexy again 2) make it easier to use 3) include it with every version of Office 1) make Access sexy again 2) make it easier to use 3) include it with every version of Office people have the ability to have their own personal data warehouse.. That is what Access is-- your own desktop data warehouse. and still 50% of the workplace makes the same lame spreadsheet every month. Copying and Pasting; and copying and pasting; i mean ****-- wasn't this passe in 1995?? there are new Excel people being born every minute.. it's like DIDN'T WE INVENT BIRTH CONTROL TO KEEP TABS ON YOU BEANCOUNTERS?? it just boggles my mind-- WHAT VALUE DO YOU GUYS SEE IN RECREATING THE SAME REPORT BY HAND EVERY MONTH?? -aaron ADP Nationalist "Bill Sharpe" wrote in message ... wrote in message ... Well then let us hound microsoft to make Access easier to use than Filemaker.. I know you can go and start typing stuff in in access.. it's like one of the options when you start a new table ------ Access is up to version 11. I wouldn't hold my breath about MS making it easier to use. I open Word and start typing immediately. I open Excel and start typing immediately. I open Access and I can't start typing yet. And Excel does have validation. Bill |
#4
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wrote in message ... 1) you can start typing in access, you idiot --watch it, Aaron! No I cannot. The opening window in Word lets me start typing immediately. The opening window in Excel lets me start typing in cell A1 immediately. The opening screen in Access 2003 is blank, except for a task pane, which offers five choices under new file. If I select blank database I get a file new database window and must give the database a name, then click create. Then I get Access' DB window, where I can click create table by entering data. I do not consider these steps to represent "start typing in Access." I'm not saying this is a difficult operation, but it is certainly more complicated than starting Word or Excel. I will agree with your main premise that Excel is not a major database application, but Excel does have its merits as a spreadsheet. Bill |
#5
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Bill Sharpe wrote:
wrote in message ... 1) you can start typing in access, you idiot --watch it, Aaron! No I cannot. The opening window in Word lets me start typing immediately. The opening window in Excel lets me start typing in cell A1 immediately. The opening screen in Access 2003 is blank, except for a task pane, which offers five choices under new file. If I select blank database I get a file new database window and must give the database a name, then click create. Then I get Access' DB window, where I can click create table by entering data. I do not consider these steps to represent "start typing in Access." I'm not saying this is a difficult operation, but it is certainly more complicated than starting Word or Excel. I will agree with your main premise that Excel is not a major database application, but Excel does have its merits as a spreadsheet. Bill Exactly Bill, I want Aaron to tell me an easy way to create a financial model in Access and then start doing some sensitivity analysis. |
#6
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On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:37:56 -0800, "Bill Sharpe"
wrote: I will agree with your main premise that Excel is not a major database application, but Excel does have its merits as a spreadsheet. As I like to say, "You can drive nails with a crescent wrench - but that doesn't make it a hammer". John W. Vinson[MVP] Join the online Access Chats Tuesday 11am EDT - Thursday 3:30pm EDT http://community.compuserve.com/msdevapps |
#7
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lol
"Bill Sharpe" a écrit dans le message de ... wrote in message ... 1) you can start typing in access, you idiot --watch it, Aaron! No I cannot. The opening window in Word lets me start typing immediately. The opening window in Excel lets me start typing in cell A1 immediately. The opening screen in Access 2003 is blank, except for a task pane, which offers five choices under new file. If I select blank database I get a file new database window and must give the database a name, then click create. Then I get Access' DB window, where I can click create table by entering data. I do not consider these steps to represent "start typing in Access." I'm not saying this is a difficult operation, but it is certainly more complicated than starting Word or Excel. I will agree with your main premise that Excel is not a major database application, but Excel does have its merits as a spreadsheet. Bill |
#8
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why not ????
"Bill Sharpe" a écrit dans le message de ... wrote in message ... 1) you can start typing in access, you idiot --watch it, Aaron! No I cannot. The opening window in Word lets me start typing immediately. The opening window in Excel lets me start typing in cell A1 immediately. The opening screen in Access 2003 is blank, except for a task pane, which offers five choices under new file. If I select blank database I get a file new database window and must give the database a name, then click create. Then I get Access' DB window, where I can click create table by entering data. I do not consider these steps to represent "start typing in Access." I'm not saying this is a difficult operation, but it is certainly more complicated than starting Word or Excel. I will agree with your main premise that Excel is not a major database application, but Excel does have its merits as a spreadsheet. Bill |
#9
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Sorry.. you have to save the file that you're workign on before you can
start typing. Then when you create a new file-- taking a whole 10 seconds-- MAYBE--- then you can 'create table by entering data' this is about as easy as it gets. you can dive right into it and start naming columsn and fields-- just like you can in Excel.. and all you have to do is create 1 file ONCE and then you're going to be twice as efficient long term. I think that is a time-saving proposition personally "Bill Sharpe" wrote in message ... wrote in message ... 1) you can start typing in access, you idiot --watch it, Aaron! No I cannot. The opening window in Word lets me start typing immediately. The opening window in Excel lets me start typing in cell A1 immediately. The opening screen in Access 2003 is blank, except for a task pane, which offers five choices under new file. If I select blank database I get a file new database window and must give the database a name, then click create. Then I get Access' DB window, where I can click create table by entering data. I do not consider these steps to represent "start typing in Access." I'm not saying this is a difficult operation, but it is certainly more complicated than starting Word or Excel. I will agree with your main premise that Excel is not a major database application, but Excel does have its merits as a spreadsheet. Bill |
#10
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so can we get Microsoft to make it so that when you launch Access; it will
automagically start a new database; and then it makes you save it when you hit save? make it more similiar to Excel and Word? Just a lil bit of slight-of-hand would make this possible; i could probably edit one of the MDW wizards and get this done in about 10 mintues and then our precious beancounters could start typing right when they open Access? it would save them time-- it should at least be an option. I create a new MDB or ADP probably 10 times per day anyways.. so it would probably save me some time also -Aaron "NewsMan" wrote in message news:bsLvd.79375$6f6.52213@edtnps89... Bill Sharpe wrote: wrote in message ... 1) you can start typing in access, you idiot --watch it, Aaron! No I cannot. The opening window in Word lets me start typing immediately. The opening window in Excel lets me start typing in cell A1 immediately. The opening screen in Access 2003 is blank, except for a task pane, which offers five choices under new file. If I select blank database I get a file new database window and must give the database a name, then click create. Then I get Access' DB window, where I can click create table by entering data. I do not consider these steps to represent "start typing in Access." I'm not saying this is a difficult operation, but it is certainly more complicated than starting Word or Excel. I will agree with your main premise that Excel is not a major database application, but Excel does have its merits as a spreadsheet. Bill Exactly Bill, I want Aaron to tell me an easy way to create a financial model in Access and then start doing some sensitivity analysis. |
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