[AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Access I love it

The reason, I have found, that users like Excel is because they can SEE the
data all in one go...all there in front of them.  With a database you have
to VISUALISE the effects of normalisation and table linking and variables
and their contents/values.

I have a Finance Dept who loved excel until the day came when she finally
admitted that it had become so cumbersome with sheets linked to sheets
linked to sheets that she finally admitted she needed a database (YEAH!) and
could I help.  Course I could.  Once she had it, she never looked back and
shortly after binned the cumbersome spreadsheets.

Horses for courses.  Excel is good for what it is designed for.   It was not
designed to replace a database.

Max



-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Tony Septav
Sent: 01 July 2009 15:36
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] SPAM-LOW: Access I love it

Hey John
I am agreeing with many of the points you made the other day (God help 
me).  Let's not get into ribbons again. I consider Access to be more of 
a developer's program than a user's program.  Most Office users haven't 
got a clue what Access does or how to do it, that is why we see so many 
users using EXCEL to perform activities that are really database 
specific (and they have reams of worksheets to show for their efforts). 
I am saddened when I see strong support for the developers lacking. I 
consider Access (kind of  hate to be saying it) an excellent development 
program. And at times I want to "spit" whenever I hear other developers 
saying "Access! that is just a toy".  In my many years (and you and I 
have been on this list a long long time) I have developed what I 
consider to be some pretty powerful applications using Access. I have 
looked at  what some of the "big boys" have developed and in many cases 
they truly lack the vibrancy of an Access application. I can see MS's 
point of trying to create a product that all user's will feel 
comfortable with (marketing, marketing) but please don't do it  at the 
expense of your loyal developer's.  Just  give us what we need.
 

jwcolby wrote:

>Tony,
>
>What do you mean by "user's program"?  Obviously Access is a very powerful
Rapid Application 
>Development environment.  Can a user develop an Application?  The short
answer is sure, given the 
>smarts any user can do what we do.  The long answer is... how long did it
take for you to get good 
>at application development?  It took me years of doing nothing else.  Users
generally have a "job" 
>in the organization which is not usually application development.
>
>I have users who develop reports and even forms.  Some add fields to
tables, though I discourage 
>that simply because the average user isn't thinking about normalization.
>
>John W. Colby
>www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
>
>Tony Septav wrote:
>  
>
>>Hey All
>>Often Access totally surprises me. I have an application that uses split 
>>screens and 3 synched timer forms. The idea was to allow management to 
>>input/update data and it would be displayed to the employees on the 
>>floor. Initially I ran into problems with the timers and what Windows 
>>was running in the background.  Brought in a friend of mine who is a 
>>hardware/software guru. He turned a lot of stuff off. Since then the app 
>>has been running flawlessly for 7 months now and  everyone is happy.  
>>They visually have the information they need.
>>My point
>>Is Access a User's program or a true Developer's program?
>>    
>>

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