Learn how to create real-world business databases using Microsoft Access 2003. In this six-week online course, you'll see how to design the tables that most businesses need to manage customers, products, orders, receipts, invoices, and mailing labels. Avoid the common pitfalls of poor table design, which leads to endless frustration trying to get things to work.

You'll pick up many tools and techniques for designing professional-looking forms that make data entry quick and easy. You'll also learn how to create forms that automatically do much of the work for you, such as calculating totals and applying sales tax. You'll create reports to print mailing labels, invoices, and receipts for orders. And you'll see how to make the finished product easy to use with simple one-click access to all the main features of the database.

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Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

Microsoft Access is a more than just a tool for managing data. It's a tool for building custom database applications, just like those used in virtually all businesses, large and small. In our first lesson, you'll learn what creating database applications is all about. We'll review some basics, such as how you design tables and why you separate your data into multiple tables. Then we'll talk about techniques you can use to make the computer—not people—do all the hard work in managing large amounts of data.

Friday - Lesson 02

There's an old saying in the database world that says "garbage in, garbage out." In other words, whatever you put into a database is exactly what you'll get back out. If the data you put in is no good, neither is the data you'll retrieve. In this lesson, we'll look at ways to make sure only "good" data gets into your database. Plus, you'll learn how to make data entry fast and painless by replacing the need to type information with simple point-and-click data entry.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Forms are a key ingredient in quick, error-free data entry. Like a fill-in-the-blanks paper form, Access forms provide a clear, organized method of describing the information that the user needs to enter. But unlike a paper form, Access can verify data and reject bad data before it even gets into the database. In this lesson, we'll explore all the tools and techniques you'll need to create forms that not only look good, but also minimize the work required to get data into the database, all while keeping the garbage out of your database.

Friday - Lesson 04

If you have any experience with Windows at all, you're probably familiar with tabbed dialog boxes. These tabs divide all the information and options available in the dialog box into distinct sections so you're not overwhelmed by dozens of options the moment the dialog box opens. In this lesson, you'll learn how to create your own custom Access dialog boxes with tabs. Doing so will let you create custom database applications that have the same look and feel that everyday Windows dialog boxes offer.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

In the real world, there are countless examples of one-to-many relationships among data. For example, any one product in a business may be sold to many different customers. Any one student in a school might enroll in many different courses. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to define these relationships and how to use Access subforms to display the many items of data that are related to any one item of data in a table.

Friday - Lesson 06

When it comes to doing any form of math, nothing in the world is as quick or as accurate as a computer. Regardless of what kind of data you're managing, Access quickly and accurately does the math required to calculate totals, subtotals, percentages, and so forth. To get Access to do the math correctly, you'll use expressions. So in today's lesson, you'll learn what expressions are all about, how to create them, and how to make sure they always provide exactly the results you want.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Sometimes just having Access do the math in a database isn't enough. Sometimes you'll want Access to make decisions about how to do the math. For example, before Access can calculate the sales tax on an order, it needs to decide if sales tax is even applicable to the product being sold, which could depend on where the order is being sent. To tell Access how to make such decisions, you'll need to use logical expressions. So in today's lesson, we'll explore how logical expressions work and how to create them.

Friday - Lesson 08

When you're dealing with data where there's a natural one-to-many relationship among bits of information, sometimes you'll need to do calculations on whole chunks of records. For example, in an order form, you may need to multiply the quantities of products purchased by the unit price of each product and come up with a total. In this lesson, we'll talk about Access functions that allow you to do just that—total up values from multiple database records to come up with a single subtotal or total number.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Typing the same information (such as a customer's name and address) into a database over and over again isn't just a big waste of time, it could also lead to an error. Wouldn't it be better to ask Access to bring that information up onto the screen when you need it? In today's lesson, we'll go over exactly how to use records from multiple related tables within a database.

Friday - Lesson 10

If you ever find yourself performing the same task repeatedly in a database, chances are you can automate that task using a macro. A macro is a series of steps that you can define and run with a simple click of a button. Today you'll learn how to create such macros, as well as the buttons that make them work their magic.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

Everyone needs to print data from their database from time to time. In this lesson, you'll learn how to create professional-looking reports for printing mailing labels, invoices, receipts, and just about anything else you might want to put on paper. You'll also learn some shortcuts for using any existing form as the basis for a report so you don't have to create all of your printed reports from scratch.

Friday - Lesson 12

An Access database can contain many different types of objects—tables, queries, forms, reports, and macros, to name a few. Trying to use these objects through the database window can be confusing and time-consuming. In our final lesson, you'll learn to simplify your database by creating a switchboard. A switchboard will allow you, or anyone else who uses the database, to take advantage of all that your database has to offer just by clicking a button on the screen!

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Alan Simpson.

With over 100 published books to his name, award-winning author Alan Simpson is widely regarded as a PC and Internet guru. His books have been published throughout the world in over a dozen languages. As a seasoned veteran of the computer industry, Alan's books and online courses cover virtually all aspects of the computer industry, including Web development, operating systems, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, programming, networking, and security.

Requirements:

Microsoft Windows XP or 2000; Microsoft Access 2003 or Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 (please be sure to install this software on your computer before the course begins); completion of Introduction to Microsoft Access 2003 (or equivalent experience creating basic tables, queries, forms, and reports); Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader). This course is not suitable for Macintosh users, nor for users of any of the 2007 versions of Microsoft Access.

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