2. Microsoft Access and the Accidental Techie Jason DeWitt Visual Information Systems Center March 14, 2003

3. Top Five MS Access Pitfalls for Accidental Techies 5. Forgot to back up the database 4. Neglecting Security 4. Neglecting Security 3. Confusing the User 3. Confusing the User 2. Data Validation 2. Data Validation 1. Data Redundancy 1. Data Redundancy

4. 5. Backing Up the DB 5. Backing Up the DB Nothing fancy required. Just copy the database file and keep the copy on a different machine (or external storage). Probably should do this daily (small price to pay compared to cost of losing data More complicated back-up solutions can be worked out with system administrator if necessary (and if you have a system administrator)

5. 4. MS Access Security Options If you have one type of user, and you are the only user of the database, a simple and adequate security implementation is to put a password on the whole database For multi-user environments you may need to implement user-level security

6. 4. MS Access Security Options Both options are in the “Tools Menu”

7. MS Access User-Level Security Five Steps to implement User-Level Security: 1.Create a “Workgroup Information File” 2.Create groups 3.Set the permissions of these groups 4.Create users and add the users to groups 5.Have users join the “workgroup”

8. User Interface Some Design Priniciples: 1.Use a “switchboard” 2.7 (+ or – 2) Menu options 3.< 3 levels deep 4.Readable colors and fonts 5.Use Macros or VBA (Visual Basic for Access) to communicate with the user with message boxes 6.Use of Pop-Forms to aid in searching records

9. User Interface-Switchboard Example Number of menu options vs. depth of interface (A Tradeoff)

10. Data Validation Validation Rules and Text Input Masks and Formats – can be very confusing! Stick to using only input masks for data entry forms Stick to using only input masks for data entry forms If special formatting is required, you can do this on the report. No reason to use it on the data entry form. Why not...? If special formatting is required, you can do this on the report. No reason to use it on the data entry form. Why not...? Because: Input masks and formats sometimes conflict with each other and cause a snowball effect of errors Because: Input masks and formats sometimes conflict with each other and cause a snowball effect of errors

11. Data Redundancy Normalization of Tables Understanding Referential Integrity

12. Summary Ubiquity of MS Office For more help Our Website: http://visc.exp.sis.pitt.edu/ Our Website: http://visc.exp.sis.pitt.edu/ Our Digits: 412-624-9117 Our Digits: 412-624-9117 I’ll be available for the next hour or so if you want to work through some examples or have specific questions Any Alibis?