Book Review: Access 2002 VBA Step By Step

October 17, 2003

Buy this book

I want to explain how I came to be in possession of this book. Though I've been programming with MS Access for over 7 years, I only just recently joined my local Microsoft Access User Group .  I finally rearranged my life so I could attend meetings and joined the group. The evening of my first meeting, my first visit to the group, I won a door prize: The Microsoft Press book, Access 2002 Visual Basic for Applications Step By Step by Evan Callahan.

Being a step-by-step book I assumed that most of its contents would be familiar to me, but I never turn down a book. I am always looking for that tip or trick I have never heard of that will save me hours of development time in the long run. Even if I find nothing genuinely "new" it is always nice to be reminded of the many and various features of Microsoft Access. So, on with the review.

• What's in the book?
• How's it written?
• Tips and tricks found
• Is it worth the $39.99?

What's in the book?

The author, Evan Callahan, begins by explaining how to use wizards to create a database, form and command button. If you need instruction on how to accomplish these tasks, you probably would not be buying a book with the words "Visual Basic for Applications" in the title. All the same, the chapter was not offensive and by the second chapter, we are already writing custom code.

In the author's defense, I should point out that the button click code generated by the wizard is used to explain and describe the anatomy of a procedure. This assumes, of course, that we consider the Microsoft Access wizard coding style to be the best template from which to learn programming. While that is, to a large degree, how I taught myself coding, I cannot say with a certainty that it is the best way.

The book's 15 chapters include instruction on the following topics:

• Filtering and validating data
• Understanding and reacting to form and control events
• Writing your own functions with error handling
• Navigating through your application
• Custom menus, toolbars and finishing touches
• Exploring Access objects and collections
• Report tricks in VBA code
• Automating Word, Excel and Outlook from within MS Access
• Web topics (of course ... it's mandatory)

How's it written?

In my opinion, the book is well written and it reads with little discomfort. Technical books have a tendency to get tiresome at times, but the author mixes up a good variety of explanatory text, code snippets and screen shots. Regularly placed "Tips" sections contain useful information and are not overdone.

Callahan's code examples are praiseworthy and they are included in the CD that comes with the book. The reader is walked through topics while creating a Newsletter Subscription Database Application, which, while simple, represents a real world business solution.

I typically read technical books with a red pen and a yellow highlighter. I use a red pen so that points I mark stand out when I am revisiting the book, months (or sometimes years) later. Flipping through the book as I prepared this article I noticed numerous paragraphs flagged with red ink, some even got the highly coveted "good tip" comment. Not that these points are earth-shattering revelations, mind you. They are, however, good, solid tips without which the book would be incomplete.  

Tips and tricks found

What would a review be without a little preview of what you can expect? Following is a brief list of some of the 'Tips and Tricks' I uncovered.

1. Turn off the animated Office Assistant
You'll get more flexibility accessing the Help topics using the Contents and Answer Wizard tabs in the Help Window.  (Better yet, find an old copy of the help file for Access. It is better than either one!)
 

2. Try out the Immediate Window  (Ctl + G)
This is the best tip in the book, and one I highly recommend! From the Immediate window, you can do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that you can do in code. Want to run a function?  Type it in and hit ENTER, and it will run.  Type a question mark (or the word PRINT) and the function will return its value.  For example, type ?Date() or ?Now() and it will print the current date or date-time value. Type Len("My Name Is Danny") in the Immediate window, and it will return the number 16.  You can even access Form controls.  For example, to set the row source for a list box, you could type this line into the Immediate Window and change the property:

  
  Forms!frmMain.lstOut.RowSource = "SELECT * FROM tblIssue Where State='CO'"

3. Tip:  While you can include a space in a button caption, its underlying control name should NEVER include a space.
The text on the button can read Add  Record but its name should be AddRecord, or better yet, cmdAddRecord.  (I know this seems simple, but it will save you hours and hours of development time.)  

4. Get the most out of Intellisense: 
When you type a dot after an object, such as the DoCmd object, or even one of your controls,such as cmdAddRecord mentioned above, Intellisense kicks in and gives you a list of options from which to choose.  You can select one by using the up and down arrows to navigate up and down the list, or by typing the first few letters of the property or method.  You probably knew that, but did you know that you can select it by tapping the Spacebar?  Did you know that if the Intellisense list does not pop up (or disappears) you can open the option list by holding down the control key and pressing the spacebar (Ctl + spacebar)?  That's a tip worth knowing.  

5. Procedure and Function naming and best practices.
The book twice mentions best practices on how to name procedures and functions, as well as suggestions on how to effectively delegate tasks within functions to make them flexible and reusable.  If you aren't already using these techniques in your code, you should read this.  

Is it worth the $39.99?

That's a difficult question for me to answer. Remember, I won this book as a door prize. Over the last eight years I'd say I've read about 80% of all the Access books on the market  With that much devotion to all things Access, I'm usually surprised when I stumble on genuinely new information, and I found nothing new in this book.

If, however, you are relatively new to Access and want a good start on becoming a power user, it is not a bad place to start. At just under $40 it's not the most expensive book on the bookstore shelf and its code examples and best practice suggestions are likely to save you more than a couple of hours of development time, which means this book might pay for itself.  

Buy this book

» See All Articles by Columnist Danny J. Lesandrini