The aim of this set of notes is to provide some guidance for those students intending to learn to use a relational database such as Microsoft Access (or FileMaker Pro).

What is Access?

Access is a computer program (software) produced by Microsoft, a company based in Seattle, USA. Access is part of the so-called 'Microsoft Office Suite'. A word of warning; not all versions of the Office Suite contain Access. FileMaker Pro is a similar product, but is perhaps, more common in the Macintosh environment.

Relational databases vs. flat file databases

Access and FileMaker are examples of what is called a relational database. Relational databases are quite sophisticated and are certainly more powerful than the database functions contained in 'flat file' databases such as Excel which, when used as a database, is really a list manager.

What's a database - our definition

"Databases are software programs used to store information that an individual (or a company) might require. They commonly contain very large amounts of information which are important to the operations of the company. Their major advantage over other methods of storing information, is the speed with which relevant information can be recalled and displayed in useful form."

What can you store in a database?

Databases can store both text and numbers (for example, the a library catalogue, which might include the author, title, class number and accession number [Dewey Number] for each book held in the collection) along with many other types of data, such as image files, audio files etc.

You already use many databases

Even though you are unaware of it, many databases are encountered in our daily lives. A shopping list for example, is a tiny database; your address book of contacts (your little black book) is another simple database. The white pages telephone directory or 'Yellow Pages', are all examples of (much larger) databases. There is a computer program behind the storage of that all that information, although we mostly use them in a 'manual' (printed) sense. 

Determining your 'Access' training needs

Your first step in determining a suitable training program for your needs should be to make sure that you understand what it is that you want to achieve with Access. I.e. you need to define your aims at the outset. 

If for example, you were working with a team of research scientists and were charged with the responsibility of growing plants in a glasshouse, stressing the plants by restricting the availability of water to them, measuring growth rates, sending leaf samples to a laboratory for analysis, bringing the leaf data back, marrying the leaf analysis data to your growth data and finally export the appropriate information to Excel for statistical analysis you would needs to write this plan down before you start using Access.

The figure below summarizes the flow of information in this type of experiment.

Once you have the data flow problem sorted out, you can approach your database application program (such as Microsoft Access) with a clear idea about how data will flow between the database and other tools on your computer and between the database and outside laboratories.

Summary

So, the real power of relational databases like Access and FileMaker lies in their speed and flexibility. Your database application can give you the ability to store information effectively, find specific information very quickly and sort, group and present that information in a variety of ways. In addition, you can export information to external programs for further analysis.

Access is also quite easy to use  - you can have an application 'up and running' quite quickly, especially as you use one of the 'wizards' available in the program.

Let's now begin our Access journey and we hope that you will enjoy learning to use it effectively.

The syllabus

Click here to see the detailed syllabus on our course "An Introduction to Access" and here for the course "An Introduction to FileMaker Pro". Each course costs $A750.00 when taken in-house and $250.00 when taken via our distance learning program.

Our distance learning program

• If you are thinking about enrolling on one of our courses via distance learning, we would like you to try out a "Sample CAD course" - this is a Computer Aided Design course, but it will give you some idea of the quality of our materials,

• Our courses contain many instructional movies and we want to be reassured that your equipment works with the movies that we make to illustrate the use of Excel commands so play at least one of our sample movies embedded in the home page of this web site  (there is an Excel example).

• Make sure that you have a copy of Excel on your computer and establish that it works before ordering a course.

Q. Are these courses delivered "in house" or by external study?

As mentioned, our courses can be taken on a one on one (or small group basis) in our training facility at the University of Adelaide Commerce and Research Precinct, Thebarton, South Australia. We also run courses in Canberra, ACT on a regular basis. Alternatively, our courses can be completed via our distance learning program in which students are supported by email responses to questions our students raise.

Q. Is some form of certification provided?

Yes. We provide all students with a "Certificate of Achievement". A statement that a student has reached a satisfactory standard and completed a competent set of working examples can also be added on request. Click here to view a copy of the certificate.

Q. Do you need a copy of the software program that you wish to learn loaded on your computer?

Yes.

Q. What methods of payment do you offer?

If you take a course as an in-house student, we provide an invoice after the course has been delivered. We include details of our bank account on the invoice and encourage direct deposit to our bank.

If you enrol as a distance student, on receipt of an official order from your company (a purchase order) or email note from you if you are studying privately, we will ship a CD-ROM (with a personal password to unlock modules in the course) and a set of course notes. An invoice will be included in the package. Payment can be made by direct deposit to our bankers (BankSA). Details of our bank account is included on the invoice.

If you wish to pay by credit card, we use the PayPal system (www.paypal.com). PayPal offers a very secure system for processing payment across the Internet and takes all major credit cards. PayPal acts as an intermediary between you and Design Cad. They will hold your credit card details (not us) and hold payment to us until you notify PayPal that you have received the course materials in good order.

More information on our distance learning program can be found by clicking here. To enrol, click here.