Be Excellent To Each Other

Just got this email from my little brother. I have no idea what he is talking about - anyone shed some light (obviously I will not have any books to lend him, but I will get him something from thebookdepository or Amazon if anyone has any recommendations. He's 14, so I'd guess nothing too massively technical.

I do not even know what Access is

It's a Microsoft programming program thing is as much as I know.

Sorry, that wasn't much help, was it?

Nope, but at least I learned something, though quite what I do not know.

Well it's more databases really. It's probably some half-decent tutorials in the help section within the program.

Assuming he has the internet then just tell him to type "access tutorials" into Google and go from there. Access is just Microsoft's simple database software.

MS Access is used for managing relational databases. I believe that either Craster or Joans would be your best bet for help in this field.

Databases? Are you telling me my brother is growing into some kind of geek, or what?

He's quite 'up' on computers, so I dare say he would already know about the tutorials, though I will pass this on to him in case it hasn't occurred to him.

Yo.

I don't have any books though.

It probably depends on what he wants to do in Access. I think you can just write some fairly standard databases easy enough with the wizards. If he's only 14 he probably doesn't need to know how to do any fancy stuff with vba or write massively long queries.

If there's anything specific he wants help with, then feel free to ask, but I just usually tend to hunt on the internet if there's anything I need to do that I don't know how.

I do have a Business Solutions book on Excel which seemed to be ok (although I didn't read all of it), so it might be worth getting a similar book for Access. There's a 2007 version on Amazon, but it's nearly £30 which seems a bit overkill.

If he wants to know about functions, just take a look at the help files.

Shocking isn't it - he'll have his own website soon... eskimimislittlebrother.com

eskimini.

OK. Access is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and it's a database application. It's not a fully-functional database in the way that Oracle, mySQL or SQL Server are, but it's a start - it's more suited to little things like cataloguing your CD collection and the like. It also hooks in a lot of the Microsoft VBA and Windows Forms functionality which allows you to pretty easily knock up a front-end GUI for your database.

There are plenty of books on the subject, and I can't really think of any that stand out. Access for Dummies probably isn't a bad place to start.

Cheers guys - Joans, I'll pass that on and tell him to question his tutor further as he should have some idea where the course is going, he's hoping for some A* grades.

Also, mini he is not - he was taller than me when he was 12, and he is the shorter of the twins, the other is like a chopstick.

Craster - that's ace - he was asking about access for Dummies as he thought I might have read it, but as I said, I have not before heard of access. It's only £10 or so on Amazon, so I'll send that his way as it'll probably be a handy reference to turn to should he need to quickly look something up.

Cheers for the explanation and the insight, guys. Gosh, that made me feel old.