Microsoft Access VBA Macro Programming

Access is frequently used in organizations to produce RAD (Rapid Application Development)
applications. It has a huge advantage in that a prototype application can be written very quickly,
sometimes in as little as one day, and then shown to the users.
The developer can then go through iterations with the users. In my experience, there can
be a huge number of these! Although this can be a messy way of development, many
organizations are so fast moving that they need the application quickly. Normally, a
specification of requirements would be mapped out, but in many cases there is a danger of
the application being obsolete by the time it comes to fruition. I have found this to be very
much the case in investment banking.
Some organizations do not like Access applications because they can be difficult to
support due to the often undocumented way in which they are developed. However, they do
solve problems very quickly.
The main advantage of Access over other applications in the Microsoft Office suite is that
it is multiuser. If you open up an Excel file or Word file, you have exclusive access to that
file. If another user opens the file as well, they will get a message stating that they can only
open it as a read-only file and cannot save changes back to that file.
If you create an application in Access, then a number of people can use it simultaneously.
This turns it into a real application. However, this then opens up a whole load of security
issues and audit trail issues, which we will discuss later on. Maintenance of the application is
also a problem. You will need exclusive access to the database to make any changes to its
structure or even make a change to VBA code in a module.
I hope you will be able to use this book to learn all about Access VBA and the immense
power it can bring to your workplace.