Sophia,

I started teaching myself Access and then stopped after finding that most of what I needed done for my project could be done in Excel.

Microsoft Access for Dummies is a good book.

Does anyone know how to do a find in Access? That is, I can't figure out how to easily locate groups of records (like, say everyone who took a certain class).

"Find" in access only finds one record at a time. To find a group of records that meet certain criteria, you need to filter a table or create a query.

and he has taken away the title bar (file, edit, etc), so I can't build a query (if that is what I do.

Oops, just read that. OK, you can filter whatever table or form you're in by right-clicking on the field you want to filter by.

It's been ages since I used Access, but I remember there being an icon that looked like a funnel that allowed you to filter records by whatever criteria you put in. (I think it was called "filter")

[eta: Oh, I didn't see the bit about the missing tool bar. Is there anything under the View menu that can get it back for you?]

OK

The way the datbase is set up, there is a list of contacts. Each contact has multiple classes, which I assume are in another table from the student, but it is showing on the form. When I rightclick to filter, it still hows me ALL the students, but if they didn't take that class, their classes section is blank.

ALL I WANT TO DO IS SEND A @$#! EMAIL!!!!

(sorry, I don't know what got into me) I want to make them buy me Filemaker, but I know they won't.

But, thanks-- the rightclick does work!

Oh- and Jessica, I don't even see the view menu- just the page he has created.

It is like I am using a completely non-beta tested database built by someone who is just starting out building a database, but I can't get behind it to figure out what is going on.

Oh- and Jessica, I don't even see the view menu- just the page he has created.

Gah, how annoying. They should totally buy you Filemaker!

Sophia, I have gone from Access to Filemaker in the past, and found them really similar. I think you shouldn't have a hard time translating your skills. However, I'd get that menu bar back!

Can you get your boss to show you how to get in the back end.

but I can't get behind it to figure out what is going on.

Do you have a database window?

Also, do you have a bar right under the title bar? Where the File, Edit, etc. would be? Right click on that and select "customize".

Also, you could create a new Access database and link to the tables in the one you're working with. Linking means you edit the data directly (it's not an import) so you'll have access to the data and the menu bars too.

As they're saying, it would really help if you had the menus and toolbars available. The ability to design a query would be even better. If you do get the toolbar back, the little binoculars is the icon for find.

Thanks guys!

I have 2 bosses. One uses access like this.

One creates JUST a table, types in the information, and does nothing else. She retypes if she needs mailing labels, etc. And she does a separate one for each class. So there are, like, 8 million 6 entry 1 table access databases. AND I have to retype the information that I type into the database for the classlist into excel for the accountant. Then the accountant retypes it into quickbooks!

My plan is to learn access and redo her so we can have one big database for all students for all classes, and so that we can actually get monetary reports instead of doing them by hand! She would be better off using just excel for now though.

The good thing is that it is becoming clear that the reason they brought me on (I am a new position) is to help fix these things, so basically I am going to spend the fall semester learning things, Christmas Break setting up some new processes and Spring impletmenting them, because the way they are set up now they cannot grow.