Welcome to Microsoft Access Database
VBA stands for Visual Basic for Applications (the application being of course Microsoft Access) and is the technology and tools used to program and automate this application.
It’s not only used just within the framework of Microsoft Access but other applications too including Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook to name a few.
It has the power to communicate with other applications beyond the Microsoft range and even the Microsoft Windows operating system across other platforms.So, learning the principles of VBA using Access as the tool environment will stand you in good stead for the other applications should you wish to program and code them in the future.
The only difference between other applications when wanting to use VBA will simply be learning to load and work with different libraries.
Typical reasons why you would use Microsoft Access VBA include being able to:
- Manage smaller re-usable procedures (globally).
- Create you own defined functions.
- Hold variables in memory (globally).
- Attach code to an event i.e. a button on a form.
- Manage more powerful procedures that an Access macro lacks.
- Communicate with other applications and platforms.
- Gracefully handle errors (when they happen).
You do not need to be a programmer to learn Access VBA (but it helps if you have some knowledge). The more important factor in order to successfully program with Access VBA is to be
knowledgeable within the framework of Microsoft Access generally (namely tables, queries, forms, reports and macros) and know its powerful features to identify where VBA should take over and improve on functionality.
So Where Do You Start & Learn Microsoft Access VBA?
The following links below will give you an overview of the basic introducing you to the tools and concepts required. In fact, it applies to other Microsoft Office applications and related Visual Basic programming envrionments too.
How To Debug VBA
This is only the beginning of a long and eventful journey into the world of VBA and to learn more and master the true power of Microsoft Access you may wish to invest in either a book, a course or consider my eBook Programming Microsoft Access with VBA.
(link to appear soon)