Access 2013 Bible

Chapter 23: Getting Started with Access VBA

IN THIS CHAPTER

Working with VBA

Reviewing VBA terminology

Understanding VBA code basics

Creating your first procedure

Adding branching constructs

Learning looping constructs

Understanding objects and collections

Exploring the Visual Basic Editor

Most Access developers use macros now and then. Although macros provide a quick and easy way to automate an application, writing Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) modules is the best way to create applications. VBA provides data access, looping and branching, and other features that macros simply don't support — or at least not with the flexibility most developers want. In this chapter, you learn how to use VBA to extend the power and usefulness of your applications.

On the Web

Download the database file Chapter23.accdb from this book's website.

The Limitations of Macros

For a number of reasons, this book doesn't extensively cover Access macro creation. To begin with, there are so many important topics that we had to choose which topics to cover in detail. Plus, macros are pretty easy to learn on your own, and they're well documented in the Access online help. There are, however, two areas where macros can't be beat: data macros in tables and embedded macros on forms and controls. The ability to embed macros in tables and forms make macros much more attractive than in versions prior to Access 2007.

But, by far, the biggest reason we don't document macros is that macros are guaranteed to ...