What Microsoft Access database design concepts are covered in this course?

The course covers table design, data types, primary and foreign keys, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships, relationship mapping, and database splitting.

Does the course teach Access SQL queries such as SELECT, JOIN, UPDATE, and DELETE?

Yes. It teaches SELECT queries, joins, filtering with WHERE, subqueries, aggregates, INSERT INTO, make-table, UPDATE, and DELETE queries.

What can I automate with VBA in Microsoft Access?

You can automate forms, login screens, recordset operations, validation, error handling, reports, progress meters, and reusable functions, classes, and custom events.

Free Course Image Microsoft Access and VBA Programming: Database Design, Forms, Reports, and SQL

Free online course Microsoft Access and VBA Programming: Database Design, Forms, Reports, and SQL

Duration of the online course: 17 hours and 37 minutes

New

Build job-ready Access database skills fast—tables, forms, reports, SQL and VBA in a free online course with practical projects and optional certificate.

In this free course, learn about

Access fundamentals: tables, queries, forms, reports; how they fit together in a database app
Table design & data types; why store DOB vs age; entering and organizing data for integrity
Relational modeling: primary/foreign keys, relationship mapping, and many-to-many junction tables
Join behavior in queries: inner vs outer joins, including/excluding records with missing matches
Query skills: filtering, concatenation with &, totals/aggregates, and subqueries for analysis
Action queries: make-table, append/INSERT, update, and delete; View vs Run and delete targeting
Form design: single-record layouts, filtering, and control properties like Locked vs Enabled
Report design: headers/footers, grouping & totals using Group, Sort, and Total features
VBA essentials: variables/types, If/Select Case, loops, arrays, arithmetic (/ vs \ integer div)
VBA structure: subs vs functions, passing parameters, scope/modifiers (Public/Private), modules
Access automation objects: DoCmd, CurrentProject properties (Path), CurrentDb, SysCmd meters
OOP in VBA: classes, instantiation with Set/New, class initialize/terminate, methods, events
DAO/ADO recordsets: iterating with EOF, deciding AddNew vs Edit, populating controls from data
Deployment & security: split front/back end, encrypting files, locking UI, hashing passwords

About the free online course

Learn how to design and program real Microsoft Access solutions that go far beyond storing data in a single table. This free online course guides you through the full workflow of building a relational database: structuring tables with the right field types, organizing records so they stay accurate over time, and mapping relationships that keep data consistent as your project grows. Instead of relying on manual spreadsheets, you will gain the ability to create databases that support clean reporting, faster searching, and easier updates.

As you progress, you will practice thinking like a database designer, making choices that impact performance and reliability. You will work with queries to retrieve exactly what you need, apply filters, calculate totals, and combine information across tables without duplicating data. You will also become comfortable translating business questions into clear query logic, so you can answer real-world requests such as finding missing records, summarizing results, or updating large batches of information safely.

The course then shifts into building user-friendly interfaces. You will learn how Access forms can turn a database into a usable application, improving data entry quality and simplifying everyday workflows. You will also explore reports that present information professionally, including grouping and calculations that help stakeholders understand trends and totals at a glance.

To bring your database to life, you will learn VBA programming inside Access. Step by step, you will write code that automates tasks, validates input, handles errors, and improves the user experience with practical tools like dialogs and navigation. You will also gain exposure to more advanced capabilities such as working with recordsets, creating login-style interactions, structuring code with functions and classes, and understanding how Access projects can be organized for maintainability.

Finally, you will deepen your SQL skills for Access, including joins, where clauses, operators, subqueries, and action queries that create, insert, update, or delete records responsibly. By the end, you will be prepared to build polished Access database applications for office productivity, internal tools, and data-driven decision-making—an excellent boost for administrative, analyst, and operations roles.

Course content

Video class: 1. Introduction (Programming in Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 13m
Exercise: Which set of components best matches the three basic sections of working with Microsoft Access described here?

Video class: 2. Building Our First Table (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 09m
Video class: 3. Options For Our Data (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 07m
Exercise: Why is it better to store an employee’s Date of Birth instead of Age in an Access table?
Video class: 4. Entering Data In Our Table (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 09m

Video class: 5. Organizing Our Data (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 10m
Exercise: In a relational Access database, what is the purpose of storing CustomerID in the Addresses table?
Video class: 6. Relationship Mapping (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 10m
Video class: 7. Many To Many Relationships (Programming in Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 12m
Exercise: How do you model a many-to-many relationship between Contacts and Phone Numbers in Microsoft Access?
Video class: 8. Combining What We Know (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 09m
Video class: 9. Finishing Up Our Relationships (Programming in Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 04m
Exercise: Why was it safe to rename the field EmployeeType to EmployeeType_ID without causing an error?

Video class: 10. Queries (Programming in Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 05m
Video class: 11. First SELECT Query (Programming in Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 07m
Exercise: In a SELECT query joining Customers and Addresses, which join setting will exclude customers who have no address records (so blanks don’t appear)?
Video class: 12. Filtering Our Data (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 10m
Video class: 13. Concatenation and Totals (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 09m
Exercise: In an Access select query, which operator is used to concatenate fields (e.g., City & ", " & State & " " & Zip)?
Video class: 14. Subqueries (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 12m
Video class: 15. Make Table and Insert Queries (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 11m
Exercise: In Microsoft Access, what is the key difference between clicking the View button and clicking the Run button in a query?
Video class: 16. Update Queries (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 07m
Video class: 17. Delete Query (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 10m
Exercise: In a multi-table DELETE query, what must you add first to specify which table records will be deleted from?

Video class: 18. Introduction To Forms (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 08m
Video class: 19. Building Our First Form (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 14m
Exercise: When designing a form to display data row-by-row for each record, which form view should be selected?
Video class: 20. Modifying Our Form - Part 1 (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 11m
Video class: 21. Modifying Our Form - Part 2 (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 07m
Exercise: Which form property change prevents users from editing the Customer Name text box while still allowing them to highlight and copy the text?
Video class: 22. Filtering Our Form (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) 09m

Video class: 23. Reports (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 08m
Exercise: When designing an Access report, what is the purpose of the Page Header and Page Footer sections?
Video class: 24. Report Header and Footer (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 07m
Video class: 25. Report Grouping and Calculations (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 11m
Exercise: In Microsoft Access report Design View, which feature lets you group records by a field (like Customer Name) and add a group header/footer for totals?

Video class: 26. VBA - Grouping Our Code (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 09m
Video class: 27. VBA - Variables And Data Types (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 13m
Exercise: In VBA for Microsoft Access, which statement correctly declares an Integer variable named intAge and assigns it the value 35?
Video class: 28. VBA - Writing Our First Code (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 10m
Video class: 29. VBA - If Statement (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 13m
Exercise: In VBA, what is the purpose of an If...Then statement when evaluating an expression?
Video class: 30. VBA - If Statement Part 2 (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 11m
Video class: 31. VBA - Nested If's and Select Case (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 15m
Exercise: In VBA, what is a key advantage of using a Select Case statement instead of deeply nested If...Then...Else statements?
Video class: 32. VBA - Looping Statements (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 22m
Video class: 33. VBA - Frames and Arithmetic (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 10m
Exercise: In VBA, what is the key difference between using \ and / for division?
Video class: 34. VBA - Arrays (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 20m
Video class: 35. VBA - Creating A Login Screen (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 16m
Exercise: In a login form, how can you store a password in a combo box without displaying it to the user?
Video class: 36. VBA - Debugging and Error Handling (Programming in Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 18m
Video class: 37. VBA - Functions and Subroutines (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 18m
Exercise: In Microsoft Access VBA, what is the primary difference between a Function and a Sub routine?
Video class: 38. VBA - Passing Arguments to Parameters (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 15m
Video class: 39. VBA - Access Modifiers (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 20m
Exercise: Which access modifier allows a function to be called from anywhere in the same project and also from other projects that reference it?

Video class: 40. VBA - DoCmd (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 37m
Video class: 41. VBA - CurrentProject (Programming In Access 2013) 21m
Exercise: Which CurrentProject property returns the folder location of the open database (but does not include the trailing backslash)?
Video class: 42. VBA - CurrentDB (Programming In Access 2013) 24m
Video class: 43. VBA - SysCmd (Programming In Access 2013) 08m
Exercise: In Microsoft Access VBA, what is the purpose of using SysCmd with the acSysCmdInitMeter and acSysCmdUpdateMeter options?
Video class: 44. VBA - Environ (Programming In Access 2013) 09m
Video class: 45. VBA - Application Part 1 (Programming In Access 2013) 23m
Exercise: What does the Application object's BrokenReference property indicate?
Video class: 46. VBA - Application Part 2 Programming In Access 2013 (fixed audio) 23m
Video class: 47. VBA - Classes (Programming In Access 2013) 12m
Exercise: In VBA, after declaring an object variable like Dim customer As CLSCustomer, what must you do to create (instantiate) the actual object in memory?
Video class: 48. VBA - Class Properties (Programming In Access 2013) 15m
Video class: 49. VBA - Class Constructors And Destructors (Programming In Access 2013) 16m
Exercise: In VBA class modules, which event procedure is automatically called when an object is instantiated (for example, when using the New keyword)?
Video class: 50. VBA - Class Methods 19m
Video class: 51. VBA - Custom Events (Programming In Access 2013) 27m
Exercise: In VBA event handling, what is the correct way to declare and instantiate an object that will listen for events from a class?
Video class: 52. VBA - Custom Events Example (Programming In Access 2013) 15m
Video class: 53. VBA - Recordsets Part 1 (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 20m
Exercise: When filling an unbound list box using VBA, which loop condition is used to stop iterating through a Recordset?
Video class: 54. VBA - Recordsets Part 2 (Programming In Access 2013) 21m
Video class: 55. VBA - Recordsets Part 3 (Programming In Access 2013) 15m
Exercise: When programming a Save button with a DAO/ADO recordset, what condition can be used to decide whether to call RS.AddNew or RS.Edit?

Video class: 56. Creating A Classic Login Form (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 28m
Video class: 57. Splitting Our Database (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 18m
Exercise: In a split Microsoft Access database, what belongs in the back-end file?
Video class: 58. Encrypting Your Data File (Programming In Access 2013) 09m
Video class: 59. Securing Your Front End (Programming In Microsoft Access 2013) ???? 16m
Exercise: Which Microsoft Access setting disables the right-click context menu for users in a locked-down front-end?
Video class: 60. Hashing Passwords (Programming In Access 2013) 10m

Video class: 61. SQL SELECT Statement (Programming In Access 2013) 14m
Exercise: In an Access SELECT query that pulls fields from more than one table, what is the best way to prevent confusion over which table a field comes from?
Video class: 62. SQL JOIN Statement (Programming In Access 2013) 15m
Video class: 63. SQL WHERE Statement (Programming In Access 2013) 06m
Exercise: In Microsoft Access SQL, what is the main purpose of the WHERE clause?
Video class: 64. SQL WHERE Simple Operators (Programming In Access 2013) 10m
Video class: 65. SQL WHERE Complex Operators (Programming In Access 2013) 13m
Exercise: In Microsoft Access SQL, which WHERE clause is the simplest way to return records where EmployeeTypeID is 1, 2, or 3 (including both endpoints)?
Video class: 66. SQL - The IN Operator (Programming In Access 2013) 07m
Video class: 67. SQL - The EXISTS Operator (Programming In Access 2013) 09m
Exercise: In Access SQL, what does using NOT EXISTS in a WHERE clause primarily help you return?
Video class: 68. SQL Access Subqueries (Programming In Access 2013) 12m
Video class: 69. SQL Using Subqueries to Improve Performance (Programming In Access 2013) 10m
Exercise: What change can improve performance in an Access query that uses multiple subqueries when the dataset grows very large?
Video class: 70. SQL Using Aggregate Functions (Programming In Access 2013) 15m
Video class: 71. SQL Using Aggregates and Subqueries Together (Programming In Access 2013) 17m
Exercise: When you want to show every customer (including those with no orders) along with their total sales, which join should you use between Customers and the totals subquery?
Video class: 72. SQL Make A New Table From A SELECT Query (Programming In Access 2013) 08m
Video class: 73. SQL Appending Rows Using INSERT INTO (Programming In Access 2013) 10m
Exercise: In Microsoft Access SQL, which statement is used to add (append) rows from a SELECT query into an existing table?
Video class: 74. SQL Adding Only New Rows With INSERT INTO (Programming In Access 2013) 11m
Video class: 75. SQL UPDATE Query (Programming In Access 2013) 09m
Exercise: In an Access SQL UPDATE query, which clause is used to limit the rows that get updated (so you don’t change every record in the table)?
Video class: 76. SQL DELETE Query (Programming In Access 2013) 15m
Video class: 77. DLookup And Domain Aggregates (Programming In Access 2013) 14m
Exercise: What is a key drawback of using many DLookup (domain aggregate) functions as Control Sources on a form?

Video class: 78. Conclusion 03m

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