Hopeless "Help" in Access 2000+

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zippy the Pinhead
  • Start date Start date
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Zippy the Pinhead

I reluctantly made the switch from old reliable Access 97 when my
company put the newer versions on the machines at work.

In Access up to 97, one could invoke appropriate, on-topic
context-sensitive (or insert buzzword of choice) in the middle of
writing procedures, expressions, etc. If you couldn't remember how to
determine the days between dates, for example, you could type DateDiff
in the place you needed to use it, hit <F1>, and up would come a page
of Help telling you what "d", "yyyy", "m", etc. all meant. Same for
any other keyword in Access.

No longer. Now you get a generic page telling you how to enter
expressions, or something equally "close but no cigar".

Is there any kind of aftermarket help file, or other easy reference,
one can find and install which would restore the functionality of good
old <F1>?

Thanks.
 
Zippy the Pinhead said:
I reluctantly made the switch from old reliable Access 97 when my
company put the newer versions on the machines at work.

In Access up to 97, one could invoke appropriate, on-topic
context-sensitive (or insert buzzword of choice) in the middle of
writing procedures, expressions, etc. If you couldn't remember how to
determine the days between dates, for example, you could type DateDiff
in the place you needed to use it, hit <F1>, and up would come a page
of Help telling you what "d", "yyyy", "m", etc. all meant. Same for
any other keyword in Access.

No longer. Now you get a generic page telling you how to enter
expressions, or something equally "close but no cigar".

Is there any kind of aftermarket help file, or other easy reference,
one can find and install which would restore the functionality of good
old <F1>?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Although the help system was definitely broken in A2K and hasn't (AFAIK)
been completely fixed since, the context-sensitive help does work for
keyword searches in the VB Editor. So you can usually get what you want
by pressing Ctrl+G to bring up the editor and place the cursor in the
Immediate (formerly "Debug") Window, type your keyword and press F1.
 
Zippy the Pinhead said:
I reluctantly made the switch from old reliable Access 97 when my
company put the newer versions on the machines at work.

In Access up to 97, one could invoke appropriate, on-topic
context-sensitive (or insert buzzword of choice) in the middle of
writing procedures, expressions, etc. If you couldn't remember how to
determine the days between dates, for example, you could type DateDiff
in the place you needed to use it, hit <F1>, and up would come a page
of Help telling you what "d", "yyyy", "m", etc. all meant. Same for
any other keyword in Access.

No longer. Now you get a generic page telling you how to enter
expressions, or something equally "close but no cigar".

Is there any kind of aftermarket help file, or other easy reference,
one can find and install which would restore the functionality of good
old <F1>?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Although the context help (F1) does seem to work for me,
I find the Access help very convoluted and confusing. It often leads me
circles without results. Other times I cannot get back to the same
information it showed me earlier. It definitely needs an overhaul.
I am always battling it.
On the plus side, there is tons of information there and eventually I find
what I need (along with help from the Access 2000 book from Microsoft).
 
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