Beginning Access 2003 VBA

Chapter 1. Introduction to Access 2003 VBA

This chapter will provide an introduction to the world of Access 2003 VBA and programming in general. More specifically, this chapter will cover:

• Introduction to Access 2003 VBA and new features

• Explanation of the stages in the Systems Development Life Cycle of software development

• Techniques for designing applications

• Writing and testing VBA code using the Visual Basic Editor

What Is Access 2003 VBA?

VBA is an acronym that stands for Visual Basic for Applications. VBA is included as part of several Microsoft products, including Access, Word, and Excel. For example, Access 2003 VBA uses VBA version 6.0, which is the same version of VBA used by Word 2003 VBA and Excel 2003 VBA. VBA is a programming language that can be used to add additional features to your applications. You are no doubt already aware that Access is a powerful database application that also enables you to create applications that include user interfaces. You can use VBA instead of or in addition to Access macros to provide advanced functionality to those Access applications. For example, you might use an AutoExec macro to control which form loads when the application begins, and then write the business logic that controls how the application works using VBA.

VBA should not be confused with the Microsoft Visual Basic (VB) or Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) programming products. VB and VB.NET have their own syntaxes of the Visual Basic programming language. The VB syntax, the VB.NET ...