Introduction

If you want to create customized Microsoft Office Access 2003 applications, you'll need to learn how to work with the Microsoft Office 2003 programming language, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, or VBA. VBA is more powerful and more flexible than Access macros, and you can use it in all major Office applications.

To create a VBA application, you have to learn VBA conventions and syntax. Access provides extensive online Help available to assist you in this task. Office 2003 makes VBA more user-friendly by providing the Visual Basic Editor, an application that includes several tools to help you write error-free VBA applications.

With VBA you can create applications that run when the user initially opens a database, or you can link applications to buttons, text boxes, or other controls. You can even use VBA to create your own custom functions, supplementing Access's library of built-in functions.

VBA may be a difficult language for the new user, but its benefits make the effort of learning it worthwhile.