ACC2000: Finding Help Topics in Microsoft Access 2000

ID: Q240206

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Access 2000

Moderate: Requires basic macro, coding, and interoperability skills.

This article applies to a Microsoft Access database (.mdb) and a Microsoft Access project (.adp).

SYMPTOMS

When you use Microsoft Access Help, you can't seem to find any information about built-in functions, about properties, or about methods of objects or collections.

-or-

When you use Microsoft Access Help, you find Help topics that seem to be related to Microsoft Excel rather than to Access. For example, when you ask the Office Assistant What is the Left function, one of the topics returned is "LEFT worksheet function."

CAUSE

The files that make up the Help system of earlier versions of Microsoft Access have one entry point for both Microsoft Access Help topics and Visual Basic for Applications Help topics. With the addition of the Visual Basic Editor to Microsoft Access 2000, there are now two separate entry points into the Help files: one entry point for the Access Help files, and one for the Visual Basic Editor Help files.

Additionally, some of the Access Help files contain topics about common Microsoft Office components, such as the Office Spreadsheet, Office Chart, and Office PivotTable. Therefore, you may find topics that seem to be related to Excel.

RESOLUTION

Generally, to find topics specific to Access or how-to type questions, start the search from Access. To find topics such as syntax for built-in functions, properties, and methods of objects or collections, start the search from the Visual Basic Editor.

MORE INFORMATION

Just because you can find help on a topic only in a particular environment does not mean that you are limited to using that topic in that environment. For example, if you are working in the Visual Basic Editor and ask the Office Assistant How do I use the Instr function, one of the topics returned is "InStr Function." This topic shows the syntax of the InStr function. But if you are working in the Access user interface and ask the Office Assistant the same question, you do not see a topic that shows the syntax of the InStr function. You can, of course, use the syntax that you find in the Visual Basic Editor Help topic in the query design grid of the Access user interface.

Some Access articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base contain references to Help. These articles tell you whether to search for the Help topic from the Access user interface or from the Visual Basic Editor.

Additional query words: prb

Keywords : kbdta
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb