In This Chapter

Finding help within Access

Asking for help online

Contacting live human beings for help

We pause for a timely word from Laurie:

I admit it; I’m one of those people who likes to be prepared — for anything. My handbag contains all sorts of “But what if … ?” objects intended to help me out of just about any situation. I have a Swiss Army knife, a small flashlight, a mini sewing kit, hand sanitizer, lots of pens, paper, lip gloss (you don’t think pale lips are an emergency?), mints, and my phone. The most important item? Well, I’m tempted to say lip gloss, but this Appendix is about helping you find the help you need from Microsoft, so you can get answers to the questions (few though they may be) that we don’t deal with in this book. So, the most important item in my handbag is my phone, because it contains phone numbers and web bookmarks to help me get in touch with Microsoft when I need help with Windows or Office.

In addition to contacting Microsoft directly, we’ve found that it can also be faster and more effective to tap into various third-party online sources for help (“those make up a lot of my bookmarked web pages,” adds Laurie). That’s because your situation isn’t likely to be unique (even though it probably feels that way) and will no doubt have been experienced by someone else. That said, every feature of the software is covered in the help found within the application and through Microsoft’s online help. Between those two and the third-party sources, you’re bound to find the answer you seek.

Access 2016 For Dummies saves you from a lot of that searching. The information you need is probably found on the pages of this book, and at the very least, this book enables you to understand Access features well enough to find and grasp the more advanced assistance you may eventually need.

Asking Access for Help

No matter where you are in Access, help is there, ready to give you tips, tricks, and answers to your questions.

Asking the right questions

Access 2016 gives you two quick ways to ask for help at any time:

• Press F1 for context-sensitive help on what you’re doing, or whatever’s going on at the time, in terms of the windows open, the tools in use, displayed dialog boxes, and so on.

  Context-sensitive help tries to pick the most appropriate help articles for you, based on what you’re doing within the Access workspace at the time.

• Click the little question mark in the upper right corner of the Access window. This opens the Access Help window, shown in Figure A-1.

Figure A-1 shows the main Access Help window, including a Search box (to type any question or keyword) and sections entitled Popular Searches and Basics and Beyond.

To use this little window, follow these simple steps:

1. Click the Search box, shown in Figure A 1, and type a question, task, or keyword, such as Create a form.

   This spawns a list of articles pertaining to creating forms, as shown in Figure A-2.

2. Click the link to the article that looks the most helpful, based on its title, and you’re on your way to the help you need.

   If it turns out to not be the one that’s best for your needs, click the back button (the left-pointing arrow to the left of the Search Help box), and you’re back to the list of articles where you can try a new one.

Online Help

If you’re connected to the Internet, the world truly is your oyster — and you can find some pearls of wisdom out there if you’re willing to poke around, comb through mailing list postings, and read a lot of online content (some of which may or may not help).

The online world includes websites with “official” information from Microsoft and “unofficial” information from the global community of Access users. You’ll find it handy when you can’t find what you need through the installed Access Help files, or if you simply want to tap into a more diverse range of insights.

Of course, unofficial doesn’t mean inaccurate or unreliable, but rather that the sources are not representing or working for Microsoft when they offer their information. For example, the authors of this book, technically, are unofficial sources of information on Access, yet you (and the publishers) trust us to help you.

When you do go for unofficial sources of help, although much (if not most) of it is perfectly useful, accurate, and reliable, not all of it is. If the advice you’re about to take or the steps someone has suggested you follow will affect the data in your tables, it’s probably wise to back up your database before trying it. This little fail-safe procedure is probably a good idea even when you’re using official help sources. Not sure how to implement good backup procedures? Check Chapter 25.

Office.com

For the official sort of help that Microsoft can provide, you’ll find support areas for each of the Office applications on the Microsoft Office website. If you visit http://support.office.com and type Access 2016 in the Office Support box shown in Figure A-3, and then follow the links that appear in response to that, one of them will surely be useful for your needs!

Who’s Our Next Caller?

Live technical support isn’t extinct. At the other end of your phone, a live person who works for Microsoft can answer just about any question when

• You can’t phrase your question to get the help you need from either installed or online help sources.
• The answer you find is either too basic or too far over your head.

Live help isn’t always free:

• Questions about basic installation are answered for free by Microsoft.
• If you want help with anything else, it’s gonna cost you.

Except for the line that answers basic sales questions, Microsoft live technical support is available seven days a week, except holidays:

• Monday through Friday: 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)
• Saturdays and Sundays: 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)

The next section is your handy-dandy Microsoft phone directory.