A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.


John Gall

Access 2013—New is not better…

While I have not used Microsoft Access for a long time (no serious work since Access 2.0 circa 1995), I can’t believe how the product has evolved.  The Access 2013 interface is virtually unusable for simple data cleansing/mining tasks.  I mistakenly thought Access would be right tool to take some Excel data, add some primary keys, remove duplicates, and make the data more relational (especially since I’m not an Excel guru).  Unfortunately it’s now easier to use Microsoft SQL Enterprise Manager than Access 2013.  It feels like in the desire to make Access ‘user friendly’ has morphed it into ‘user frustration.’