The speed of an application is highly important and this should be taken into account when designing Microsoft Access forms. There are various things you can do to speed up your Microsoft Access database.

1. 7 ways to speed up Microsoft Access forms

2. The speed of an application is highly important and this should be taken into account when designing Microsoft Access forms. There are various things you can do to speed up your Microsoft Access database and I will cover some of these now.

3. It is better to use only the controls you need on a form. The more controls you add to the form the slower it will become and you will notice a performance hit. You may have a lot of fields in your table, but this does not mean all of them have to be shown on the form. If you use the auto form feature then this will create a form automatically based on your table or query. In this case all of your fields will be brought over and turned into controls. It is better to manually remove the ones you don’t really need. If you find your form becoming long then consider putting some controls onto another form. You can then open this form based on criteria from the original form. You could even move some fields to a new table and create a one to one relationship to your other table. By doing this you will be able to create separate forms with fewer controls. Also try to limit the use of OLE fields as well as memo fields. 1. Don’t create busy forms

4. If you are not going to be entering any data into a form then consider making it read only. In order to carry this out make sure you set the properties for AllowEdits, AllowAdditions, and AllowDeletions to No. If you are working in a network environment then this will be particularly useful as record lock requirements are now eliminated. 2. Make the forms read-only

5. Try not to use too many indexes. Using the wrong index or multiple indexes can slow down your form considerably. This is especially true if you are adding or updating records. Indexes will speed data retrieval, but will slow down updates. A primary key is automatically indexed so consider if additional ones are really needed. If you are unsure whether or not you need more indexes then first remove any you have in the tables. Now run the Performance Analyzer tool and see if suggestions are made for adding additional indexes. If the Analyzer tool does not come up with any suggestions then it is safe to say that none are needed. 3. Use smart indexes

6. Forms are known to close slowly also. If you use the ‘Filter by Form’ option then Microsoft Access will save the last filter when the form is closed. This causes your form to close slightly slower than if you did not use the filter. To get around this add the following code to the close event of your form DoCmd.CloseacForm, “Nameofyourform", acSaveNo Now you are not saving the form and it will close faster. 4. Speed up form exits

7. When working in a networked environment it is common practice to split the database so that tables are stored on the network in one database. The client pc then has a database containing the other MS Access objects such as forms, queries etc. This database connects to the tables in the network database. If you are using lookup tables it is better to keep these on the client pc though because these tables are never to be updated. The local form then does not need to pull this data from over the network. 5. Keep lookup tables local

8. Avoid basing your form on more than one table or query. If you want to base your form on a query then try to use a saved query rather than an SQL statement. Also a Dynaset query will take far longer to display – this is normally the default, but is not always needed. If you are not intending to update the form data then go into the design view of the form, select the form properties and change the recordset type to be ‘Snapshot’. 6. Consider how you use data sources

9. A networked database should not contain calculations, especially in queries. To improve performance, first retrieve any data you need and then make sure any calculations are performed in the local database. 7. Try to avoid performing calculations on a network

10. It is vital our Microsoft Access forms load and close quickly. Forms can become quite large at times and speed is of paramount importance. Even though we now have faster computers we should still aim to optimize our databases for optimum performance. Conclusion

11. If you would like to get Microsoft Access Training for you or your organization, check out some the best training products available at http://www.access-databases.com/training-products/ Microsoft Access Training