[MS ACCESS DATABASE APPLICATIONS]
Starting BibleStudy - Some Basics
A Microsoft ACCESS 2000 Application
To start BibleStudy, click the BibleStudy icon found in the Start menu, in Programs / BibleStudy.
When you first open BibleStudy, the SignOn form will pop up. Follow the instructions on the form. Enter “password” in the password field and click on the Users… button on the top to go to the Add or Edit Users form where you set up your own user profile.
On the Add or Edit Users form click on the Add New User button at the bottom and set yourself up as a new user. Don’t forget to give yourself a password and check the Admin box.
Once you clicked on the little EXIT button (the button with the little door on it) you will be back at the SignOn Form.
(Should you end up on the Main Switchboard go to Table Maintenance and select Sign On from the menu to get back to the SignOn form.)
Back at the SignOn form click on the Classes… button to open the Add Classes Form and set up a class for yourself like “ Paul ’s Personal Topics”. A class description is optional. Leave the Shared check box empty if this is your personal class. If this is a class that is shared with all Users check this box. Click on the Exit button to leave this form and go back to the SignOn Form.
Back at the SignOn Form select your user name, enter your password and select your class. If you don’t want this SignOn Form to come up every time you open BibleStudy, take the check mark out of the box that says “Use SignOn Form at Startup” (Recommended if you are the only one using BibleStudy). Your user settings will be remembered next time you open BibleStudy and as long as you don’t open the SignOn Form again.
Now it’s time to get familiar with a few buttons that you will see on many forms in BibleStudy. BibleStudy follows the conventional use of these buttons in Windows and ACCESS so you are probably familiar with them already.
From the Left: Delete Record – Go to First Record – Go to Previous Record – Add New Record – Go to Next Record – Go to Last Record – Close Form (Exit)
Now click on Bible Study (the top item on the Main Switchboard Screen). The following screen will pop up (with slight variations because I entered already some personal information).
Look at the screen and familiarize yourself with the different windows, field and buttons. Then start to explore. First click on the ‘Go to Next Record’ button and the first verse of the Bible Gen 1:1 will come on. All Bible references in BibleStudy are reduced to three letters and the chapter and verse numbers separated by a colon. If you need help with the References double-click on the little blue field ‘HELP’ in the top left corner and the screen to the right will pop up. A key concept to remember is that you enter almost all of your personal study items on the BibleStudy screen (it says ‘Study’ in the top left corner of the screen). That where you enter your topics, your notes, your cross references, your headers, your bookmarks and your hyperlinks.
If you want to add a topic to this Bible verse, just start writing in the empty white space below ‘Assign Topics…” on the BibleStudy screen. If this is the first time you assign this particular topic the program will ask you if you want to “Add a New Topic?”. Just hit the Enter key on your keyboard for ‘yes’ and hit the Enter key again to accept the input. This will record the Topic and bring you back to the STUDY
Look at the following screen shot to get an idea of how it will look once you have entered some data of your own.
Many fields throughout BibleStudy have a double-click event. Here are some examples:
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If you want to change the name of a topic, you can double-click on it and it will open an Edit Topics window. Make your changes, close the window and it’s done.
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Double click in the Notes window once you have some notes entered and it will open a Notes window that is larger and somewhat nicer to work in.
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Double-click on the Bible verse in one of the Bible windows at the bottom and you will bring up a screen that allows you to read or search the Bible more easily.
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Double-click on the cross reference and BibleStudy will go immediately to that verse. If you set yourself the cross reference there you can actually jump back and forth between those two verses.
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When ACCESS can’t find the associated tables from the back-end databases:
If you installed BibleStudy in a different directory than the default directory or moved the databases after the installation, the form “Update Links” will pop up when you open BibleStudy. Don’t panic! All you need to do is to re-link the back-end databases to your front-end database. Read the instructions on the screen carefully and proceed.
BibleStudy consists of three separate databases that are linked with each other. They should all reside in the same directory folder but it is not necessary. BibleStudy.mde contains the forms, reports etc., BibleStudy_be.mdb contains all the tables with your personal notes, cross references etc., and BibleStudyBibles.mdb contains the Bible modules Bible1 – Bible5.
Main Database Links to tables from Links to tables from
BibleStudy.mde BibleStudy_be.mdb BibleStudyBibles.mdb
You always work in BibleStudy.mde. The other two databases just ‘feed’ into BibleStudy.mde. Remember, you must link the Bibles (Bible1 – Bible5) separately from the rest of the tables because they reside in a separate database. It’s that simple.
Another simple way to resolve "missing tables" issues is to right-click in the Tables pane of ACCESS and then click on Link Tables. Find the back-end database and click on OPEN. Then select the tables that are missing and click ok.
