Getting Users Started in Access 12

The first thing Access 12 users will see is a completely new getting started screen.  Before Access 12, users are confronted with database concepts as soon as they boot the application - they need to understand object types immediately, and data types very quickly before they can begin to enter data.  This is a clear representation of how Access works, but has made it hard for new users to get going.  Once users get over the object creation hurdle, they need to figure out what to build, and we hear from IT and from experienced Access users that new users often build poorly designed databases that are hard to maintain and extend. 

The new Getting Started experience allows us to address both of these problems and is fully customizable by IT.  Users starting from a blank new database will see a much simpler UI than they've had in the past, and we'll provide a set of "Tracking Applications" in the box to address common needs.  We know that many Access users custom build very similar applications and the tracking apps cover these needs and provide well defined schemas and rich forms and reports that users can use as is or modify as they see fit. 

The getting started screen is pretty simple: a list of template folders on the left, a set of featured templates (including "Blank Database") and some help in the middle, and template-specific controls on the right.  The cool thing for organizations is that the whole thing can be customized.  Organizations can build their own templates in custom groups, they can control what the featured templates are, and can provide their own help at the bottom of the screen.  This allows IT organizations to extend the work we've done and provide their users starting points that are tailored to their needs, properly normalized, and pre-connected to backend systems.  We've built a number of template creation and management tools to build the in the box tracking apps, and will be shipping these as part of the Access Developer's Toolkit, making it much easier for sophisticated users and IT departments to create their own templates.

Next, we'll start looking at the "tracking applications" in more detail.