Microsoft Access Products and User Matrix

FMS offers a wide range of sophisticated, commercial off the shelf (COTS) products to maximize your investment in Microsoft Access. As the world's leading provider of 3rd party products for Access, we have extensive experience meeting the needs of the MS Access community. In fact, most of our products were inspired by the challenges we encountered ourselves.

We hope our products find a place in your toolbox so that you can operate at peak efficiency. Click here for a summary list and description of all the FMS Products for Microsoft Access.

Our products have many features, so it's difficult to describe them with a few words and pick how it's best for you. We hope you'll use this summary to identify products that are relevant to you, and dig deeper to discover why so many Access professionals use our solutions.

The boxes in Yellow are particularly appropriate for that product and user category.

		User Category
Product Name	Primary Feature	End User	Power User	Developer	Quality Assurance	Database Administrator
Total Access Analyzer	Analyze your databases for improvements. #1 Access add-in of all time!	Fix errors, learn and apply Best Practices	Learn and apply Access Best Practices	Find and fix problems before shipping	Find problems as part of testing	Helpful for taking over existing databases
Total Access Admin	Monitor who is in your database	maybe	for multi-user environments	Troubleshooting database corruption		See who's currently locking a database
Total Access Components	Enhance your user interface	Add cool features without coding	Dazzle your users; add a professional touch	The only collection of ActiveX controls for Access
Total Access Detective	Find differences between databases and objects	For data differences between tables	If you lost track of what you modified	Know exactly what changed between two databases or objects	Know what changed between versions
Total Access Emailer	Personalized email blaster can sends data & reports	Easily email everyone on your list	Email Access data and reports	Add and deploy email blasts in your applications
Total Access Memo	Rich text memo fields to forms and reports	Write and store formatted memos		Give your users the rich text memo fields they expect
Total Access Speller	Spell checker	Fix typos on report labels		Find and fix typos for your user interface	Find typos before shipping
Total Access Startup	Launch the right version of Access and your database		if building databases for others	Easily deploy new builds		Centrally manage DBs across a network
Total Access Statistics	Statistically analyze your data	Extend the power of Access queries	Add statistical values to your reports	Amaze your users with your number crunching ability
Total Visual Agent	Compact, backup, run macros, etc. on an automated schedule			If you're responsible for databases, you want this to run nightly	Schedule tasks	Make sure databases are kept healthy
Total Visual SourceBook	Royalty free source code library		great way to learn how to code	Why write code we've already written and tested?
Total Visual CodeTools	Code writing, cleanup, and delivery tools. Apply error handling and variable naming conventions.			Code builders and helpers you'll use continuously	Add line numbers to trap exactly where a crash occurs	Make sure your team uses this for consistent styles and error handling. Cleans up existing code
Total Zip Code Database	USPS zip codes for city & state lookup and fill	Enter a zip code and never type a city name again	Save time and eliminate typos	Deliver magic by auto filling city and state when users enter a zip code	Improve quality during data entry
Suites	Multi-product bundles		maybe	Absolutely!

Category Definitions

End User
Uses Access interactively for data collection, querying, reporting, etc. Does not program or write macros.
Power User
Uses Access interactively and able to create automated solutions with macros and rudimentary VBA.
Developer
Creates databases for use by others. Experienced with writing VBA modules. Creates multi-user solutions across a network and/or deployed to other sites. Concerned about quality, maintainability, ease of deployment, and on going support. Interested in adopting best practices and providing features without always coding it from scratch.
Quality Assurance
Tests applications. Benefits from tools that assist with improving quality, reliability, and consistency. Burdened with proving mistakes and crashes are real and reproducible.
Database Administrator
Ensures that applications are properly maintained, backed up, compacted, etc. after they are deployed. Also concerned that best practices are used when new users and developers are added, and when old ones leave.