Access® 2007 For Dummies®

Chapter 20. Making It All Better with the Analyzer Tools

In This Chapter

• Converting a flat file to relational tables with Table Analyzer

• Documenting your database

• Fine tuning your database with Performance Analyzer

The Access Analyzer tools promise to help you set up, document, and fine tune the performance of your database. Sound too good to be true? Well, like most software tools that promises to automate, the Analyzer tools do some things well and others not so well.

Here is what the Analyzer tools promise to do:

• Convert flat files into relational databases automatically

• Document the database and all its parts (including tables, queries, forms, and reports)

• Analyze the structure of your tables to make sure that everything is set up in the best possible way

So, which Analyzer tool makes good on its promise? It would have to be the Database Documenter. To manually do what the Database Documenter does would take the average person hours if not days. If you're using the Analyzer tools for the other two tasks, they don't quite deliver on their promise. They do have merit, though, so we cover them as well.

Convert Your Flat Files to Relational Tables with Analyzer

Doesn't this sound great? The Table Analyzer promises to take a messy flat file table (such as an imported spreadsheet) with all its repetitive data and convert it to an efficient set of relational tables. But, as the bromide goes, promises made are promises broken. Unless your flat file follows some strict rules, the Table Analyzer ...