Alternatives to MS Access?

[SteveF]

I have Access 2016 as part of MS Office Prof Plus and am trying to build a fairly simple database, however (I need to state I'm a bit of a novice with databases) when I try to change between the table view and the design view it takes an age, Access more or less freezes for 30 seconds or so. 30 seconds does sound a lot but if I switch between views fairly frequently it becomes very annoying.

I could build something in excel that will do the job but really want a database, so are there any decent (preferably free) alternatives?

 

[Markymark]

Worth just reinstalling it? Is anything else running slow? How large is the db?

 

[Profpointy]

can you have two windows open, one with each view, then alt-tab between 'em?

 

[Threevok]

I tend to use.NET for a front end, and use Access as a back end, just to hold the data

There are some versions of MS Visual Studio that are free still I think

 

[SteveF]

Worth just reinstalling it? Is anything else running slow? How large is the db?

Everything else is working well and the database is tiny at the moment (just begun to build it). It's not really going to get massive, few hundred records and a couple of cross referenced tables.

 

[Threevok]

You may want to do a compact and repair - just in case

 

[cisamcgu]

Is your computer under powered/very old ?

 

[SteveF]

Is your computer under powered/very old ?

It's a Surface Book i7, just over a year old

 

[cisamcgu]

I just tried it on my PC, and I can flick between modes in a second or two.. I suspect you might need to reinstall or something, since my PC is about 3 years old and no doubt less powerful than yours.

 

[SteveF]

Well that was weird, shut down and restarted the laptop (the old turn it off and on again) and it's changing virtually instantaneously....

Looks like the issue is sorted, thanks for your replies folks....

 

[Electric_Andy]

Glad it's sorted. It did sound strange especially for such a small database. I searched thoroughly for alternatives but Access is pretty much the Rolls Royce of database software ime. There are a few free database tools but many are unable to manage subforms and/or lack the mass of features that Access has.

 

[mybike]

I tend to use.NET for a front end, and use Access as a back end, just to hold the data

There are some versions of MS Visual Studio that are free still I think

Alternatively you can use Access to populate an Excel spreadsheet.

@SteveF Just wondering why you're switching between the views, are you still creating the database structure?

 

[SteveF]

Alternatively you can use Access to populate an Excel spreadsheet.

@SteveF Just wondering why you're switching between the views, are you still creating the database structure?

As mentioned, I am a bit of a beginner, now that I'm a little more familiar with it I'm not switching much at all.

Am quite pleased with the progress I've made, structure is more or less done, one more major table to do and then I'm on to form building