Review: Total Access Analyzer for Access 2002

Pinnacle Publishing, Mike Gunderloy

April 25, 2002

I feel almost silly reviewing the latest version of this tool, Total Access Analyzer for Access 2002. After all, FMS was one of the first vendors in the Access add-in business, and Total Access Analyzer was one of the first and most impressive tools shipped for the fledgling Microsoft Access database, way back when. However, the new version has some nice tweaks, and perhaps there are a few readers who don't already know about this, so I'll continue.

So, just in case you haven't tried it already: Total Access Analyzer is the most thorough solution for completely documenting Access databases. In addition to doing all the things you'd expect (like collecting all the properties of every object that you point it at), it does things you might not expect. These include impact analysis (which objects use this other object?), error location (this query refers to a nonexistent table), and performance and other suggestions (this particular form has a lot of heavyweight controls). The result is a tool that can both document a database and help you design a better database, particularly if you're working as part of a team.

New features in the 2002 version include Access 2002 support (of course), better support for ADPs, new suggestions and reports, and an improved Quick Doc wizard (which lets you focus quickly on just a few objects).

Total Access Analyzer for Access 2002 can be found on the Web. You can download a trial version from the Web site, or purchase a single-user license for $299 (quantity discounts available).

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