Hints and Tips for Developers

We have had a lot of help over the years from other database developers in FoxPro and Access; people we've worked with and people whom we've only met through on-line support forums. We like to repay their help by passing on some hints and tips from our own experience. Follow one of the links to see the tips for

Microsoft Access

All versions of Access from 97 to 2007.

Visual Foxpro

Concentrating on Visual FoxPro versions 3 to 9 but a lot is relevant to earlier versions, some even mention FoxBase.

Software Development

General topics such as screen design and usability.

St Laurence Church Bells

[St Laurence, Alvechurch] Alvechurch Data maintain these pages of Access and FoxPro programming tips as a free service to developers worldwide. If you find any of the advice useful then we'd welcome a small contribution towards the other big project in our lives, restoring the bells of our local church.

St Laurence church has eight bells and the five oldest date back to 1711. The heavy wooden framework supporting them was beginning to rot and was in danger of collapsing. We needed to empty the tower in order to replace the frame and decided to send the bells off for a full overhaul and restoration whilst the building work was under way.

The bell ringers started fundraising for this project in 2006 and reached our target in late 2011 with the help of a final generous contribution from JCB. We took the bells out of the tower after ringing for Christmas 2011 and we had them back in place to ring for the Queen's Jubilee in June 2012.