Preparing Your Application to Be Self-Documenting

Fortunately, Access ships with an excellent tool to assist you with the process of documenting your database: the Database Documenter. Although you can use this tool without any special preparation on your part, a little bit of work as you build the components of your application can go a long way toward enhancing the value of the Database Documenter's output.

Documenting Your Tables

The Database Documenter prints all field and table descriptions that you enter in the design of a table. Figure 29.1 shows a table in Design view. Notice the descriptions for the ClientID and StateProvince fields. These descriptions provide additional information that is not readily obvious from looking at the field names. The Table Properties window also contains a Description property. This Database Documenter includes this property when you print the table's documentation.