PAUG 2015 Database Designer Conference at Silver Falls

Helen Feddema grew up in New York City. She was ready for computers when she was 12, but computers were not ready for her yet, so she got a B.S. in Philosophy from Columbia and an M.T.S. in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, while working at various office jobs. It was at HDS that she got her first computer, an Osborne, and soon computers were her primary interest. She started with word processing and spreadsheets, went on to learn dBASE, and did dBASE development for six years, part of this time as a corporate developer. After being laid off in a flurry of corporate downsizing, she started doing independent consulting and development, using dBASE, ObjectVision, WordPerfect and Paradox.

Always looking for something new and better, Helen beta tested Access 1.0, and soon recognized that this was the database she had been looking for ever since Windows 3.0 was introduced and she saw the gap waiting to be filled by a great Windows database. Since then she has worked as a developer of Microsoft Office applications, concentrating on Access, Word and Outlook.

Helen co-authored Inside Microsoft Access 1.0, (New Riders, 1992), and wrote two books for Pinnacle’s “The Pros Talk Access” series, Power Forms and Power Reports (1994). She also co-authored Access How-Tos for the Waite Group Press (1995), and contributed to The Microsoft Outlook Handbook (Osborne-McGraw-Hill), Que’s Special Edition: Using Microsoft Outlook 97 (1997), Office Annoyances (O’Reilly, 1997), and Outlook Annoyances (O’Reilly, 1998). She also contributed chapters to Que’s Special Edition: Using Microsoft Project 98 (1997) and Sams’ Teach Yourself Project (1998). Helen co-authored MCSD: Access 95 Study Guide (Sybex, 1998), and contributed chapters on Outlook programming to Special Edition: Using Microsoft Outlook 2000 (Que, 1999), and wrote DAO Object Model: The Definitive Reference for O’Reilly (2000), and Access 2002 Inside-Out for Microsoft Press, which was judged #1 in the Desktop and Office Applications book category at the Waterside 2004 conference. Her latest printed books are Expert One-on-One Microsoft Access Application Development (Wiley/Wrox, 2004) and Access™ 2007 VBA Bible For Data-Centric Microsoft Applications (Wiley, 2007).

Helen’s last few books have been published as ebooks by Office Watch – Working with Word was published in 2009 (3rd edition, 2014); Working with Excel in 2011, and Working with Outlook in 2012, and The Real Startup Guide to Access 2013 in 2013.

Helen has been a regular contributor to Pinnacle’s Smart Access and Office Developer journals, Woody’s Underground Office newsletter, PC Magazine’s Undocumented Office and the MS Office and VBA Journal (now OfficePro). She is the editor of the Woody’s Access Watch (now Access Watch) ezine, and writes its Access Archon column.

She lives in the mid-Hudson valley area of New York state, with varying numbers of cats and computers, making a living by developing Microsoft Office applications for a variety of clients, mostly via the Internet.

Helen maintains a Web page (www.helenfeddema.com) with a large selection of code samples concentrating on connecting Access, Outlook, Word and Excel (including several Access add-ins), and all her Access Archon articles.

Helen Feddema
YIC Development Services
Greater New York City Area
www.helenfeddema.com