"Fast Searching"

Indexing is a standard database trick to improve performance. Your harddrive directory is an index of sorts too. The index relates data from a specified field (a last name for example) and assigns a record number to each entry. Whenever you do a search of the database by last name the application would then go an reference the index instead of searching through each and every record for the correct record. It works just like an index in a book. You can read the whole book looking for a specific item or you can consult the index and it will tell you what page the item is on. Obviously using an index for multiple searches ends up being much faster. If it's only for a one-time search then it's a waste of time and resources.

There are some security issues with using indexing but depending on what you are doing they may not be a concern. In a small Access database with no critical and/or sensative information the concerns are minimal at best. For large public indexes (like Google itself) the concerns are more realistic (people do hack Google all the time).

btw, when you do a Google search on "Fast Search" you'll get lots of hits on "Fast Search & Transfer" (the name of a company) and a trojan (malware) named "Fast Search". Neither of them have anything to do with the Fast Search indexing in Access.

Thanks very much. Based on that explanation, I think I'll go ahead and index. It's a non-confidential database containing fewer than 500 records. Sounds like it would work faster and PC drives me nuts with that business of starting at the beginning and going through everything when asked to find. I got spoiled in the 90s with my MAC. I searched a word and within seconds had everything including script. Anything to speed up the search process I would welcome.

Much appreciated.

-Sally