Microsoft Access: running "safe" mode (i.e. allow changes to be reverted) - ms-access

Question

I'm using Microsoft Access as a means of managing data (that used to be stored in spreadsheets) in a more tabular, orderly, and logical manner. Everything seems to be working good for my client, but she has one question: "Is there a mode that allows changes to be reverted? Let's say I've made some changes, and I'd like to revert to my original version, is that possible?"
I understand her concerns and as much as I'd like to say "this is how a database works; you make changes to a row and they are written to the row immediately", I can't bring myself to say it. She's been using MS Excel and Excel has the ability of undoing multiple changes, as well as reverting back to the original file if you haven't saved it. To me, I feel that she is afraid that Access will bring about disastrous consequences--one fine day she's a bit groggy and starts making random changes all over, and then she has no means of getting back the original file. Bam.
What I'm asking now is this: is there any way/setting to allow Access to not commit changes immediately, perhaps until the user has clicked some button or something? It's not the way Access works, and please don't ask me to return to good old Excel because I enjoy and appreciate the chill WYSIWYG interface of Access and its familiar database environment. Maybe just not this behaviour, which came along with the databases.

Answer 1

If you are looking for a simple setting to preserve history, or enable undoing or force all changes to be encapsulated in explicit transactions, then you are out of luck as Access provides none of these out of the box.
There are however ways to implement all of these features to varying degrees, from a simple confirmation whenever the records are about to be changed, to create logs of all changes (so that the user can at least see what changed), to duplicating records before they are modified, etc.
Undoing an action can be something simple, like restoring a value you just typed, but it can become very hairy quickly if you want to undo an action that created or modified a dozen other records elsewhere in the database.
It becomes especially difficult if other actions have been performed after that one (by other users connected to the database for instance).
However, a few of things that could help you:
You can track all changes in a form and keep a log of the actions (in another table or just a text file):
Track all changes made to a record in Microsoft Access
KB197592:How to create an audit trail of record changes in a form
Creating an Audit Log
Add an Audit Trail to your database
you can use Access 2010 data macros to automatically trigger some action (like duplicating a record or keeping track of changes) whenever something is updated or added to the database.
Data Macro similar to triggers
Leveraging Data Macros in Access
you can use all forms in unbound mode and manually set the data when the form opens (or change record) and only save it back to the database when the user is completed.
All of these methods require work and testing and need to be adapted to the experience you wish to provide your user.
Another thing you can do is simply make copies of the database as backups at regular intervals, that way, if something goes awry, you haven't lost everything (this is mandatory anyway, I always have at least a daily backup system).