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computer-based databases on desktop computers and/or on Database Software connected computers (a network). Microsoft Access can be used for MS Access Database personal information management (PIM), in a small business to
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Like any other computer application, in order to use Microsoft Access, you must first install it. After installing Microsoft Access, then you can open it. There are various ways you can open Microsoft Access. It gets launched like the usual products you have probably been using. As such, to start this program, you could click Start -> (All) Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office Access 2007. You can also launch it from Windows Explorer or My Computer. To do this, locate its shortcut in Windows Explorer or My Computer. By default, Microsoft Access 2007 is located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 and its shortcut is called MSACCESS.EXE. Once you have located it, you can then double-click it. From now on, that is, for the rest of the lessons, the expression "Microsoft Access" means Microsoft Office Access 2007. If you have a Microsoft Access database such as an E-Mail attachment, a file on a floppy disk, on the network, or in any other means, once you see its icon, you can double-click it. Not only will this action launch Microsoft Access, but also it will open the file. You can also launch Microsoft Access from a shortcut. If you happen to use the software on a regular basis, you can create a shortcut on your desktop or on the Quick Launch area. If you are working on a network of related computers, your database may be located in another computer. In this case the network or database administrator would create a link or shortcut to the drive that is hosting the database. You can then click or double-click this link or shortcut to open the database and, as a result, launch Microsoft Access.
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The title bar starts on the left side with the Office Button it, a tool tip would appear:
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As you can see, the menu of the Office Button allows you to perform the routine Windows operations of a regular application, including creating a new database, opening an existing database, saving an object, etc. We will see these operations in future lessons.
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To add a command, click it in the middle list and click Add. Once you have selected the desired options, click OK. The main or middle area of the top section displays the name of the application: Microsoft Access. On the right side of the title bar, there are three system buttons that allow you to minimize, maximize, restore, or close Microsoft Access. Under the title bar, there is another bar with a Help button on the right side.
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The bottom section of the Microsoft Access interface displays a status bar.
Creating a Database
In our lessons, we will learn different techniques of creating a database. For now, a database is first of all a Windows file. It is mainly created from Microsoft Access. If you have just started Microsoft Access, to create a database, you can use one of the links in the main (middle section of the interface). You can proceed from one of these options. Like every file in the computer, a database must have a name that identifies it. This name must be specified when creating the database. In our description of the Microsoft Access interface, we saw that the right section displayed an empty area. If you start creating a database as we will see in the next sections and lessons, the right side gets filled with some options, such as prompting you to name your database.
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The templates are organized in categories. To access a sample by category, in the left section, you can click Business, Personal, or Education. When you click a category, its templates display under Local Templates and you can choose one. After selecting a template, in the right section, you must give a name to your new database in the File Name text box. By default, Microsoft Access suggests a name you can use. If you do not like it, you can provide your own. Also, by default, Microsoft Access suggests that the database be created in the My Documents folder. If you want it . This would open the File New located in another folder, you can click the Browse button Database dialog box where you can select an existing folder or create a new one using the Create New Folder button . Display the folder in the Save In combo box and click OK. Once you have specified the name of the database and its location, you can click Create.
Database Management
Introduction
Unlike some other programming environments, Microsoft Access considers a database as a single Windows file with a name. We will eventually learn that this file can contain various objects that actually make up a database. Therefore, a Microsoft Access database is opened as a normal file. After you have created a database, as a computer file, it becomes part of what are known in Microsoft Windows as the most recently used (MRU) documents. As such, when you click the Office Button, the right side of the menu shows a list of MRUs. Here is an example of clicking the Office Button after a few databases have been created:
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The number of files that the right column can display can be decreased as low as 1 or increase as high as 9. To change this number, access the Options dialog box by clicking the Office Button and clicking Access Options. In the left frame, click Advanced. In the right frame and in the Display section, change the value of the Show This Number Of Recent Documents:
Database Properties
Whether you work alone or in a group, communication and documentation are important. Your database project has its own properties that you can use to find out some details about your file, to enter some notes about the project, or to give directives to other people who have access to the database. This can be done using a dialog box called the Database Properties. To access it, you can click the Office Button -> Manage -> Database Properties.
2. From the Properties dialog, click the General tab. Examine the various sections. Notice the size of the current database 3. Click the Summary tab
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4. Make sure the Title is set to Rockville Technologies (otherwise, set it). Click the Subject text box and type Business Regular Activities 5. Click the Author text box and type Lucien Durand 6. Click the Manager text box and type Christine Lotts 7. Click the Company text box and type Rockville Technologies, Inc. 8. Click the Category text box and type Project Management 9. Click the Keyword text box and type project, budget, management 10. Click the Comments text box and type: This software product is used by the company to manage a project used to build a computer network for a corporate customer. For more information, contact Lucien Durand or Christine Lotts. You can also refer to the web site. 11. Click the Hyperlink Base text box and type http://www.rockvilletechnologies.com
12. Click the Statistics, Contents, and Custom property pages and review their contents The Statistics tab gives you statistics about your database and its summary access The Contents tab shows a list of the components that are part of your database The Custom tab shows, and allows you to customize, the field names associated with your database 13. When you have finished working with the database Properties, click OK (if you click Cancel, any change you have made will be discarded)
Opening a Database
To open a database, you can click the Office Button. If you see your intended database in the right column, you can click it to open it. In our description of the Microsoft Access interface, we saw that, at times, the right section is empty, at other times, such as when creating a new database, it is filled with some other options. Also, when you open Microsoft Access, the right side displays a list of MRUs. Here is an example:
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Based on this, to open a database, if you are just starting Microsoft Access, on the right side under Open Recent Database, if you see the name of an existing database, you can click it. If you locate a database in Windows Explorer, My Computer, My Documents, or any other window that displays the Microsoft Access file icon, you can just double-click the icon and open the database. If you received a database as an email attachment, you can also open the attachment and consequently open the database file.
Deleting a Database
If you have a database you do not need anymore, you can delete it. To delete a database, in My Documents, in Windows Explorer or another file management application: You can click it to select it and press Delete You can right-click it and click Delete A warning message would be presented to you to confirm what you want to do. After you have deleted a database, it doesn't disappear from the MRU lists of Microsoft Access. This means that, after a database has been deleted, you may still see it in the right column menu of the Office Button or in the list under the Open Recent Database column. If you try opening such a database, you would receive an error. Here is an example from trying to open a database named Things To Do after it had been deleted (although it still appears under Open Recent Database):
If a database has been deleted and you want to remove it from the MRU lists, open the Registry (Start -> Run: regedit, Enter). Open the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER - Software - Microsoft - Office - 12 - Access
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When you add an object to the database, the database's file grows as needed. When you remove an object, the memory space it was occupying is left empty. This also applies when you keep removing objects:
The computer is supposed to recuperate the space those previous objects were using. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Most of the time, that space is left empty but cannot be accessed by the computer. This means that the memory space cannot be made available to other applications. To recover this memory space, you can compact the database. When this is done, the file is shrunk to occupy only the necessary amount of space and free the unused sections:
To compact a database, you have two options. To compact and repair the database that is currently opened, and to compact it only once, click the Office Button, position the mouse on
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Manage, and click Compact and Repair Database. The database would be compacted behind the scenes. To compact a database every time you close it, click the Office Button, and click Access Options. In the Access Options, in the left list, click Current Database. In the right list, click the Compact on Close check box:
The Ribbon
Under the title bar, Microsoft Access displays a long bar called the ribbon:
If the Ribbon is taking too much space on your screen, you can reduce its size. To do this, click the arrow of the Quick Access button and click Minimize Ribbon:
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The ribbon is a type of property sheet made of various property pages. Each page is represented with a tab. To access a tab: You can click its label or button, such as Home or Create You can press Alt or F10. This would display the access key of each tab:
To access a tab, you can press its corresponding letter on the keyboard. For example, when the access keys display, if you press Home, the Home tab would display If your mouse has a wheel, you can position the mouse anywhere on the ribbon, and role the wheel. If you role the wheel down, the next tab on the right side would be selected. If you role the wheel up, the previous tab on the left would be selected. You can keep rolling the wheel until the desired tab is selected To identify each tab of the ribbon, we will refer to them by their names. Inside of a tab of the ribbon, the property page is divided in various sections, each delimited by visible borders of vertical lines on the left and right. Each section displays a title in its bottom side. In our lessons, we will refer to each section by that title. For example, if the title displays Font, we will call that section, "The Font Section". Some sections of the Ribbon display a button would open a dialog box or a window. . If you see such a button, you can click it. This
When Microsoft Access is occupying a big area or the whole area of the monitor, most buttons of the Ribbon appear with text. Sometimes you may need to use only part of the screen. That is, you may need to narrow the Microsoft Access interface. If you do, some of the buttons may display part of their appearance and some would display only an icon. Consider the difference in the following three screenshots:
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In this case, when you need to access an object, you can still click it or click its arrow. If the item is supposed to have many objects, a new window may appear and display those objects: From this:
To this:
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Navigation button, you can click the Shutter Bar Open/Close Button Shutter Bar Open/Close Button changes
To expand the Navigation Pane again, you can click the Shutter Bar Open/Close Button you can click the bar itself.
or
When you create a table, a section gets created for that table. The top section of the table holds its name. The name of a table is followed by a colon and Table:
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In the same way, as you create more tables, each gets its own section in the Navigation Pane:
In Lesson 3, we will learn that you can create two types of forms. A form can be associated with a table or a form can be independent of any table. When a form is associated to a table, the name of the form appears under the name of the table. When a form is independent of any table, it appears in a section labeled Unrelated Objects. Here are examples:
In the same way, you can create many forms associated with a table and you can create many unrelated forms.
Managing a Category
When you create the tables, they are added to the Navigation Pane in the order you create them. When you create forms associated with a table, by default, the objects inside a category are arranged in alphabetical order. If you want, you can make them display in reverse alphabetical order. To decide on the order you want, you can right-click the name of a section, position the mouse on Sort By, and decide:
By default, when you create the objects that are associated with a table, the objects of the category display. This means the category is expanded. If you want to minimize a section, which is referred to as collapsing, you can click its bar. If you want to hide a category, right-click its category header and click Hide. To hide all categories except a particular one, right-click the section header of that category and click the Show Only option. To select what categories to hide or what categories to reveal, right-click an empty area in
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the Navigation Pane and click Category Options. Then use the check boxes to decide.
The Navigation Options dialog box allows you to do many things. For example, to decide what categories to show or hide, put or remove check marks next to their name in the right list. The dialog box also allows you to create new categories.
Tool Tips
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One of the types rectangles display Ribbon, for a few button and a short
of help you can get is through small boxes called tool tips. These small when you position the mouse on a certain item, such as a button on the seconds. In the following example, the mouse is positioned on the Portrait description appears:
When you move the mouse away, the small box disappears (or closes itself)
Context-Sensitive Help
Context-sensitive help refers to help provided on a specific dialog box on the screen. Such help is provided for objects that are part of Microsoft Access. Context-sensitive help is also referred to as Whats This?. To get context-sensitive help, press Shift + F1. This would call a help window that can describe or explain the object that is displaying. Another type of context sensitive help is provided in various dialog boxes. They display a button with a question mark on the left of the system Close button. To use this type of help, click the question mark button or .
4. Close the Access Help window 5. In the left frame, click Datasheet 6. To get context-sensitive help on a dialog box, on the Options dialog box, click the
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Whats This button 7. Close the Access Help window 8. To close the Access Options dialog box, click Cancel
If you position the mouse on it, a down pointing arrow is added to the right side of the button and if you click the button or its down pointing arrow, a menu would appear. One of the options on the menu is labeled Help on This Error:
You can then click Help on This Error to get some information on how to fix the error.
Topical Help
In various sections of our lessons, we will use an object called the Properties window, which allows you to change the characteristics of a control:
Some options of the Properties window could be difficult to figure out, especially if they are not explicit and if you are not familiar with them. Fortunately, to get help for any item of the Properties window, click it and press F1. The Help window would come up and would display one or more options on the topic you had clicked. If you see a link with the same name of the item you clicked, you can click that link and its explanation would display.
Online Help
Online help is a program that provides help on Microsoft Access. There are two main types of
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online help: Microsoft Access ships with a help system. To use it, simply press F1 If you have access to a Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) CD-ROM or DVD, which is the help system provided to programmers who use Microsoft technologies (such as Microsoft Visual Studio), it includes a section on Microsoft Office
4. On the list that appears, click Create tables in a database 5. On the Access Help window that appears, read the text, scroll down, and click Create A New Table 6. After reading it, on the toolbar of the Access Help window, click the Back button 7. Close the Access Help window
Internet Help
Although help on the Internet tends to be disparate, it is still the widest form of help available. This is provided in web sites, web pages, newsgroups, support groups, etc. As the publisher of the database environment, it is only natural to refer to Microsoft corporate web site first for help. The Microsoft web site is divided in categories. A web site is dedicated to Microsoft Access at http://www.microsoft.com/access. You can get help at http://support.microsoft.com. Probably the most visited site of Microsoft for developers of all Microsoft products is http://msdn.microsoft.com. This last site provides a tree list that presents items in categories (like the MSDN CD-ROM or a DVD).
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To close Microsoft Access, click the Close button on the top right corner of the window
Lesson Summary
MCAS: Using Microsoft Office Access 2007 Topics
C1 D1 D2 Create databases Perform routine database operations Manage databases
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