Access 2003 Personal Trainer

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

CHAPTER TASK: LEARN THE BASICS OF ACCESS 2003

Prerequisites

A computer with Windows 2000 or XP and Access 2003 installed.
An understanding of basic computer functions (how to use the mouse and keyboard).

Welcome to your first lesson on Microsoft Access! Microsoft Access is a powerful database program you can use to store all kinds of information—from a simple list of recipes to an inventory catalog with tens of thousands of products. Once information is stored in a Microsoft Access database, it's easy to find, analyze, and print.

Of all the programs in the Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft Access is the one that most intimidates people. "Mastering Microsoft Excel or Word was hard enough," they think. "How can I ever understand a complicated program like Access?" While it's true that Microsoft Access has many advanced features (there are computer consultants whose only job is programming Access databases), creating and working with a Microsoft Access database is probably a whole lot easier than you think.

With that in mind, this chapter is your introduction to Microsoft Access and the world of databases. In this chapter you will learn more about exactly what a database is, what it is used for, and how to perform simple database tasks, such as adding and deleting records. This chapter also takes you on a basic tour of various parts of a Microsoft Access database: Tables, Forms, Reports, and Queries. If you have worked with one of the other Microsoft Office applications, such as Microsoft Excel or Word, you will find that you already know a lot about the concepts covered in this chapter. And so, without further ado, turn the page and take your first step into the world of databases.

Figure 1-1: Similar to a file cabinet...

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-1: Similar to a file cabinet...

Figure 1-2: ...databases store and manage information related to a particular subject or purpose.

In its simplest form, a database is a collection of information that is organized into a list and stored in a manner similar to a file cabinet, as seen in Figure 1-1. Whenever you make a list of information, such as names, addresses, products, or invoices, you are, in fact, creating a database. Technically speaking, you don't even have to use a database program to create a database. You can make a list of information in all kinds of programs, such as Microsoft Excel, Word—even the meek and lowly Notepad program!

A database program, however, is much more powerful than a simple list you keep on paper or in a Microsoft Word document. A database program lets you:

Store Information: A database stores lists of information that are related to a particular subject or purpose. It could be a list of aunt Mildred's home recipes, or business information, such as a list of hundreds of thousands of customers. A database also makes it easy to add, update, organize, and delete information.
Find Information: You can easily and instantly locate information stored in a database. For example, you can find all the customers with the last name "Johnson" or all the customers who live in the 55417 zip code and are older than 65.
Analyze and Print Information: You can perform calculations on information in a database. For example, you could calculate what percent of your total sales comes from the state of Texas. You can also present information in a professional-looking printed report.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-3: One of the most significant features of Access 2003 is its ability to display database object dependencies.

If you're upgrading from either Access 2000 or Access 2002 to Access 2003, you're in luck—in most respects, Access 2003 looks and works almost the same as both Access 2000 and Access 2002. One of the most significant features of Access 2003 is its ability to display database object dependencies, as shown in Figure 1-3. For example, you can see which queries, forms, and reports are based on a particular table. Table 1-2 shows what's new in Access 2003 (and if you're upgrading from Access 2000, what's new from Access 2002).

Table 1-2: What's New
New Feature	New in	Description
View object dependencies	2003	Perhaps the most useful and welcome feature in Access 2003 is its ability to let you view information on dependencies between database objects, which can dramatically save development time and reduce errors. For example, before deleting a query you can find out which forms, reports, and queries in the database use the query. You could then either change the record source of the dependent objects, or delete them, before deleting the original query. Macros, modules, and data access pages are not searched for dependencies, however.
Better security

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-4: Microsoft Access 2003, as it appears when first started.

Figure 1-5: The Open dialog box.

You start Access 2003 the same as you would start any other Windows program—with the Start button. Because every computer is set up differently (some people like to rearrange and reorder their Program menu), the procedure for Access on your computer may be slightly different from the one listed here.

Make sure that your computer is on and the Windows desktop appears on the screen.
.

The .
Use the mouse to move the pointer over the words All Programs .

A menu pops up to the right of All Programs. The programs and menus you see listed depend on the programs installed on your computer, so your menu will probably look somewhat different from other users' menus.
On the All Programs menu, move the pointer over the words Microsoft Office 2003, then point to and click Microsoft Office Access 2003 .

Once you click the Microsoft Access program, your computer's hard drive may whir for a moment while it loads Access. The Access program appears and the task pane displays options for an existing database or creating a new database, as shown in Figure 1-4.

You really can't do anything in Microsoft Access unless you open an existing database or create a new database. Most of the time you will open an existing database, and here's how to accomplish this simple task.
.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

You might find the Access 2003 program screen a bit confusing and overwhelming the first time you see it. What are all those buttons, icons, menus, and arrows for? This lesson will help you become familiar with the Access program screen. There are no step-by-step instructions in this lesson—all you have to do is look at Figure 1-6 and then refer to Table 1-4 for details about each item. And, most of all, relax! This lesson is only meant to help you get acquainted with the Access screen—you don't have to memorize anything.

Don't worry if you find some of these objects confusing at first—they will make more sense after you've actually used them.

One more important note about the Access program screen: We have been examining the in this lesson, but it is by no means the only screen that you will encounter in Microsoft Access. Just as there are several different types of in Microsoft Access, there are also dozens of different program screens—something that makes Access quite different from its Microsoft Office cousins Word and Excel. You will see some of these screens as we continue this chapter's tour of Microsoft Access.

Figure 1-6: The Microsoft Access screen.

Table 1-4: The Access Program Screen Program Screen
Element	What It's Used For
Title bar	Displays the name of the program you are currently using (in this case, Microsoft Access). The title bar appears at the top of all Windows programs.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-7: The File menu.

Figure 1-8: The Customize dialog box.

This lesson explains one of the best ways to give commands to Access—by using the . Menus for all Windows programs can be found at the top of a window, just beneath the program's title bar. In Figure 1-7, notice the words File, Edit, View, Insert, and Tools. The next steps will show you why they're there.

Click the word File on the menu bar.

A menu drops down from the word File, as shown in Figure 1-7. The File menu contains a list of file-related commands, such as New, which creates a new file; Open, which opens or loads a saved file; Save, which saves the currently opened file; and Close, which closes the currently opened file. Move on to the next step to try selecting a command from the File menu.
Click the word Open in the File menu.

The Open dialog box appears. You don't need to open a database quite yet, so...
Click the Cancel button to close the Open dialog box.

Notice that each of the words in the menu has an underlined letter somewhere in it. For example, the "F" in the File menu is underlined. Holding down the Alt key and pressing the underlined letter in a menu does the same thing as clicking it. For example, pressing the Alt key and then the F key would open the File menu. Move on to the next step and try it for yourself.
Press the Alt key and then press the F key.

The File menu appears. Once you open a menu, you can navigate to a different menu by using either the mouse or the Alt key and the letter that is underlined in the menu name.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-9: The Database toolbar

Figure 1-10: Selecting a toolbar to view.

Figure 1-11: Moving a toolbar.

In this lesson we move on to another very common way of giving commands to Access—using toolbars. Toolbars are shortcuts—they contain buttons for the most commonly used commands. Instead of wading through several menus to access a command, you can click a single button on a toolbar. Access displays different toolbars, depending on what you are working on. For example, when you view the Database window, Access displays the Database toolbar, which contains database-related commands.

This lesson explains how to use toolbars and also how to hide, display, and move toolbars.

Position the mouse pointer over the New button on the toolbar (but don't click the mouse yet!).

A appears over the button, briefly identifying what the button is—in this case, "New." If you don't know what a button on a toolbar does, simply move the pointer over it, wait a second, and a ScreenTip will appear over the button, telling you what it does.
Click the New button on the toolbar.

The appears on the right side of the screen.
Click the Close button to close the Task Pane toolbar.

When you first start Access, one toolbar—the Database toolbar—appears by default, as shown in Figure 1-9. As you work with Access, you may want to display other toolbars, such as the or the Formatting toolbar to help you accomplish your tasks. This lesson explains how to move Access toolbars to different positions on the screen or remove them altogether.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-12: The Options dialog box

Some commands are more complicated than others. Opening a database is a simple process—you only need to select File → Open from the menu or click the Open button on the Database toolbar. Other commands are more complex, such as changing the default options for Access. Whenever you want to do something relatively complicated, you must fill out a dialog box. Filling out a dialog box is usually quite easy. If you have worked at all with Windows, you have undoubtedly filled out hundreds of . Dialog boxes usually contain several types of controls, including:

Text boxes
List boxes
Check boxes
Combo boxes (also called )

It is important that you know the names of these controls, because this book will refer to them in many lessons throughout this guide. This lesson will give you a tour of a dialog box and explain each of these controls to you, so that you will know what they are and how to use them.

Select the word Tools on the menu bar.

The Tools menu appears. Notice that the Options menu in the Tools menu is followed by ellipses (...). The ellipses indicate that there is a dialog box behind the Options menu.
Select Options from the Tools menu.

The Options dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-12. Some dialog boxes have so many options that they are organized and grouped on separate sheets. Such dialog boxes have several sheet tabs near the top of the dialog box. To view a sheet, simply click its sheet tab.
Click the Tables/Queries tab

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-13: Right-click any object to display a list of things that you can do to the object.

You are probably starting to realize that there are several ways to do the same thing in Access. For example, to open a database, you can use the menu (select File → Open) or the toolbar (click the Open button). This lesson introduces you to two more methods of executing commands: Right mouse button shortcut menus and keystroke shortcuts.

You know that the left mouse button is the primary mouse button, used for clicking and double-clicking, and it's the mouse button that you will use over 95 percent of the time. So what's the for? Whenever you right-click something, it brings up a shortcut menu that lists everything you can do to the object. Whenever you're unsure or curious about what you can do with an object, right-click it. A shortcut menu will appear with a list of commands related to the object or area you right-clicked.

Right mouse button shortcut menus are an especially effective way to give commands in Access because you don't have to wade through several levels of unfamiliar menus when you want to do something. For this lesson, assume you want to modify the Employees table.

.

Right-click an object to open a shortcut menu that lists the major things you can do to the object.

A shortcut menu appears where you clicked the mouse, as shown in Figure 1-13. Notice one of the items listed on the shortcut menu is Print. This is the same Print command that you can select from the menu by clicking File → Print. Using the right mouse button shortcut method is slightly faster and usually easier to remember than using the menus in Access. If you open a shortcut menu and then change your mind, you can close it without selecting anything. Here's how:

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-14: The Database window.

Think of the Database window, as shown in Figure 1-14, as the mission control center for an Access database. You use the Database window to open, modify, and manage all the different types of objects in a database. The Database window contains buttons for each type of database object described in Table 1-7. To display a type of object, click the appropriate button.

Click the Forms icon on the Objects bar.

Access displays all the forms in the database. To open a database object, either select the object and click the Database window's Open button or double-click the object.
Double-click the Employees form.

The Employees form appears in its own window. We'll take a closer look at forms later on, so go to the next step and close the form window.
.

You can modify any database object by opening it in . Design View displays the structure of a database object and allows you to make changes to it. You don't have to know how to make changes to a database object yet, but you will need to know how to open an object in Design View. Here's how:
Click the Employees form to select it.
.

Another way to display an object in Design view is to open the object and click the Viewbutton on the toolbar.

The Employees form opens in Design View. Now you can see the structure of the Employees form object and even make changes to the form (don't worry—we won't be covering that topic for quite a while!).

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-16: Use the Windows taskbar to view and move between open windows.

Figure 1-17: Display two windows at the same time by selecting Window → Tile Horizontally from the menu.

One of the many benefits of working with Windows is that you can open and work with several windows at once. Working with is particularly important in Access because each database object you open appears in its own window and you will often have to switch between those windows. The Database window always remains open—closing the Database window closes the current database.

This lesson explains how to open and work with more than one window. You will also learn some tricks on changing the size of a window, moving a window, and arranging a window.

Click the Tables icon on the Objects bar to display the tables in the current database.

Access displays all the tables in the current database.
Double-click the Employees table icon.

Remember that to open any database object, you can select the object and click the Open button in the Database window or just double-click the database object.

The Employees table appears in its own window. The Database window is still open too, although you may not be able to see it because it's behind the Employees table window.

One of the big changes in Access 2003 is that each open window appears as an icon on the Windows taskbar, as shown in Figure 1-16. To switch to a different document, click its icon on the taskbar.
Click the Lesson 1: Database icon on the Windows taskbar.

Another way to switch between windows is to select

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-18: The structure of a table.

Figure 1-19: Record navigation buttons.

Figure 1-20: A vertical scroll bar.

Tables are the heart and soul of any database. Tables are where a database stores all of its information. All the other database objects—queries, forms, reports, pages, macros, and modules—are merely tools to analyze and manipulate the information stored in a table. Any of these other database objects are optional—but without , a database wouldn't be a database. Each table in a database stores related information. Most databases have more than one table: Each table is used to store a different type of information. For example, one table might contain a list of customers and their addresses, while another table might contain any orders placed by the customers, while yet another table might contain a list of products.

Tables are made up of groups of fields. A field is a specific type of information, such as a person's last name, address, or phone number. Together, the related fields for each individual person, place, or thing make up a single record. If your company has ten employees, your employee table would have ten —one for each employee.

Here's how to open and view a table:

Click the Tables icon in the Database window Objects bar.

Access lists all the tables in the current database.
Click the Employees table to select it and then click the Open button in the Database window.

Another ways to open a table is to select the table and click

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-21: Adding a new record to a table.

You can easily add, change, or delete the records in your table. For example, you might want to add a record to store information about a new employee, change an existing record when an employee's address changes, or delete a record for an employee who no longer works for the company. This lesson explains how to do all three of these tasks. First, here's how to add a record to a table:

.

Other ways to add a new record are to press Ctrl + +, or click the New Record button on the datasheet toolbar.

The record selector jumps to the blank row at the end of the table and the blinking insertion point (|) appears in the first LastName field.
Enter your last name in the LastName field.

If you make a mistake you can press the Backspace key to correct it.

Once you have finished entering data into a field you can press Tab or Enter to move to the next field or Shift + Tab to move to the previous field.
Press Tab to move to the next field and enter your first name.

Getting the hang of this data entry stuff? Move on to the next step and finish entering the new record.
Complete the record by entering your own information into each respective field (enter today's date for the hire date). Remember to press Tab to move to the next field.

When you have finished adding or editing a record, move to any other record to save your changes.

Finished entering all that information? Super! When you enter data, you don't have to click a Save button to save the information—Access automatically saves the information as you enter it. Neat, huh?

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-22: The Employees form.

Figure 1-23: Record navigation buttons are displayed at the bottom of most forms

Adding, viewing, and modifying information in a database should be straightforward and easy. Information in a table is often difficult to understand and manage. Access solves this problem by using forms to display table and query information. The forms in Access are actually quite similar to the ordinary paper type of form you fill out with a pen or pencil. Access forms have several major advantages over the traditional paper type of forms—they save you time, effort, and paper, not to mention no worries about trying to read poor penmanship!

Forms can include fill-in-the-blank fields, check boxes, lists of options—even information and prompts to help users complete the form. Forms can also contain buttons that allow you to perform other actions, such as running macros to print reports or labels. Forms can even validate data entry by automatically checking your entries for errors.

This lesson will give you a brief overview of the ins and outs of working with forms.

Click the Forms icon in the Objects bar.

Access lists all the forms in the current database.
Double-click the Employees form.

The Employees form opens in its own window, as shown in Figure 1-22. You should already be familiar with some of the items on the form, such as the record navigation buttons located at the bottom of the window, as shown in Figure 1-23. As with tables, the record navigation buttons are used to move between records.
.

Access moves to the next record. The Employees form displays information from the Employees table, one record at a time.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-24: The USA Employees query displays only the last name, first name, and country for employees from the USA.

Figure 1-25: The USA Employees query in Design view.

Webster's definition of a query is:

Que-ry

A question; an inquiry.
A doubt in the mind; a mental reservation.
A notation, usually a question mark, calling attention to an item in order to question its validity or accuracy.

In its simplest form, a query in Access is no different than this definition—well, the first one, anyway. Queries ask a question of the information in a table and then retrieve and display the results. For example, if you wanted to know which employees had worked for the company for more than five years, you could create a query to examine the contents of the HireDate field to find all the records in which the hire date is more than five years old. Access would retrieve the information that meets your criteria and display it in a datasheet.

Here's how to open and run a query:

Click the Queries icon in the Objects bar.

Access lists all the in the current database.
Double-click the USA Employees query.

Another way to open a query is to select the query and click Open.

The USA Employees query opens in its own window, as shown in Figure 1-24. This query asks the Employees table "Which employees are from the USA?" and then displays the results in a datasheet. The information displayed in the USA Employees query isn't a duplication of the data in the Employees table—it's just another way of looking at it.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-26: Printed reports

Managers like paper. Don't try explaining anything to them—they'll want to see it in printed hardcopy first. Fortunately, with a report, you can print database information from tables and queries and satisfy the demands of even the most paper-hungry supervisor. Although you can print table and query information directly from their datasheets, reports give you many more formatting and display options. Reports can be a simple list of records in a table or a complex presentation that includes calculations, graphics—even charts!

Reports are the most static of all the database objects. Unlike tables and forms, which allow user interaction, reports just sit there, waiting to be printed.

This lesson is your report primer. You won't get a chance to actually create a report in this lesson, but you will get a chance to look at an existing report. Here's how to open a report:

Click the Reports icon in the Objects bar.

Access lists all the reports in the current database.
Double-click the Employee List report.

Another way to open a report is to select the report and click Open.

The Employee List report opens in its own window, as shown in Figure 1-26. Reports open in Print Preview mode by default so that you can see how they will look when printed.

You can enlarge the report by clicking the area you want to magnify with the pointer.
Move the pointer over an area of the report that contains data and click the mouse button

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-27: The Print Preview toolbar.

Figure 1-28: The Print Preview screen.

Figure 1-29: The Print dialog box.

Most database objects—tables, queries, forms, reports, and pages—and the information they contain can be printed. Sometimes it's a good idea to preview a database object onscreen to see if something needs to be changed before sending it to the printer. You can preview a database object by clicking the Print Preview button on the toolbar.

Click the Tables icon in the Objects bar.

Access lists all the tables in the database.
Double-click the Employees table.

The Employees table appears in its own window.
.

Another way to preview is to select File → Print Preview from the menu.

The datasheet is previewed on the screen, as shown in Figure 1-28. You can enlarge the datasheet by clicking the area of the datasheet you want to magnify with the pointer.
Move the pointer over an area of the datasheet that contains data and click the mouse button.

Access magnifies the selected area. Once you have seen an enlarged area, you can zoom back out to see the overall page again.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-30: How to select text using the mouse.

Figure 1-31: To select multiple records, position the pointer over the area to the left of the first record you want to select, then click and drag down until all the records you want to select are highlighted.

Often, before you can do anything in Access, you must select the data that you want to work with. Many common tasks, such as editing, formatting, copying, cutting, and pasting all require you to know how to select information in Access. The procedure for text in Access is no different than selecting text in any other Microsoft Office program, so hopefully this lesson will be an easy review for you.

If it isn't already open, open the Employees table.
In the first record ("Janet Leverling") find and click the Address field, then click and drag the mouse across the words Moss Bay Blvd. as shown in Figure 1-30. When you're finished, release the left mouse button.

You can also select text using the keyboard by pressing and holding the Shift key while using the arrow keys to select the text you want.

The words "Moss Bay Blvd." should be highlighted in black, as shown in Figure 1-30. Selecting text with the mouse can be a little tricky, especially if you don't have much experience using the mouse. While text is selected, anything you type replaces the existing selected text.
Type East River Road .

To replace text, select the text you want to replace, then type the new text with which you want to replace it.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-32: The procedure for selecting, copying, and pasting information in a table.

You already know how to select database data. Once you have selected some text, a cell, a record—just about any database object—you can cut it, removing it from its original location, and then paste it in another location. Copying is similar to cutting, except the information is copied instead of removed. Whenever you cut or copy something, it is placed in a temporary storage area called the Clipboard. The Clipboard is available in any Windows program, so you can cut and paste between different programs.

In Microsoft Access you can cut, copy, and paste any of the following items:

Text
Records
Database objects (such as tables, queries, forms, pages, and reports)
Controls (such as text boxes and labels on forms and reports)

This lesson will give you some practice copying and pasting text and objects in Access.

If it isn't already open, open the Employees table.

First you have to select the information you want to cut or copy.
Find and select the Title field for the Steven Buchanan record (it should contain "Sales Manager"), as shown in Figure 1-32 .

You want to copy the text "Sales Manager" to the Clipboard so you can paste it to a different record. There are several different ways to copy something—we'll look at all of them. Try out each method and then use the method you like best.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-33: Undoing a record edit.

You may not want to admit this, but you're going to make mistakes when you use Access. You might accidentally delete a record you didn't mean to delete or paste something you didn't mean to paste. Fortunately, Access has a wonderful feature called that does just that. Your mistakes disappear! This lesson explains how to undo both single and multiple mistakes and how to redo your actions in case you change your mind.

It's important to note that the feature in Access isn't nearly as powerful as it is in other Microsoft Office programs. In Microsoft Access 2003, Undo will only reverse the last action or command you made. If you make a mistake and don't catch it right away, chances are you won't be able to use Undo to correct it. If that weren't bad enough, Access can't even undo many actions! For example, if you delete a record and then decide you want to use Undo to retrieve the record, you're out of luck. (To its credit, Access does warn you whenever you delete a record that you will not be able to use Undo to bring it back.) Hopefully Microsoft will fix these problems in the next version of Access.

Here's how to use Undo:

If it isn't already open, open the Employees table.

First we need to make a "mistake" that we can undo...
Find the Robert King record. Select the LastName field for Robert King and type Queen .

Don't remember how to edit a record? Click the left edge of Robert King's LastName cell to select it and type "Queen." Press Tab when you're finished.

The Robert King is now Robert Queen. Whoops! Somebody's played a joke on you—better change Robert's last name back to "King" before he sees it. Here's how you can undo your "mistake."

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-34: The Spelling dialog box

Figure 1-35: The "spelling check is complete" dialog box.

Spell checking used to be a feature only available in word-processing programs—but no more! You can use the spell checker in Access to find and correct any spelling errors that you might have made in your tables and forms. The spell checker in Access is shared and used by the other programs in the Microsoft Office suite, so any words you add to the custom spelling dictionary in one Microsoft Office program will be available to the other Microsoft Office programs.

Unfortunately, spell checking in Access is not nearly as useful as it is in a word processor. Most databases contain names, addresses, and information that the spell checker may not recognize. When this happens, click either Ignore to ignore the word or Add to add the word to the custom spelling dictionary.

If it isn't already open, open the Employees table.

Access will start checking the spelling of the words in a table where the cursor is located and will stop whenever it encounters a word that is not found in its dictionary. Before we start spell check, let's move to the very beginning of the table.
Press Ctrl + Home to move to the very beginning of the table.
.

Other ways to spell check are to press F7, or select Tools → Spelling from the menu.

The Spelling dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 1-34. Because it can't find the word "Leverling" in its dictionary, Access flags it as a possible spelling error. Obviously, Access is going to have problems checking the spelling of the LastName field. Instead of having to click "Ignore" for each and every last name Access doesn't recognize, you can tell Access to ignore the entire LastName field.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-36: Asking a question in the Access Help task pane.

Figure 1-37: Offline Help search results.

Figure 1-38: Possible topic answers for your question.

When you don't know how to do something in Windows or a Windows-based program, don't panic—just look up your question in the . The Access Help files can answer your questions, offer tips, and provide help for all of Access's features. Many Access users forget to use Help, but this is unfortunate, because the Help files know more about Access than most reference books do!

You can make the Access Help files appear by pressing the F1 key. Then all you have to do is ask your question in normal English. This lesson will show you how you can get help using the Access Help files.

Press the F1 key.

The F1 key is the help key for all Windows-based programs.

The Access Help task pane appears, as shown in Figure 1-36.
Type How do I create a table? in the Search for: text box.

You can ask Access Help questions in normal English, just as if you were asking a person instead of a computer. The program identifies keywords and phrases in your questions like "create" and "table."

Microsoft has totally changed the way Help works in Office 2003 with Office Online. Instead of searching for help in the files already stored on your computer, Office Online searches for the topic in their online database. The purpose of this feature is to provide current, up-to-date information on search topics. In their efforts to provide information on more advanced topics, however, they sometimes forgot the most basic and important ones.

Additional content appearing in this section has been removed.
Purchase this book now or read it online at Safari to get the whole thing!

Content preview·Buy PDF of this chapter|Buy reprint rights for this chapter

Figure 1-39: Choosing a new Office Assistant

Figure 1-40: Click the Help button to display help on what a dialog box control does.

If you find that 's (the cartoon paperclip) antics are getting old, you can choose a different Office Assistant at any time. People have different tastes and personalities, and that's why Microsoft allows you to select from eight different Office Assistants. Of course, if you really hate the Office Assistant, you can always completely shut it off too.

The other topic covered in this lesson is how to use the Help button. During your journey with Access you will undoubtedly come across a dialog box or two with a number of confusing controls and options. To help you find out what the various controls and options in a dialog box are there for, many dialog boxes contain a Help (

Table of Contents