Access 2010: The Missing Manual

Opening Databases

Once you’ve created a database, it’s easy to open it later. The standard approach is to choose File→Open, and then to browse for your database file, select it, and click Open.

You can also open a database file from outside Access. For example, you can browse to the folder that holds your database file using Windows Explorer and double-click it. Or, just save the file on your desktop so it’s easy to find when you need it.

Designating a Database as Trusted

When you open a database for the first time, you’ll notice something a little bizarre. Access pops up a message bar with a scary-sounding security warning (Figure 1-14).

If you’re opening your own recently created database, this security warning is a bit confusing, because right now your database doesn’t even attempt to do anything risky. However, once you start building databases with code routines (as described in Part Five), or when you start using action queries (Chapter 8), it’s a different story. In those situations, you need to know if Access trusts your database and will allow it to run code and action queries.

In the meantime, you’re probably wondering what you should do about the message bar. You have two options:

• Click the X at the right side of the message bar to banish it. (But it’ll reappear the next time you open the database.)

  

  Figure 1-14. This security warning tells you that Access doesn’t trust your database—in ...