Access 2010: The Missing Manual

The New Features in Access 2010

Access 2010 doesn’t represent as radical a change as Access 2007, which revamped the program’s main window and introduced the now-infamous ribbon. However, Access 2010 still has an impressive number of enhancements, most notably:

• Backstage view. Earlier in this Introduction, you got a glimpse of Access’s new control center for managing databases. Whether you need to open an existing database file, create a new one, print your work, or tune up Access options, backstage view gives you a bit more breathing room. You’ll learn more about this mega-timesaver in Chapter 1.

• Report refinements. Access fans have been creating reports (printable lists and summaries of their data) for years. Access 2010 gives reports a minor tune-up, with new support for Office themes (reusable font and color settings) and data bars (which represent numeric values with bars of different length). Chapter 10 has the details.

• The WebBrowser control. This frill lets you put a web browser in one of your custom-designed database forms. For example, imagine equipping your database with your company’s website or an online product page. Chapter 13 shows how you can use the WebBrowser to display Amazon sales figures for a table of books.

• Navigation forms. As you design better and more complex databases, you’ll need a way to get around. For years, the only solution Access had for database navigation was the clumsy and irredeemably ugly switchboard manager. Access 2010 tosses that feature out ...