Access 2019 Bible

CHAPTER 2Getting Started with Access

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Looking at the Access welcome screen
• Creating a database from scratch
• Opening a new database
• Getting acquainted with the Access interface

In this chapter, you'll gain an understanding of the major components of the Microsoft Access user interface.

The Access Welcome Screen

If you open Access 2019 via Windows (Start ⇨ Access), you'll see the default welcome screen shown in Figure 2.1. The welcome screen gives you several options for opening an existing Access database or creating a new database.

FIGURE 2.1 The Access welcome screen provides a number of ways to start working with Access.

NOTE

If you open an Access database directly from File Explorer (by double‐clicking it), you won't see the welcome screen. Instead, you'll go directly to the database interface covered later in this chapter.

In the upper‐left corner of the welcome screen, you'll notice the Recent section. The files listed here are databases that you've previously opened through Access 2019. You can click any of the database files listed there to open them.

NOTE

Access does not distinguish existing databases from deleted databases when populating the Recent section. This means you could see a database in the Recent list that you know for a fact you've deleted. Clicking an already deleted database in the Recent list will simply activate ...