Microsoft® Access® 2010 24-Hour Trainer

9

Creating a Table in Design View

In Lesson 8, the previous lesson, you learned how to create tables using Datasheet View mode and the built-in table wizards in Access 2010. However, Access 2010 offers another, more important table designer, which is the Table Design View designer. As the original method for creating tables in an Access database, most developers still use the Table Design View designer to create and modify tables. The Table Design View designer provides Access's richest design experience for tables. The tools to add or delete fields and to set the many field properties are all exposed to the developer in Table Design View. This lesson focuses on creating tables using the Table Design View designer.

Becoming familiar with the Table Design View designer and its tools is very important for an Access developer. Learning how to use the Table Design View will make creating custom tables much easier for you in the long run. Before creating your tables, it is highly recommended to first design your database tables and relationships to show how each table relates to the other tables. This is the core design for the database application, because the database will store all of the data. Database design can be done using a pencil and paper or with software tools like Microsoft Visio. By first visualizing how the data will be stored, and how each table and each field in the tables will relate to the other tables, you get a better understanding of how the data should be stored ...