Ms Office Tune Up

The navigation pane shows the objects (Section 1.1) that are part of your database, and it lets you manipulate them. However, you don’t necessarily see all your database objects at all times. The navigation pane has several different viewing modes, so you can home in on exactly what interests you.

When you first create a database, the navigation pane shows only the tables in your database. That’s good enough for now after all, your database doesn’t contain anything but the tables you’ve created.

Figure 1-19. Unhappy with the space consumed by the navigation pane? Click the Open/Close but-ton in the top-right corner (top), and the navigation bar slides out of the way to give more room for the datasheet (bottom). Click the button again to expand it back into view. Read the rest of this entry »

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You can use the Office button Open command to open an Access database that somebody created with a previous version of Access. (See the box “Sharing Databases with Older Versions of Access” in Section 1.2.3 for more about different Access file formats.)

Access handles old database files differently, depending on just how old they are. Here’s how it works:

• If you open an Access 2002-2003 file, you don’t get any notification or warning. Access keeps the current format, and you’re free to make any changes you want.

• If you open an Access 2000 file, you’re also in for smooth sailing. However, if you change the design of the database, the new parts you add may not be accessible in Access 2000.

• If you open an older Access file (like one created for Access 97, 95, or 2.0), Access asks whether you want to convert the database or just open it (see Figure 1-17). Read the rest of this entry »

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Every time you use the Office button Open command, Access closes the current database, and then opens the one you chose. If you want to see more than one database at a time, you need to fire up more than one copy of Access at the same time. (Computer geeks refer to this action as starting more than one instance of a program.)

It’s almost embarrassingly easy. If you double-click another database file while Access is already open, then a second Access window appears in the taskbar for that database. You can also launch a second (or third, or fourth…) instance of Access from the Start menu, and then use Office button Open to load up a different database in each one.

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Once you’ve created a database, it’s easy to open it later. You can use any of these approaches:

• Double-click a database file. (You can browse to it using My Computer, Windows Explorer, or just plop in on your desktop.) Remember, Access databases have the file extension .accdb or .mdb.

• Launch Access, and then look for your database in the Open Recent Database section on the right of the Getting Started page. (The same list’s available through the Office menu, as shown in Figure 1-15.)

• Launch Access, choose Office button Open, and then browse for your Access database file. Read the rest of this entry »

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If you want to save your database with a different name, in a different place, or using an older Access file format, you can use the trusty Save As command. Choose Office button Save As, and then use one of the options in Figure 1-14. Note that, once Access creates the new database file, that file’s the one it keeps using. In other words, when you create a table or edit some data, Access updates the new file. (If you want to go back to the old file, you either need to open it in Access, or use Save As again.)

Figure 1-14. Make sure you click the right-pointing arrow next to the Save As menu command to see this submenu of choices. (Just clicking Save As performs the default option, which saves a copy of the currently selected database object, not your entire database.) Then, choose one of the options under the “Save the database in another format” heading.

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The automatic save feature can pose a problem if you make a change mistakenly. If you’re fast enough, you can use the Undo feature to reverse your last change (Figure 1-12). However, the Undo feature reverses only your most recent edit, so it’s no help if you edit a series of records and then discover the problem. It also doesn’t help if you close your table and then reopen it.

Figure 1-12. The Undo command appears in the Quick Access toolbar at the top left of the Access window (circled), so it’s always available.

For these reasons, it’s a good idea to make frequent database backups. To make a backup, you simply need to copy your database file to another folder, or make a copy with another name (like Read the rest of this entry »

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Unlike other programs, Access doesn’t require that you save your work. It automatically saves any changes you make.

When you create a new database (Section 1.2.1), Access saves your database file. When you add a table or another object to the database, Access saves the database again. And when you enter new data or edit existing data, Access saves the database almost instantaneously.

This automatic save process takes place behind the scenes, and you probably won’t notice anything. But don’t be alarmed when you exit Access and it doesn’t prompt you to save changes, as all changes are saved the moment you make them.

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Access, like virtually every Windows program, lets you cut and paste bits of information from one spot to another. This trick’s easy using just three shortcut keys: Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+X to cut (similar to copy, but the original content’s deleted), and Ctrl+V to paste. When you’re in Edit mode, you can use these keys to copy whatever you’ve selected. If you’re not in Edit mode, the copying or cutting operation grabs all the content in the field.

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Power users know the fastest way to get work done is to use tricky keyboard combination like Ctrl+Alt+Shift+*. Although you can’t always easily remember these combination, a couple of tables can help you out. Table 1-1 lists some useful keys that can help you whiz around the datasheet.

Read the rest of this entry »

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You’ll probably spend a lot of time working with the datasheet. So settle in. To make your life easier, it helps to understand a few details.

As you already know, you can use the arrow keys to move from field to field or row to row. However, you might have a bit of trouble editing a value. When you start typing, Access erases any existing content. To change this behavior, you need to switch into Edit mode by pressing the F2 key; in Edit mode, your typing doesn’t delete the stuff that’s already in that field. Instead, you get to change or add to it. To switch out of Edit mode, you press F2 again. Figure 1-10 shows a closeup look at the difference.

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