© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. ACCESS 2007 M I C R O S O F T ® THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH S E R I E S Lesson 4 – Creating New Databases and Tables

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2 Lesson Objectives Creating Databases. Creating Tables. Adding and Deleting Fields in a Table. Control Field Appearance. Control Data Integrity. Managing External Data.

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 Creating Databases Exercises –Create a Database Using a Template –Set Database Properties –Create a Blank Database

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 4 Create a Database Using a Template When creating a new database, you should: –Analyze user needs –Types of data to stored –Include how date will be entered –How data will be displayed Templates create a structured database containing major objects –Tables, queries, forms, or reports

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 Create a Database Using a Template

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6 Set Database Properties –Press the Office button then Manage Set Preferences –Press the Office button then Access Options

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7 Create a Blank Database The process requires you to: –Name the database –Specify a location in which to save it Once database is created –You will be able to add other major objects Tables Queries Forms Reports

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 8 Create a Blank Database

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 9 Creating Tables Exercises –Create a Table Using a Template –Create a Table in Design View –Copy a Table Structure –Modify Table Properties

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 10 Create a Table Using a Template Each table should store data for a major purpose When creating a new table: –Test your design by adding sample data Table templates are similar to database templates –Quick and easy method to produce a table –Can modify structure later

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 11 Create a Table in Design View Design View offers many different data types

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 12 Create a Table in Design View The Create tab, in the Tables group, choose Table

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 13 Create a Table in Design View Changes in a table’s structure must be saved

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 14 Copy a Table Structure When copying a table you have three options: –Select to include only the structure Fields but no records –Select only the data Data added to another table –Select the structure and the data

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 15 Modify Table Properties Table properties do not change functionality of table –Provide information to help identify the object –Properties such as owner or date/time modified, are automatically updated

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 16 Adding and Deleting Fields in a Table Exercise –Add and Delete Fields in Datasheet View –Add and Delete Fields in Design View

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 17 Add and Delete Fields in Datasheet View Inserting a text field in a Datasheet View –Default width is 255 spaces –Each new field is given a consecutive number Deleting a text field in a Datasheet View –This action cannot be undone –Most data is archived rather than deleted

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 18 Add and Delete Fields in Design View Design View offers more flexible than through Datasheet View

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 19 Control Field Appearance Exercise –Change Field Property Caption –Change Field Property Default Values –Change Field Property Format –Change Field Property Input Mask –Change Field Property Date Picker

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 20 Change Field Property Caption Field properties control appearance & functionality

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 21 Change Field Property Caption Caption property over rides field name –As column header in Datasheet View –As control label in a form or report

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 22 Change Field Property Default Values Useful when a significant number of records contain the same field value All new records display default value –Previously entered records will not be changed Default value can be edited

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 23 Change Field Property Format Improves data entry by specifying formats

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 24 Change Field Property Input Mask Formats the display of data Control the format in which values are entered

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 25 Change Field Property Input Mask Input Mask Wizard –Telephone numbers –Social security numbers

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 26 Change Field Property Date Picker Clicking the date picker launches calendar –Can select a date –Defaults to current date

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 27 Control Data Integrity Exercises –Set the Primary Key –Set the Field Property Field Size –Set the Field Property Validation Text and Rules

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 28 Set the Primary Key –Primary key is one or more fields –Unique identifier for every record Most tables contain a primary key

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 29 Set the Field Property Field Size Field size controls the space available to store data Field width controls only the visible width of a datasheet column Effects the size of the database

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 30 Set the Field Property Validation Text and Rules Validation Rule - criteria for entering data –Control values entered into a field Validation Text - message that appears when a value prohibited by the validation rule is entered

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 31 Managing External Data Exercises –Export a Table to Access –Export Data to Word –Import Data from Excel

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 32 Export a Table to Access Data can be exported many different ways

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 33 Export Data to Word Any major object can be exported Hidden columns or filtered records are not exported Option to open destination file

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 34 Import Data from Excel Import Wizard for most types of data Import from Excel –Select columns and rows –Select ranges

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 35 Lesson 4 Summary The two methods for creating a new database are using a template or by creating a blank database. A database template is a ready-to-use database containing all the tables, queries, forms, and reports needed to perform a specific task. A new database created as a blank database does not contain objects or data. Some database properties come from the operating system of the workstation on which the database is created. Because database files can be quite large, you should not create a database on a floppy disk.

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 36 Lesson 4 Summary The two methods for creating a new table are using a template and creating a blank table. Table Templates provide a quick and easy method to produce a table containing commonly used fields, based upon a specific need. When a single field contains both alphabetic and numeric data characters, you must define the field as text data type. When copying a table, you can select to include only the structure, the structure and data, or only data. Before adding any field to a table, you first should make certain that it does not duplicate an existing field’s data.

THE PROFESSIONAL APPROACH SERIES © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 37 Lesson 4 Summary When tables are created using Datasheet View, Access evaluates the data entered to determine the data type for the field to create. A caption is a field property that displays as a column heading in Datasheet View or as a control label in a form or report.