1Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. Exploring Microsoft Office Access 2010 by Robert Grauer, Keith Mast, and Mary Anne Poatsy Chapter 8 Get Connected: Exchanging Data Between Access and Other Applications

Objectives Create a Hyperlink field Add an Attachment field Add attachment controls to forms and reports Export data to Excel Export data to Word Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 2

Objectives (continued) Export data to a PDF or XPS document Export objects to another Access database Link to an Excel spreadsheet Link to an Access table Import a text file Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 3

Connecting to External Files Hyperlink – Allows a link to a file on your computer, an address, or a Web site address Attachment – Allows Access users to add a file (for example, a Word document, an image file) to a record Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 4

Hyperlink Field Type Connect to: – File on your computer Can be on local hard drive or on network – URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Web site address, usually in form – address Any valid address works Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 5

Hyperlink Field Type (continued) When clicked, will launch associated application – URLs will launch default Web browser – addresses will launch default client – Files will launch associated program Can cause problems for unsuspecting users – Some DBAs will make these text fields instead to avoid accidental program launches – Can also right-click to remove link Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 6

Attachment Field Type Allows Access to add files to a record: – External files stored in the database Examples: Microsoft Word, PDF, image files – Multiple files allowed per record – Can cause database size to grow quickly – Paperclip icon displays in the attachment field followed by the number of attachments Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 7 Two Attachments No Attachments

Attachment Field Type (continued) Attachment field allows the following operations: – Add Click to add one or more files to a record – Remove Click to remove previously attached files – Open Click to launch the appropriate application and open the file Files are opened and stored in a temporary folder Files must be saved and re-added to database Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 8

Attachment Field Type (continued) An Attachment field also allows: – Save As Use to save the attached file to a local storage location Must add it back into the database if you make changes – Save All Save all attachments in a record to a local, temporary folder Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 9

Attachments in Forms and Reports Attachments can be added to forms and reports – Use attachment control – Allows user to interact with attachments as they do in tables – Only first attachment is displayed – Thumbnails will be displayed where possible (pictures, generally) Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 10

Exporting Data Printouts do not allow for manipulation of data Exporting (often to Office applications) can allow this Export commands found on External Data tab Export steps can be saved – Useful if the same export will be repeated Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 11

Exporting Data (continued) Some common formats to export to include: – Excel – Word – Access – PDF/XPS Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 12

Exporting Data to Excel If exporting a table, entire table exported – To get a subset of the information, create a query and then export that content Forms and reports may not export well – Access datasheet view is more similar to Excel worksheets than forms and reports – More reliable to use the underlying queries and tables that make up the form or report Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 13

Exporting Data to Excel (continued) Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 14

Exporting Data to Excel (continued) Why export to Excel? – Charting – Ability to test different scenarios with data – Ability to distribute data to users who do not have Access or do not know how to use Access Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 15

Exporting Data to Word Exporting to Word saves data in Rich Text Format (RTF) – RTF supports basic formatting – RTF is usable on most Mac, Linux, and PC Word Processing tools Queries and tables export well Tabular reports export well Columnar reports may not work – As with Excel, you can export the underlying queries and tables Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 16

Exporting Data to Word (continued) After exporting, can be edited like any Word document – Add headers, footers, clip art, memo headings, etc. Word can then convert to Word (.DOCX) format Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 17

Exporting Data to PDF or XPS Two common file formats to create uneditable files – PDF Stands for Portable Document Format Standard created by Adobe Systems Readable by free Adobe Reader software application – XPS Stands for XML Paper Specification Standard created by Microsoft Readable with free Microsoft XPS Viewer application Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 18

Exporting Data to PDF or XPS (continued) Can publish forms, queries, reports, and tables Good choice for exporting reports XPS documents not as widely used Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 19

Exporting to Access To export to Access, database must first exist Can export all objects – Forms, queries, and reports may need modification if field and table names are not identical – Tables can be exported in two ways Definition only Definition and Data – Can rename object upon export Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 20

Importing Data into Access If external data needs to get in to an Access table, we can import – If the data is already in electronic format, no need to redo data entry Three most common formats: – Excel – Access – Text files Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 21

Importing Data into Access (continued) Imports can happen in two ways – Import Makes a copy of data that is stored in another location Can be edited within Access before appending – Link Create a connection between an external file and an Access database Does not add to file size Can not be edited within Access before appending (make sure columns in file match fields in database) Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 22

Linking to an Excel Spreadsheet Before linking, verify format of spreadsheet – Open file in Excel – Consider whether to link to original sheet or a copy Do you want to edit original data? – Remove extra heading rows – Ensure column headings are what you want to appear in database – All changes to Excel spreadsheet will be reflected in Access Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 23

Linking to an Excel Spreadsheet (continued) Major limitations of linking to Excel spreadsheets – Data can not be edited during linking process – Data can not be changed from within Access – If you want to link multiple sheets from the same workbook, you have to repeat the process Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 24

Linking to an Access Database Can link to tables in another database – Can NOT link to queries, forms, reports, macros, or modules – Can import copies of tables, forms, queries, and reports Good practice to examine table before linking Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 25

Linking to an Access Database (continued) When created, Access adds a linked table – Structure can NOT be changed – Data can be changed Values from source database are displayed Values saved in to source database – Linked table can be used as source for queries, forms, and reports Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 26

Text Files Text files are values with consistent formatting Common method of exchanging data Usually created by computer systems Fixed length Series of values with a fixed column length CSV (Comma Separated Values) Series of values, columns are separated by commas Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 27

Text Files (continued) Text files can be appended to an existing table, imported as a new table, or linked Good practice to examine text file before importing – Notepad is a free program installed on Windows based machines that will open text files Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 28

Importing CSV Files CSV imports can have problems because of commas in addresses – Access would interpret the following as two fields: 150 Main Street, Apt 2 – When examining, this can be fixed by enclosing in quotes – Access would correctly interpret this address: "150 Main Street, Apt 2" – Fixes may need to be done by hand Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 29

Importing Text Files When importing, Access will give you options – First row contains field names Yes or No – No primary key Yes or No Import process will prompt for delimited or fixed width – Delimited option used for importing CSV files – Fixed width option used for importing fixed length files Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 30

Summary In this chapter, you learned how Access can be connected to external files. You learned about the Hyperlink and Attachment field types, how to export data to Access, Word, Excel, PDF, and XPS documents, how to link to Excel and Access files, and how to import a text file. Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 31

Questions Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 32

Copyright Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall. 33 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.