unit05

UNIT 05 NOTES

CHAPTER 20: MERGING DOCUMENTS

WORD INCLUDES A MAIL MERGE FEATURE THAT YOU CAN USE TO CREATE LETTERS AND ENVELOPES AND MUCH MORE, ALL WITH PERSONALIZED INFORMATION.
THERE ARE TWO DOCUMENTS THAT NEED TO BE CREATED FOR MERGING.
ONE DOCUMENT, WHICH WORD CALLS THE DATA SOURCE, CONTAINS THE VARIABLE INFORMATION. (NAMES, ADDRESSES, ETC.)
THE SECOND DOCUMENT CONTAINS THE STANDARD TEXT ALONG WITH IDENTIFIERS SHOWING WHERE VARIABLE INFORMATION IS TO BE INSERTED. THIS IS THE MAIN DOCUMENT.

TEXT IN A DATA SOURCE IS INSERTED IN CELLS IN A TABLE.

CREATING A DATA SOURCE WITH MAIL MERGE HELPER – THERE ISN’T A STRICT SPECIFIC ORDER FOR CREATION, BUT IT IS LOGICAL TO CREATE THE DATA SOURCE FIRST, THEN THE MAIN DOCUMENT. YOU MUST DETERMINE WHAT TYPE OF CORRESPONDENCE YOU WILL BE CREATING AND THE TYPE OF INFORMATION YOU WILL NEED TO INSERT IN THE CORRESPONDENCE. WORD PROVIDES PREDETERMINED FIELD NAMES THAT YOU CAN USE OR YOU CAN MAKE UP YOUR OWN.
VARIABLE INFORMATION IS SAVED AS A RECORD. A RECORD CONTAINS ALL THE INFORMATION FOR ONE UNIT (A CUSTOMER). A SERIES OF FIELDS MAKE ONE RECORD AND A SERIES OF RECORDS MAKE UP A DATA SOURCE.
AT A CLEAR SCREEN, CHOOSE TOOLS-MAIL MERGE. AT THE MAIL MERGE HELPER DIALOG BOX, CHOOSE CREATE, THEN FORM LETTERS. CHOOSE ACTIVE WINDOW AT THIS DIALOG BOX. NEXT CHOSE GET DATA - CREATE DATA SOURCE. AT THE CREATE DATA SOURCE DIALOG BOX, THE FIELDS PROVIDED BY WORD ARE SHOWN IN THE FIELD NAMES IN HEADER ROW. YOU CAN REMOVE OR ADD FIELD NAMES AS NECESSARY.
AFTER ESTABLISHING THE FIELD NAMES, CLICK ON OK AND SAVE THE DATA SOURCE. AFTER SAVING, WORD WILL TELL YOU THAT THE DATA SOURCE DOESN’T CONTAIN DATA, CHOOSE EDIT DATA SOURCE. TYPE THE INFORMATION FOR THE FIRST FIELD, HIT ENTER FOR NEXT FIELD. WHEN FINISHED CLICK ON ADD NEW FOR NEXT RECORD. AFTER THE LAST RECORD, CHOOSE VIEW SOURCE. THE INFORMATION WILL APPEAR IN A TABLE. THE FIRST ROW CONTAINS THE NAMES OF THE FIELDS (HEADER ROW). THE INFORMATION MAY BE WRAPPED INSIDE OF A CELL, BUT AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT HIT ENTER OR EXTRA SPACES THE INFORMATION WILL MERGE CORRECTLY. AT THE DATA SOURCE DOCUMENT, CHOOSE FILE-SAVE AS.
TO EDIT A DATA SOURCE, OPEN IT IN THE NORMAL FASHION (FILE-OPEN) AND USE THE TECHNIQUES FOR WORKING IN A TABLE OR USE THE MAIL MERGE TOOLBAR. SAVE WHEN FINISHED.

CREATING THE MAIN DOCUMENT - THE MAIN DOCUMENT IS CREATED TO INCLUDE FIELDS IDENTIFYING WHERE VARIABLE INFORMATION FROM THE DATA SOURCE IS TO BE INSERTED. THE MAIN DOCUMENT CAN BE A LETTER, ENVELOPE OR LABEL.
BEFORE CREATING THE MAIN DOCUMENT, DETERMINE WHAT INFORMATION WILL REMAIN THE SAME FOR EACH DOCUMENT (STANDARD TEXT) AND WHAT INFORMATION WILL CHANGE (VARIABLE INFORMATION).
AT A CLEAR SCREEN, CHOOSE TOOLS-MAIL MERGE. CHOOSE CREATE (UNDER MAIN DOCUMENT)-FROM LETTERS-ACTIVE WINDOW. CHOOSE GET DATA-OPEN DATA SOURCE. (SELECT THE DESIRED DATA SOURCE). WORD WILL SAY THERE ARE NO FIELDS FOUND IN DOCUMENT, CHOOSE EDIT MAIN DOCUMENT. TYPE THE MAIN DOCUMENT. CLICK ON INSERT MERGE FIELD AND CHOOSE THE DESIRED FIELD NAME TO INSERT. YOU CAN USE THE MERGE FIELDS AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WISH. USE SPACES AND PUNCTUATION BEFORE AND AFTER THE FIELD NAMES AS YOU WOULD WITH NORMAL TEXT. WHEN FINISHED, SAVE IN THE NORMAL FASHION.

MERGING FILES - ONCE THE DATA SOURCE AND THE MAIN DOCUMENT HAVE BEEN CREATED AND SAVED, THEY CAN BE MERGED. MERGED DOCUMENTS CAN BE SAVED IN A NEW DOCUMENT OR THEY CAN BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PRINTER.
OPEN THE MAIN DOCUMENT. CLICK ON THE MERGE TO NEW DOCUMENT BUTTON ON THE MAIL MERGE TOOLBAR OR CHOOSE MERGE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DIALOG BOX.
THE BUTTONS ON THE MAIL MERGE TOOLBAR CAN BE HELPFUL. CLICK ON VIEW MERGED DATA BUTTON TO PREVIEW THE FIRST RECORD. USE THE NEXT, LAST, PREVIOUS, OR FIRST BUTTONS TO KEEP VIEWING MERGED RECORDS. CLICK ON VIEW MERGED DATA BUTTON AGAIN TO RETURN TO THE MAIN DOCUMENT.
FOR A MERGE TO OPERATE SMOOTHLY, NO ERRORS CAN OCCUR IN THE MAIN DOCUMENT OR THE DATA SOURCE. WORD INCLUDES A FEATURE TO CHECK FOR ERRORS IN THE MAIN AND DATA SOURCE DOCUMENTS. OPEN THE MAIN DOCUMENT AND CLICK ON CHECK FOR ERRORS-MAKE CHOICE.

EDITING THE DATA SOURCE – CHOOSE EDIT DATA SOURCE BUTTON ON MAIL MERGE TOOLBAR. CHOOSE VIEW SOURCE-THEN MAKE EDITS WITH BUTTONS LIKE MANAGE FIELDS.

CHAPTER 22: CREATING A DATABASE TABLE

WITH ACCESS, YOU CAN ORGANIZE, STORE, MAINTAIN, RETRIEVE, SORT, AND PRINT ALL TYPES OF BUSINESS DATA.

ORGANIZING DATA IN A DATABASE TABLE – THE FIRST STEP IN ORGANIZING DATA IS TO DETERMINE THE FIELDS. AFIELD IS ONE PIECE OF INFORMATION ABOUT A PERSON, A PLACE OR AN ITEM. ALL FIELDS FOR ONE UNIT ARE CONSIDERED A RECORD. DETERMINE FIELDS FOR INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED BASED ON HOW YOU PLAN TO USE THE DATA. BE SURE TO CONSIDER NOT ONLY CURRENT NEEDS FOR THE DATA, BUT ALSO ANY FUTURE NEEDS.

NAMING FIELDS – EACH FIELD MUST CONTAIN A UNIQUE NAME. USE A NAME THAT DESCRIBES THE CONTENTS. IT MAY BE UP TO 64 CHARACTERS, CAN CONTAIN LETTERS, NUMBERS, SPACES AND SYMBOLS.

ASSIGNING DATA TYPE TO FIELDS – THE DATA TYPE SPECIFIES THE TYPE OF DATA YOU CAN ENTER IN A FIELD. THE TYPES OF FIELDS ARE (1) TEXT – TEXT SUCH AS NAMES AND NUMBERS THAT DO NOT REQUIRE CALCULATIONS (SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS, ADDRESSES, ZIPS). A MAXIMUM OF 255 CHARACTERS CAN BE STORED. (2) MEMO – USED WHEN MORE THAN 255 CHARACTERS ARE NEEDED. (UP TO 64,000 CHARACTERS). (3) NUMBER – POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE NUMBERS FOR MATHEMATICAL CALCULATIONS, EXCEPT CALCULATIONS THAT INCLUDE MONEY OR REQUIRE A HIGH DEGREE OF ACCURACY. THERE IS A 15 DIGIT MAXIMUM. (4) CURRENCY – ASSIGN TO A FIELD WHERE YOU DO NOT WANT CALCULATIONS ROUNDED OFF DURING A CALCULATION. THERE IS A 15 DIGIT MAXIMUM. (5) DATE/TIME – FOR DATE OR TIME (8 DIGITS). (6) AUTONUMBER – USED TO AUTOMATICALLY ENTER A NUMBER WHEN A RECORD IS ADDED. (7) YES/NO – FOR DATA LIMITED TO YES/NO, TRUE/FALSE, OR ON/OFF. DURING THE PROCESS OR CREATING A DATABASE TABLE, FIELD SIZES ARE ASSIGNED.

CREATING A DATABASE TABLE – AFTER THE FIELDS, FIELD NAMES, AND DATA TYPES HAVE BEEN DETERMINED, YOU ARE READY TO CREATE THE DATABASE TABLE. *OPEN ACCESS, CLICK ON BLANK DATABASE, CHANGE TO DESIRED DRIVE, GIVE THE DATABASE A NAME – OK. AT THE DATABASE DIALOG BOX, MAKE SURE THE TABLES TAB IS SELECTED AND THEN CLICK ON NEW. AT THE NEW TABLE DIALOG BOX, CLICK DESIGN VIEW IN THE LIST BOX – OK. AT THE TABLE 1: TABLE DIALOG BOX, KEY THE FIRST FIELD NAME – PRESS TAB. IN THE DATA TYPE, CHOOSE THE CORRECT TYPE AND CORRECT SPECIFICATIONS. HIT TAB AND TYPE IN A DESCRIPTION OF THE FIELD. CONTINUE THIS FOR ALL FIELDS IN THE DATABASE. WHEN ALL FIELDS HAVE BEEN KEYED, CHOOSE FILE-SAVE.

ENTERING DATA IN A TABLE – AFTER A DATABASE TABLE HAS BEEN DESIGNED WITH THE NECESSARY FIELDS AND HAS BEEN CREATED IN ACCESS, THE NEXT STEP IS TO INPUT DATA. ONE METHOD FOR ENTERING DATA IS TO CHANGE TO THE DATASHEET VIEW. THIS WILL LOOK SIMILAR TO ROWS IN A TABLE IN WORD OR EXCEL. OPEN THE DATABASE BY CHOOSING FILE-OPEN. CLICK ON THE DESIRED DATABASE. WHEN A DATABASE IS OPENED, IT IS AUTOMATICALLY DISPLAYED IN THE DATASHEET VIEW. KEY THE DATA IN EACH FIELD, PRESS TAB TO MOVE TO THE NEXT FIELD. THE DESCRIPTION YOU KEYED FOR EACH FIELD WHEN CREATING THE DATABASE IS DISPLAYED AT THE LEFT OF THE STATUS BAR. WHEN ALL RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEYED, SAVE THE TABLE AGAIN.

PRINTING A DATABASE TABLE – IF YOU CLICK ON THE PRINT BUTTON OR CHOOSE FILE-PRINT-OK, THE DATABASE MAY NOT PRINT COMPLETELY AND MAY BE PUT IN A DIFFERENT ORDER. CHANGING PAGE SETUP – CHOOSE FILE-PAGE SETUP. AT THE MARGINS TABS, THE DEFAULT MARGINS ARE 1". YOU CAN CONTROL THE PRINTING OF THE HEADINGS. AT THE PAGE TAB, YOU CAN CHANGE THE ORIENTATION AND/OR PAPER SIZE.

CHANGING FIELD WIDTH – YOU CAN CHANGE THE WIDTH OF THE FIELDS SO THAT ALL OF THE CONTENTS PRINT BY DOUBLE-CLICKING ON THE MARKERS BETWEEN THE HEADINGS. THIS WILL CAUSE THE LONGEST ENTRY TO FIT. WHEN THIS PRINTS, ALL OF THE CONTENTS WILL APPEAR COMPLETELY.

MAINTAINING A DATABASE – ONCE A DATABASE TABLE HAS BEEN CREATED, MORE THAN LIKELY IT WILL REQUIRE MAINTENANCE. OPEN THE DATABASE IN QUESTION. HAVE IT IN THE DATASHEET VIEW. TO DELETE A RECORD, HAVE THE INSERTION POINT IN THE ROW OF THE RECORD TO DELETE AND CLICK ON THE DELETE RECORD BUTTON. TO CREATE A NEW RECORD, CLICK ON THE NEW RECORD BUTTON AND TYPE IN INFORMATION. WHEN DONE, SAVE THE DATABASE TABLE AGAIN.

MODIFYING A TABLE – AT THE DESIGN VIEW, YOU CAN MODIFY THE STRUCTURE OF A DATABASE TABLE. CLICK ON THE VIEW PULL DOWN MENU AND CHOOSE DESIGN VIEW. ADDING A FIELD – A ROW FOR A NEW FIELD CAN BE ADDED BY CLICKING ON INSERT ROW BUTTON ON TOOLBAR. THE NEW ROW WILL BE ADDED IMMEDIATELY ABOVE THE ROW WITH THE INSERTION POINT. DELETING A FIELD – HAVE INSERTION POINT IN THE FIELD ROW, CLICK ON DELETE ROW BUTTON. MOVING A FIELD– IN THE DATASHEET VIEW, FIELDS CAN BE MOVED TO DIFFERENT LOCATIONS. SELECT THE ROW TO MOVE (ON GRAY BUTTON AT LEFT CLICK). DRAG TO NEW LOCATION.

SORTING RECORDS – THE TABLE DATASHEET TOOLBAR CONTAINS 2 BUTTONS FOR SORTING. POSITION THE INSERTION POINT IN THE FIELD TO SORT AND CLICK ON DESIRED SORT BUTTON.

CHAPTER 23: CREATING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DATABASE TABLES

ACCESS IS CONSIDERED A RELATIONAL DATABASE PROGRAM BECAUSE YOU CAN CREATE TABLES THAT HAVE A RELATION OR CONNECTION TO EACH OTHER WITHIN THE SAME DATABASE FILE. DATABASE TABLES IN A DATABASE FILE CAN BE CONNECTED THROUGH A COMMON FIELD THAT APPEARS IN ALL TABLES.

CREATING A PRIMARY FIELD – IN A DATABASE TABLE, THERE MUST BE A LEAST ONE FIELD THAT IS UNIQUE SO THAT ONE RECORD CAN BE DISTINGUISHED FROM ANOTHER. A FIELD (OR SEVERAL FIELDS) WITH A UNIQUE VALUE IS CONSIDERED A PRIMARY KEY. WHEN A PRIMARY KEY IS DEFINED, ACCESS WILL NOT ALLOW DUPLICATE VALUES IN THE PRIMARY FIELD. IN A PRIMARY FIELD, ACCESS EXPECTS A VALUE. THIS IS REFERRED TO AS ENTITY INTEGRITY. IF A VALUE IS NOT ENTERED, ACCESS WILL ENTER A NULL VALUE BUT YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO CLOSE THE DATABASE. TO DEFINE A FIELD AS A PRIMARY KEY, OPEN THE DATABASE TABLE AND THEN CHANGE TO THE DESIGN VIEW. SELECT THE ROW CONTAINING THE FIELD FOR THE PRIMARY KEY, CLICK THE PRIMARY KEY BUTTON ON THE TABLE DESIGN TOOLBAR. AN IMAGE OF A KEY IS PLACED AT THE LEFT.

CREATING A FOREIGN KEY – A PRIMARY KEY FIELD IN ONE TABLE WITHIN A DATABASE FILE CAN BE INCLUDED AS A FIELD IN ANOTHER TABLE WITHIN THE SAME DATABASE FILE. WHEN A PRIMARY KEY FIELD IS INCLUDED IN ANOTHER DATABASE TABLE, IT IS REFERRED TO AS A FOREIGN KEY. THE PRIMARY KEY FIELD AND THE FOREIGN KEY FIELD FORM A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO TABLES. A PRIMARY KEY FIELD MUST CONTAIN UNIQUE DATA WHILE A FOREIGN KEY FIELD CAN CONTAIN DUPLICATE DATA.

CREATING A DATABASE FILE WITH RELATED TABLES – IN ACCESS, YOU CAN DIVIDE DATA INTO LOGICAL GROUPINGS WITHIN DATABASE TABLES. A DATABASE DIVIDED INTO SEVERAL DATABASE TABLES IS MORE EFFICIENT AND EASIER TO MANAGE THAN ONE LARGE DATABASE. WHEN ORGANIZING DATABASE TABLES IN A DATABASE FILE, TRY TO MINIMIZE THE AMOUNT OF DUPLICATE INFORMATION. IN ACCESS, ONE DATABASE TABLE CAN BE RELATED TO ANOTHER, GENERALLY REFERRED TO AS A JOIN. WHEN DATABASE THAT HAVE A COMMON FIELD ARE JOINED, DATA CAN BE EXTRACTED FROM BOTH TABLES AS IF THEY WERE ONE LARGE TABLE. ANOTHER REASON FOR RELATING TABLES IS TO ENSURE THE INTEGRITY OF THE DATA. A ONE-TO-MANY RELATIONSHIP MEANS THAT ONE RECORD IN A PRIMARY TABLE WILL MATCH ZERO, ONE OR MANY RECORDS IN A RELATED TABLE. ACCESS FOLLOWS A SET OF RULES REFERRED TO AS REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY THAT ENFORCES CONSISTENCY BETWEEN RELATED TABLES. THE REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY RULES ENSURE THAT A RECORD ADDED TO A RELATED TABLE HAS A MATCHING RECORD IN THE PRIMARY TABLE.

CREATING A ONE-TO-MANY RELATIONSHIP – A RELATIONSHIP IS SPECIFIED BETWEEN EXISTING TABLES IN A DATABASE FILE (1) OPEN THE DATABASE FILE CONTAINING THE TABLES TO BE RELATED. (2) CHOOSE TOOLS-RELATIONSHIPS OR CLICK ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BUTTON AT THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE DATABASE TOOLBAR. (3) AT THE SHOW TABLE DIALOG BOX, EACH TABLE THAT WILL BE RELATED MUST BE ADDED TO THE RELATIONSHIPS WINDOW. TO DO THIS, CLICK THE FIRST TABLE TO BE INCLUDED, THEN CLICK ADD. DO THIS FOR ALL TABLES TO BE INCLUDED, THEN CLICK CLOSE. (4) AT THE RELATIONSHIPS WINDOW, USE THE MOUSE TO DRAG THE COMMON FIELD FROM THE PRIMARY TABLE (ONE) TO THE RELATED TABLE (MANY). (5) AT THE RELATIONSHIPS DIALOG BOX, CHECK TO MAKE SURE THE CORRECT FIELD NAME DISPLAYS ON THE TABLE/QUERY AND RELATED/TABLE QUERY LIST BOXES AND THE RELATIONSHIP TYPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DIALOG BOX DISPLAYS AS "ONE-TO-MAY". (6) SPECIFY THE RELATIONSHIP OPTIONS BY CHOOSING ENFORCE REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY AS WELL AS CASCADE UPDATE RELATED FIELDS AND/OR CASCADE DELETE RELATED RECORDS. (7) CLICK THE CREATE BUTTON. (8) CLICK THE SAVE BUTTON. (9) CLOSE THE RELATIONSHIPS WINDOW.

SPECIFY REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY – REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY CAN BE SET UP IF THE FIELD FROM THE PRIMARY TABLE IS A PRIMARY KEY AND THE RELATED FIELDS HAVE THE SAME DATA TYPE. WHEN REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY IS ESTABLISHED, A VALUE FOR THE PRIMARY KEY MUST FIRST BE ENTERED IN THE PRIMARY TABLE BEFORE IT CAN BE ENTERED IN THE RELATED TABLE.

EDITING AND DELETING A RELATIONSHIP – CHANGES CAN BE MADE TO A RELATIONSHIP THAT HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED BETWEEN DATABASE TABLES. THE RELATIONSHIP CAN ALSO BE DELETED. TO EDIT A RELATIONSHIP, OPEN THE DATABASE FILE, CLICK ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BUTTON. THIS DISPLAYS THE RELATIONSHIPS WINDOW WITH THE RELATED DATABASE TABLES DISPLAYED IN BOXES. POSITION THE ARROW POINTER ON THE THIN PORTION OF ONE OF THE BLACK LINES THAT CONNECTS THE RELATED TABLES AND THEN CLICK THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON. YOU CAN CHOOSE EDIT OR DELETE THE RELATIONSHIP.

CREATING A DATABASE TABLE USING THE TABLE WIZARD – ACCESS HAS A WIZARD THAT CAN HELP DESIGN AN ENTIRE DATABASE AS WELL AS A DATABASE TABLE.

CHAPTER 24: CREATING FORMS, REPORTS, MAILING LABELS, AND CHARTS

ACCESS OFFERS A VARIETY OF OPTIONS FOR PRESENTING DATA ON THE SCREEN FOR EASIER DATA ENTRY OR FOR PRESENTING DATA IN PRINTED FORM.

CREATING A FORM – AT THE DATASHEET VIEW, MULTIPLE RECORDS ARE DISPLAYED AT THE SAME TIME. IF THERE ARE SEVERAL FIELDS WITHIN EACH RECORD, YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO VIEW ALL FIELDS WITHIN A RECORD. IF YOU CREATE A FORM, ALL FIELDS FOR ONE RECORD ARE DISPLAYED AND VISIBLE AT ONE TIME.

CREATING A FIELD USING AUTOFORM – DATA IN A DATABASE TABLE CAN BE VIEWED, ADDED, OR EDITED IN NUMEROUS VIEWS. THE ADVANTAGE TO A FORM IS THAT THE FUNCTIONS ARE GENERALLY EASIER TO PERFORM BECAUSE THE DATA IS EASIER TO READ. ACCESS HAS THE AUTOFORM FUNCTION THAT WILL TAKE AN EXISTING DATABASE AND PLACE IT INTO A FORM. NAVIGATION BUTTONS WILL APPEAR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FORM. A FORM A CAN BE PRINTED IN THE SAME MANNER AS A DATABASE TABLE. (1) OPEN THE DESIRED DATABASE FILE. (2) CLICK ONCE ON THE DESIRED TABLE. (3) CLICK ON NEW OBJECT (DOWN POINTING ARROW ON RIGHT SIDE) ON THE DATABASE TOOLBAR (NEXT TO RELATIONSHIP BUTTON) AND CLICK ON THE AUTOFORM OPTION. (4) SAVE THE FORM. YOU CAN GIVE IT A NEW NAME OR USE THE OLD ONE. (5) YOU CAN DELETE OR ADD RECORDS IN A FORM WITH BUTTONS ON THE FORM TOOLBAR.

CREATING A FROM WITH THE FORM WIZARD – ACCESS OFFERS A FORM WIZARD THAT WILL GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE CREATION OF A FORM. THE FORM WIZARD OFFERS MORE FORMATTING CHOICES THAN THE AUTOFORM. (1) OPEN THE DESIRED DATABASE FILE, MAKE SURE THE FORMS TAB IS SELECTED AND CLICK ON THE NEW BUTTON. (2) AT THE NEW FORM DIALOG BOX, CLICK ON CHOOSE THE TABLE OR QUERY WHERE THE OBJECT’S DATA COMES FROM AND CLICK THE DESIRED TABLE AND THEN DOUBLE CLICK FORM WIZARD IN THE LIST BOX. (3) AT THE FIRST DIALOG BOX, SPECIFY THE FIELDS THAT YOU WANT TO BE INCLUDED IN THE FORM. USE THE GREATER THAN (>) TO PUT SELECTED FIELD ON REPORT; LESS THAN (<) TO REMOVE IT. CLICK ON NEXT TO CONTINUE. (4) AT THE SECOND BOX, SPECIFY THE LAYOUT FOR THE RECORDS (COLUMNAR, TABULAR, DATASHEET, JUSTIFIED). CLICK NEXT (5) AT THE NEXT BOX, CHOOSE THE DESIGN FOR THE FORM. CLICK NEXT. (6) AT THE LAST FORM WIZARD BOX, YOU CAN GIVE THE FORM A TITLE AND ALSO OPEN THE FORM.

CREATING A FORM WITH RELATED DATABASE TABLES – FORMS CAN BE CREATED THAT USE FIELDS FROM MORE THAN ONE DATABASE TABLE. A FORM CAN BE CREATED WITH FIELDS FROM TABLES THAT ARE CONNECTED BY A ONE TO MANY RELATIONSHIPS. AT THE FIRST FORM WIZARD DIALOG BOX, CHOOSE FIELDS FROM THE SELECTED DATABASE TABLE AND THEN CHOOSE FIELDS FORM A RELATED DATABASE TABLE. (1) OPEN THE DATABASE FILE AND MAKE SURE THE FORMS TAB IS SELECTED. (2) CLICK ON NEW AND DOUBLE CLICK ON FORM WIZARD. (3) CHOOSE THE DESIRED TABLE AND PICK FIELDS. CHOOSE THE RELATED TABLE AND CHOOSE THE DESIRED FIELDS.

CHAPTER 26: PERFORMING QUERIES AND FILTERING RECORDS

ONE OF THE PRIMARY USES OF A DATABASE FILE IS TO EXTRACT SPECIFIC INFORMATION FROM THE DATABASE. A QUERY IS USED TO EXTRACT SPECIFIC INFORMATION.
ACCESS PROVIDES A FILTER BY SELECTION BUTTON AND A FILTER BY FROM BUTTON WHICH YOU CAN USE TO TEMPORARILY ISOLATE SPECIFIC RECORDS IN A TABLE. LIKE A QUERY, A FILTER LETS YOU SELECT SPECIFIC FIELD VALUES FROM A DATABASE TABLE.

PERFORMING QUERIES – EXTRACTING DATA IN ACCESS IS CALLED PERFORMING A QUERY.

DESIGNING A QUERY – DESIGNING A QUERY CONSISTS OF IDENTIFYING THE TABLE FROM WHICH YOU ARE GATHERING DATA, THE FIELD OR FIELDS FROM WHICH THE DATA WILL BE DRAWN, AND THE CRITERIA FOR SELECTING THE DATA.

ESTABLISHING QUERY CRITERIA – A QUERY DOES NOT REQUIRE THAT SPECIFIC CRITERIA BE ESTABLISHED. IF THE CRITERION IS NOT SPECIFIC, ACCESS WILL RETURN ALL DATA THAT MEETS THE GENERAL CRITERION. ACCESS MAKES WRITING A CRITERION FAIRLY SIMPLE BECAUSE IT INSERTS THE NECESSARY SYMBOLS IN THE CRITERION. ACCESS WILL PUT IN THE NECESSARY SYMBOLS IN THE CRITERION.

PERFORMING A QUERY – (1) OPEN THE DESIRED DATABASE FILE (2) CLICK ON THE QUERIES TAB AND CLICK ON NEW. (3) AT THE SHOW TABLE DIALOG BOX, CLICK ON THE DESIRED TABLE AND CHOOSE ADD THEN CLICK ON CLOSE. (4) DRAG THE DESIRED FIELDS INTO THE TABLE LIST BOX. (5) INSERT THE CRITERIA TEXT IN THE CRITERIA BOX UNDER THE FIELD TO QUERY. (6) CLICK ON THE RUN (!) BUTTON ON THE QUERY TOOLBAR. (7) USE THE NORMAL PRINTING AND SAVING PROCEDURES.

PERFORMING A QUERY ON A RELATED DATABASE FILE – AT THE SHOW TABLE BOX, JUST ADD THE DESIRED TABLES THEN MAKE CHOICES FOR FIELDS AND CRITERIA.

PERFORMING A QUERY WITH THE SIMPLE QUERY WIZARD – THE SIMPLE QUERY WIZARD WALKS YOU THROUGH THE STEPS FOR PREPARING A QUERY. (1) CLICK ON QUERIES TAB. (2) DOUBLE CLICK ON SIMPLE QUERY WIZARD. (3) CHOOSE THE DESIRED TABLE(S) AND CHOOSE THE DESIRED FIELDS. CLICK ON NEXT. (4) CHOOSE A DETAIL OR SUMMARY QUERY. (5) IF YOU WANT TO ADD CRITERIA, CLICK ON MODIFY OR JUST CLICK ON FINISH TO VIEW ALL RECORDS.

FILTERING DATA- YOU CAN PLACE A SET OF RESTRICTIONS, CALLED A FILTER, ON RECORDS IN A DATABASE TABLE OR FORM TO TEMPORARILY ISOLATE SPECIFIC RECORDS. A FILTER, LIKE A QUERY, LETS YOU SELECT SPECIFIC FIELD VALUES IN A DATABASE OR FORM.

USING FILTER BY SELECTION – WITH THE FILTER BY SELECTION BUTTON ON THE TABLE DATASHEET TOOLBAR, YOU CAN SELECT SPECIFIC DATA IN A FIELD AND THEN TELL ACCESS TO DISPLAY ONLY THOSE RECORDS CONTAINING THE SELECTED DATA. THE DATASHEET TOOLBAR CONTAINS A BUTTON NAMED APPLY FILTER. WHEN A FILTER IS DONE BY SELECTION, THIS BUTTON CHANGES T REMOVE FILTER. IF YOU WANT TO REMOVE THE FILTER AND DISPLAY THE ORIGINAL DATA IN THE DATABASE TABLE, CLICK THE REMOVE FILTER BUTTON. (1) AT THE TABLES TAB, OPEN THE DESIRED TABLE. (2) CLICK ON A FIELD THAT CONTAINS THE DESIRED RESULT. (3) CLICK ON FILTER BY SELECTION. (4) THIS WILL SHOW ALL RECORDS THAT HAVE THIS SAME VALUE IN THAT FIELD. (5) CLICK ON REMOVE FILTER TO DISPLAY ALL THE RECORDS.

USING FILTER BY FORM – THE DATASHEET TOOLBAR CONTAINS A FILTER BY FORM BUTTON THAT, WHEN CLICKED, DISPLAYS THE DATABASE TABLE WITH A BLANK RECORD. YOU SET THE VALUES YOU WANT FILTERED RECORD TO CONTAIN AT THIS BLANK RECORD. THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO FILTER: LOOK FOR AND OR. LOOK FOR TO MATCH THE EXACT AND OR WILL ALLOW FOR ANOTHER CRITERIA.