AS ICT Finding your way round MS-Access 2007

The Home Ribbon This ribbon is automatically displayed when MS-Access is started and when existing tables and forms are opened. The buttons on this ribbon are similar to those displayed on other MS-Office 2007 application Home Ribbons and are grouped as follows: – View: a single button for toggling between form or table data entry and design view. – Clipboard: used for copying data from MS-Access to other MS-Office applications – Font: used for specifying font styles, colours, etc., text alignment and displaying alignment grids – Rich Text: used for adding line numbers, bullets and indents to text – Records: used for creating and saving new records, deleting records, spell checking and performing calculations on records. The more button also provides access to a drop down menu for adjusting width and height of fields – Sort & Filter: contains buttons which activate procedures for sorting and selecting records in tables – Find: used to search for specific records and for replacing the value of data which meet specified criteria

The Create Ribbon This ribbon is displayed when the Create tag is clicked on the Menu Bar This is the start point for creating new database objects. The procedures are grouped as follows: – Tables: for creating new tables in table view or in design view. The SharePoint List opens a wizard for creating a web based copy of the whole or a sub-set of your database which may then be accessed by others over the Internet. Note: Tables and where appropriate, relationships must be created before the forms, reports, queries and macros which access the data stored in them are created – Forms: may be automatically generated from existing tables and then the layout modified in Design View or they may be constructed on a blank form created by selecting the Form Design button – Reports: may be automatically generated from existing tables then modified in Design View, or may be created from multiple tables on a blank report generated by selecting the Report Design button – Other: contains tools for creating Queries and Macros Note: A Query is used to extract data from different tables and macros and merge them into a temporary table, which is subsequently accessed to generate complex Forms and Reports A Macro is a simple program used to perform computations on data held in tables. Tools are available for generating macros without recourse to programming in Visual Basic or SQL

The External Data Ribbon This ribbon is displayed when the External Data tab is clicked on the Menu Bar The procedures available on this ribbon are grouped as follows: – Import: used for importing data from: Other Access databases Excel Spreadsheets SharePoint Lists Data may also be recovered from previous;y exported backups of the database – Export: used for exporting data to: Database Backup files Excel spreadsheets PDF and XPS document files Other document files (e.g. Word, Text Files and HTML files – Collect Data: Used for collecting data sent by – SharePoint Lists: Used for managing SharePoint Lists data Note: The SharePoint Lists wizard on the Create Ribbon must first be used to create a Windows SharePoint Services copy of your database on the Internet. This may then be made available for access by external users via their web browser. No charge is made for storing and using databases copied to Microsoft’s SharePoint Services servers.

The Database Tools Ribbon This ribbon is accessed by clicking the Database Tools tab on the Menu bar The procedures are grouped as follows: – Macro: provides access to: the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) program development environment. This requires knowledge of programming in VBA and is commonly used in the development of more complex macros. The Run Macros button is used to launch macros stored in the database. Refer to the Create ribbon previously covered. – Show/Hide: provides access to: The Relationships form for creating and amending database table relationships Toggling the Property Sheet button shows or hides the properties window of objects (Tables, Forms, Reports & Queries) created in the database. The Object Dependencies button. This displays a window showing the names of objects which depend on other objects (e.g. forms and sub-forms) Checking the Message Bar box displays a security warning messages regarding the use of enabled VBA macros – Analyze: provides access to: The Database Documenter. This enables reports to be printed on the settings of selected database object properties The Analize Performance button. This interrogates the database and makes suggestions for improvements to selected objects. If the data fields have been correctly normalised in appropriate tables and the relationships set between tables are appropriate, then a message will indicate that no further improvement can be suggested. The Analyse Table button. This launches a wizard which analyses the selected table and relationships and makes recommendations for improvement, where appropriate – Move Data: used to move data from your database either: to an MS SQL Server database or To split your database into “front-end” processes used on client computer and “back-end” processes stored on a server. This reduces network traffic flow on databases accessed over a network. – Database Tools: A number of miscellaneous tools for creating & managing Start-up Switchboards containing application menus, creating database access user IDs & passwords. The Make ACCDE button compiles all script macros into executable object programs which makes the database run faster and secures the scripts against unauthorised modification. The original database need sto be backed up to a secure location before doing this to allow future development.