Microsoft Office Access 2007: The Complete Reference ppt

Microsoft
®
Office Access
TM
2007:
The Complete Reference
About the Author
Virginia Andersen became a writer and consultant
after retiring from a career in defense contracting.
Since then, she has written nearly 40 books about PC–
based applications, including database management,
word processing, spreadsheet analysis, and VBA
programming. Virginia spent nearly 15 years teaching
computer science, mathematics, and systems analysis
at the graduate and undergraduate levels at several
Southern California universities. During her years as a
programmer/systems analyst, Virginia used computers
for many diverse projects, including lunar mapping for
the Apollo astronauts’ landing, reliability engineering,
undersea surveillance, weapon system simulation, and
naval communications. She has also recently published
her memoirs, Digital Recall: Computers Aren’t the Only
Ones with Memory, describing many of these hands-on
experiences.
Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. Click here for terms of use.
Microsoft
®
Office Access
TM

2007:
The Complete Reference
Virginia Andersen
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Contents at a Glance
Part I Getting Started
1 Quick Tour of Microsoft Offi ce Access 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 The World of Relational Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3 Creating a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4 Creating and Modifying Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5 Relating Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6 Entering and Editing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Part II Retrieving and Presenting Information
7 Sorting, Filtering, and Printing Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
8 Extracting Information with Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
9 Creating Advanced Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
10 Creating Form and Report Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
11 Using the Form Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
12 Customizing Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

13 Using the Report Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
14 Customizing Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
15 Creating Charts and Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Part III Improving the Workplace
16 Customizing the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
17 Improving Database Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
18 Understanding Events and the Event Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
19 Automating with Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
20 Customizing the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
21 Customizing the Navigation Pane and Creating Switchboards . . . . . . . . . 623
Part IV Exchange Data with Others
22 Exchange Database Objects and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
23 Exchanging Data with Outside Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
24 Sharing with Multiple Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
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Microsoft Office Access 2007: The Complete Reference
25 Secure a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
A Converting to Access 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
B What’s on the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Part I Getting Started
1 Quick Tour of Microsoft Offi ce Access 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Starting Access and Opening a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Touring the Access Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Opening a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Touring the Navigation Pane and the Object Window . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Looking at the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Checking out the Galleries and the Mini Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Using Shortcut Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Looking at a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Touring the Datasheet View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Looking at a Subdatasheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Looking at Data in a Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Looking at the Wizards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Using the Microsoft Access Help Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Asking What’s This? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Getting Help with What You’re Doing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2 The World of Relational Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
What Is a Relational Database? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Purpose of Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Types of Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Referential Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Defi ning Database Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Inspecting the Sample Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Looking at the Data Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Viewing Table Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
The Payoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
A Custom Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
A Custom Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
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Microsoft Office Access 2007: The Complete Reference
3 Creating a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Designing the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Introducing Home Tech Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Determining the Goals of the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Distributing the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Specifying Key Fields and Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Completing the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Creating a Database from a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Running the New Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Starting with a Blank Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4 Creating and Modifying Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Creating a New Table from a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Creating a New Table in Datasheet View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Adding Fields to the New Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Using a Field Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Adding Fields from an Existing Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Save the New Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Creating a New Table in Design View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Touring the Table Design View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Adding Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Choosing a Primary Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Creating Other Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Saving the Table Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Modifying the Table Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Adding/Deleting Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Changing the Field Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Changing a Field Name or Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Changing a Field Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Modifying or Deleting the Primary Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Ensuring Data Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Defi ning Field Validation Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Defi ning a Record Validation Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Requiring an Entry and Preventing Duplicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Handling Blank Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Assigning a Default Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Copying an Existing Table Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Setting Table Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
How to Change the Default Table Design Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5 Relating Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Defi ning a Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Using the Relationships Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Using the Field List Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Viewing and Editing Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Viewing Existing Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Modifying or Deleting a Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Changing a Table Design from the Relationships Window . . . . . . . . 109
Printing the Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6 Entering and Editing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Entering New Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Copying and Moving Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Inserting Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Inserting Hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Attaching Files to a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Customizing Data Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Adding Input Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Creating Lookup Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Changing the Datasheet Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Displaying Subdatasheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Moving and Resizing Columns and Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Freezing and Hiding Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Changing the Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Changing Gridlines and Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Setting Datasheet Default Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Changing a Table Defi nition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Inserting a Subdatasheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Inserting/Deleting a Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Changing Field Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Editing Record Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Selecting Records and Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Locating Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Finding and Replacing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Deleting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Using the Spelling Checker and AutoCorrect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Printing Table Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Part II Retrieving and Presenting Information
7 Sorting, Filtering, and Printing Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Sorting Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Sorting on a Single Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Sorting by Two or More Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Saving the Sort Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
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Filtering Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Filtering by Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Using the Filter Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Filter By Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Filter By Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Optimizing Filter By Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Filtering with Advanced Filter/Sort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Modifying a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Saving a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Removing and Clearing Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Printing Table Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
8 Extracting Information with Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
How Do Queries Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Access Query Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
When to Use a Filter and When to Use a Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Creating Select Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Using the Simple Query Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Touring the Query Design Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Creating a Query without the Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Relating Multiple Tables in a Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Adding/Removing Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Running and Saving the Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Hiding/Showing Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Specifying the Record Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Showing Highest or Lowest Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Adding Selection Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Using Wildcards and Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Using a Single Criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Using Multiple Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Getting Help from the Expression Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Handling Blank Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Setting Query Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Modifying a Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Inserting a Field and Changing the Field Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Changing Field Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Performing Calculations in a Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Adding a Calculated Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Summarizing with the Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Summarizing with Aggregate Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Summarizing in Datasheet View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Creating Special Queries with the Query Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Creating a Find Duplicates Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Creating a Find Unmatched Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Creating a Crosstab Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Printing the Query Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Deleting a Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
9 Creating Advanced Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Creating Special Purpose Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Parameter Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
AutoLookup Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Designing Action Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Update Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Make-Table Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Append Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Delete Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Introducing Structured Query Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Looking at SQL Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
SQL Conventions and Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Creating a Subquery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Defi ning a Criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Defi ning a New Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
10 Creating Form and Report Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Deciding the Database Object Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Common Design Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Choosing a Record Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Understanding Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Form and Report Design Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Working in the Design Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Touring the Form Design Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Starting a New Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Adding Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Starting a New Form in Layout View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Modifying Form Sections and Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Selecting Controls and Other Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Moving and Resizing Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Aligning and Spacing Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Using Property Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Using the Font Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Formatting Conditionally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Changing a Control Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Deleting Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Adding Other Objects and Special Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Linking vs. Inserting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Adding Bound Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Adding an Unbound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Adding a Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
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Changing Form and Report Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Changing the Record Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Applying Filters and Sort Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Resizing a Form or Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Using AutoFormat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
11 Using the Form Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Creating a New Form Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Designing the Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Starting a New Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Choosing a Form Design Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Using the Form Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Selecting the Form Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Choosing the Form Layout and Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Modifying the Form Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Examining Form Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Changing Form Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Moving and Adding Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Sorting and Filtering Data in a Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Using the Form for Data Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Navigating in the Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Changing the Tab Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Finding Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Viewing Multiple Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Printing the Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Looking at the Other Wizards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Creating a Hierarchical Form from Related Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
12 Customizing Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Starting a New Custom Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Placing and Customizing Data-Related Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Adding Yes/No Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Adding User-Interactive Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Creating a Multiple-Page Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Using the Page Break Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Adding a Tab Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Adding Special Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Adding Calculated Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
ActiveX Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Introducing the Police Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Adding a Subform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
With the Subform Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Without the Subform Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Using the Hierarchical Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Modifying a Subform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Linking and Synchronizing Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Adding Custom Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Custom Control Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Status Bar Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Validating or Restricting Data in Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Validating with Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Validating with Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
13 Using the Report Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Creating a New Report Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
What Is the Purpose of the Report? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Selecting, Sorting, and Grouping the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Starting a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Using the Report Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Using the Report Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Previewing the Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Working in the Print Preview Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Printing the Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Changing the Page Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Modifying the Report Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Touring the Report Design Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Examining Report Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Setting Report and Section Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Placing and Adjusting Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Changing the Report Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Adding Page Numbers and Date/Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Adding Page Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Saving the Report Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Using Report Snapshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Creating a Report Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Viewing the Report Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Sending the Report Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
14 Customizing Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Creating a New Report Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Adding Headers and Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Customizing with Special Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Basing a Report on a Parameter Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Filtering, Sorting, and Grouping Records in Layout View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Filtering Records in Layout View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Changing the Sort Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Adding Group Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Modifying and Adding Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
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Adding a Subreport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Creating a Subreport Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Inserting an Existing Subreport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Linking the Report and Subreport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Modifying a Subreport Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
Designing a Multiple-Column Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Grouping Records in a Multiple-Column Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Printing Mailing Labels and Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Using the Label Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Manipulating Text Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
Printing Addresses on Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
15 Creating Charts and Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Creating a New Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
The Anatomy of a Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Selecting the Data for the Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Using the Access Chart Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Printing and Saving the Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Linking to Record Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Adding an Existing Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476
Modifying the Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Modifying with Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Editing with Microsoft Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Part III Improving the Workplace
16 Customizing the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Personalizing the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Working with Objects in the Navigation Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Using the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Creating a Shortcut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Setting Access Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Setting Popular Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Setting Options for the Current Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Setting Datasheet Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Object Designers Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Proofi ng Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Advanced Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Customizing the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Viewing and Managing Add-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Choosing Trust Center Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
Searching Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Customizing the Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

17 Improving Database Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Optimizing a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Using the Analyzer Wizards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Optimizing Tables and Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Working with Linked Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Optimizing Filter By Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Optimizing Forms and Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Optimizing Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
Avoiding Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Backing Up and Restoring a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544
Compacting and Repairing a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
Documenting a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
18 Understanding Events and the Event Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
What Are Events? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Types of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Understanding the Sequence of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
Form Control Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559
Form Record Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Form and Subform Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
Keystrokes and Mouse Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Report and Report Section Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Setting Event Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
19 Automating with Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
How Macros Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Standalone vs. Embedded Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
Creating a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
Touring the Macro Design Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
Creating a Simple Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Choosing Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Setting Action Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576
Testing and Debugging a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576
Starting the Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Stepping through a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Modifying a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

Adding Conditions to a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
Running a Macro with a Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Choosing between Two Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Assigning a Macro to an Event Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
Deciding Which Event to Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
Some Common Uses for Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Displaying a Message Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Validating Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Contents
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Microsoft Office Access 2007: The Complete Reference
Filtering Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
Setting Values and Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
Changing the Flow of Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Nesting Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
Create a Macro Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Assigning AutoKeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
Documenting Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
Creating an AutoExec Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
20 Customizing the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
Working with the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
Resizing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
Hiding and Restoring the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
Using Keyboard Shortcuts for Ribbon Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
Moving the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
Adding Commands to the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Removing Commands from the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Using Existing Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Showing a Startup Switchboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Using Custom Menus and Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Creating a Custom Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610
Designing the Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610
Creating and Attaching the Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Creating a Dialog Box for User Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
Setting the Input Form Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
Creating the Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620
Modifying the Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
21 Customizing the Navigation Pane and Creating Switchboards . . . . . . . . . 623
Viewing Objects in the Navigation Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
Changing Categories and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
Hiding and Restoring Groups and Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Searching for an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
Customizing the Navigation Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
Planning the Custom Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
Hiding/Restoring Custom Groups and Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
Creating Switchboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Using the Switchboard Manager to Create Switchboards . . . . . . . . . 640
Modifying the Switchboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647
Creating a Switchboard without the Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651

Part IV Exchange Data with Others
22 Exchange Database Objects and Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
Copying Objects among Access Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Copy-and-Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656

Drag-and-Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Importing or Linking Access Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Importing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658
Setting Import Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
Linking Access Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Importing from or Linking to Other Data Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
Using Data from dBASE or Paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Using Linked or Imported Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Renaming a Linked Table in Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Changing Linked Table Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Updating Links with the Linked Table Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Unlinking Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Importing and Linking Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Using Delimited Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Using Fixed-Width Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Changing Import Specifi cations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
Exporting to an Existing Access Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
Exporting to Another Database Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677
Exporting to Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
23 Exchanging Data with Outside Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Copying or Moving Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Copying or Moving Data from a Word Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684
Copying or Moving Data from a Spreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
Copying or Moving Records from Access to Another Application . . . 686
Saving Access Output as an External File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687
Working with Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689
Saving in Rich Text Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689
Using Merge It with Microsoft Offi ce Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689
Working with Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693

Importing from and Linking to Excel Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
Exporting a Table or Query to Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
Working with HTML Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698
Importing Data from HTML Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Exporting Data to HTML Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Using Outlook to Get Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
Getting Contacts from Outlook into Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
Using E-mail to Collect Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
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Microsoft Office Access 2007: The Complete Reference
Managing Links and Saved Import/Export Defi nitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
Using Saved Defi nitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
Managing Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
Mailing Access Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
24 Sharing with Multiple Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
Sharing a Database on a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
Sharing an Entire Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
Splitting the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708
Preventing Exclusive Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
Managing the Database in a Multiuser Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Controlling Data Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Minimizing Confl icts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
Updating Records with Refresh and Requery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
Editing Shared Database Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
25 Secure a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

New Security Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
Enabling/Disabling Database Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
Encrypting the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
Encrypting with a Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Using the Trust Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Creating a Trusted Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Trusting Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Trusting Add-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
Security with Earlier Version Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728
Creating a Certifi cate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Code-Signing the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
A Converting to Access 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Deciding on a Conversion Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Converting a Database to Access 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
Converting a Workgroup Information File (.mdw) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Converting a Secured Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
Converting a Replicated Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736
Converting to an Earlier Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
Opening an Earlier Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
Sharing a Database across Several Access Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
B What’s on the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739
Using the Access Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739
Using the Access Database Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
Acknowledgments
R
evising this book for the fourth edition was once again a pleasure, due especially
to working with the talented and highly professional McGraw-Hill editorial and
production staff. Megg Morin, my sponsoring editor, is not only an efficient and

professional member of the staff—I also consider her a good friend. Carly Stapleton, my
acquisitions coordinator, was once again responsive and helpful throughout the effort. I
would also like to thank Jody McKenzie, editorial supervisor, for making sure the book
kept on track, and Rasika Mathur, project manager, for her guidance in moving the many
chapters smoothly through the production maze.
The other editorial staff, including technical editor Jocelyn Fiorello and copy editor Lisa
Theobald, were very helpful in spotting missteps in logic and style. My sincere thanks also go
to Linda Leggio for proofing, to Kevin Broccoli for indexing, and to International Typesetting
and Composition for the great job illustrating and laying out this large, complicated book.
Thanks go, too, to the Coronado Police Department for sharing its Access database with
me and my readers, as well as to my friends and neighbors who posed good-naturedly for
the badge photos you can see in one of the databases. They tell me it’s a good thing I’m a
writer, not a photographer.
I also owe a big debt of gratitude to my literary agents of many years, Waterside
Productions, for their continuing support and encouragement.
Finally, my husband, Jack, and all the cats must get a lot of credit for being so patient with
me throughout this long, involved process. The cats don’t really mind because, when I am
working, I have a lap.
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Introduction
A
successful database is efficient, quick, accurate, and easy to use. This book shows you
how to create just such a database with Microsoft Office Access 2007. The clearly
written explanations of the database processes present exactly what you need to
create an Access object or present information. The step-by-step exercises that follow the
explanations further enhance your understanding by illustrating exactly how to complete the
process successfully. The many tips, notes, and cautions help guide you to faster and better
database management.

Who Should Read This Book?
This book is the ideal resource for anyone currently using Microsoft Office Access 2007 or
who wants to learn how to use it. In planning this book, I envisioned it in the form of a large
triangle, with the base scaled from the beginning user at the left end to advanced user at the
right end. This book has enough material to get even the newest user of Access started with
relational database management and has enough at the other end to help advanced users
wade into the depths of customizing the Access workplace and designing special user
interactive tools.
The bulk of the material lies between the two extremes under the peak of the triangle,
and that is of the utmost interest to the readers who fall in between. This book is extremely
rich in the art of designing and creating efficient relational databases with all the appropriate
queries, forms, and reports. Many different approaches are taken with respect to extracting
and summarizing information in useful arrangements, including charts and graphs. After all,
what good is data stored in a database if you can’t get it out and turn it into useful and easy-
to-interpret information?
This book is also intended for users of the other Office applications, such as Word and
Excel, who need to know how to interface those programs with Access. With the boundaries
between the programs rapidly vanishing, use of Access isn’t limited to database managers.
All the Office members can now interact with each other smoothly and with little translation.
What’s in This Book?
This book is organized so you can progress at your own pace, beginning with basic database
and Access principles and followed by increasingly advanced topics. The book is divided
into four parts, each focusing on a specific aspect of Access database management.
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xxii
Microsoft Office Access 2007: The Complete Reference
Part I: Getting Started
Part I takes a quick tour of Microsoft Office Access 2007 and examines the concept of relational

databases. Many tips are included to help you design an efficient database that is easy to
maintain and can ensure data integrity. In Part I, the reader creates and relates tables, and then
enters data into them. Several methods of validating new data are investigated and means of
presenting data for editing are also addressed.
Part II: Retrieving and Presenting Information
Part II is concerned with retrieving information with filters and queries, as well as presenting
that information in forms and reports. This important set of chapters includes how to create
expressions to extract exactly the information you want. Five chapters are devoted to creating
form and report designs (including synchronized data entry forms), creating reports that
summarize grouped information, and even printing mailing labels in conjunction with
Word 2007. The final chapter in this part describes how to create charts and graphs to include
in forms and reports.
Part III: Improving the Workplace
Part III is a little more advanced and discusses working with and customizing the new user-
interactive workplace that uses a Navigation Pane, ribbons and tabbed documents. It also
shows how to create dialog boxes for the more interactive applications. Several important
means of optimizing Access performance are included in this part. Part III also introduces
programming techniques with chapters about using macros, as well as understanding events
and when events occur.
Part IV: Exchanging Data with Others
Part IV discusses the important topic of exchanging information with other users of Access and
with other applications. Importing and exporting information in many forms, including text, is
an integral part of developing a complete user application. This part also covers using Access
in a multiple-user environment and investigates measures to ensure information security.
In Every Chapter
Every chapter is constructed to include basic learning tools, such as the following:
• Complete explanations of all processes involved in the creation and management of
effective relational databases
• Numbered, step-by-step exercises with illustrations and explanations of each step
• Many tips, notes, and cautions that add shortcuts for many of the activities and

pinpoint potential pitfalls
• A summary at the end of each chapter that reviews the material covered and
highlights the more important topics discussed in that chapter
Quick Reference
In addition to the chapter material, this book includes a Quick Reference section on the
accompanying CD. The Quick Reference contains complete lists and descriptions of elements
Introduction
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of Microsoft Office Access 2007 database design and maintenance. This reference serves as an
immediate resource for any details in question. It is accompanied by an index that can save
you time when you need a specific piece of information by presenting concise lists and tables
that you can jump directly to without having to browse through the more descriptive chapter
material in the book itself.
What’s on the Companion CD?
Appendix B presents a thorough explanation of the contents of the CD that accompanies
this book. This appendix explains how to install the Access databases on your computer and
how to look up specific information in the Quick Reference.
The CD includes the following:
• The Quick Reference lookup resource
• The complete Home Tech Repair database
• A set of tables containing the data to use as the basis for creating the Home Tech
Repair database
• The complete Police database
• A set of tables containing the data to use as the basis for creating the Police database
• Scanned image files required by the two databases
Conventions Used in This Book
To help make this book more useful and interesting, we included a few conventions that
will attract your attention to important pieces of information. Following are descriptions
of these conventions:
NOTE NOTE Notes further define terms used in the text or point you in the direction of more information

about the subject under discussion.
TIP TIP Tips often provide shortcuts to the process under discussion or offer useful pieces of advice
about how to make better use of Access 2007.
CAUTION CAUTION Cautions warn you to be careful when you’re about to make crucial decisions or take risky
steps. Access tries hard not to put you in harm’s way, but mistakes do happen now and then.
Sidebars
Sidebars are set somewhat apart from the normal text. They include information related
to the current subject that doesn’t necessarily fit in the flow of information. Rather than
interrupt the flow, sidebars offer tangential information set aside from regular text that
you can visit later.