Contents
The Access 2007 Interface
Keyboard Shortcuts in Access 2007
How to Create New Databases and Open Existing Databases
How to Save and Close Databases
The Four Types of Access Objects
How to Navigate the Access
Work Space
How to Navigate Access Datasheets
Access Views
How to Print Access Objects
How to Create Tables
How to Populate Tables
How to Create Access Forms
How to Build Access Queries
How to Create Access Reports
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How to Populate Tables
After you create a new blank table, you’ll need to populate (add data to) the table, which is a four-step process.
1. Name the Fields in the Table
The fastest way to name fields is to switch to Design view and enter a name for each field directly into the appropriate cell in the Field Name column.
2. Assign a Data Type to Each Field
It’s a good idea to assign a data type to each field you name in Step 1. To do so, stay in Design view and select a data type by clicking on the field’s empty cell in the Data Type column. You can select a data type from the pull-down menu that appears in the cell.
3. Add Data to Tables
You can add data to tables manually or by importing from various other sources. To do so, switch to Datasheet view and then follow the guidelines below:
- Entering data manually: Type data directly into the fields for each record in your table. Press Tab to move to the next field.
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Importing data: Use the various commands in the Import group (at External Data > Import on the Ribbon) to use outside data in your current table. Access lets you import data from a wide variety of sources, including other Access databases, Excel spreadsheets, XML documents, HTML documents, text documents, and several other types of database files, including SQL and dBase. If you don’t see the file type you’d like to import, click on the More icon
in the Import group.
4. Set the Primary Key
A primary key is a field in a table whose contents serve as a unique identifier (ID) for every record in the table. For instance, a customer database in which every customer has a Customer Number would likely use the Customer Number field as its primary key. Once you’ve set a field as a primary key, Access will let you refer to a specific record from your current table in other tables by using the record’s unique ID (the data from its primary key field).
How to Set Your Own Primary Key
Whenever you create a new table, Access creates a field called ID that it uses as the primary key. The ID field automatically assigns a unique incremental number to records as you add them—in the ID column, the first record is 1, the second is 2, and so on. If you’d like to use a different field as the primary key:
- Open the table in Design view.
- Click the row selector of the field you’d like to use as the primary key.
- Click the Primary Key icon
(Design > Tools). - To set more than one field as the primary key, hold down the Ctrl key, click the row selector for each field, and repeat step 3 above.
Keep in mind that the data in the fields that you set as the primary key must be unique and cannot be null (blank). For this reason, it’s often best to choose fields that won’t repeat or change. For instance, in a table of customer contact info it would be unwise to make the First Name or Last Name field the primary key since those fields will likely contain nonunique data. It would be more effective to assign a unique customer number to every record in the table.
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