microsoft access 2010 beginner level 2 - amazon...

Microsoft Access 2010 Beginner Level 2

Course Handbook Supplement

By Richard Rost

Published By

Amicron Computing

www.AccessLearningZone.com

Copyright 2012 by Amicron Computing All Rights Reserved

http://www.accesslearningzone.com/

Access 2010 Beginner 2 of 36

Welcome Welcome to Microsoft Access 2010 Beginner Level 2. This handbook is designed to be a supplement to the full 599CD video course for Microsoft Access 2010 Beginner Level 2. We recommend you use this handbook to follow along with the class videos. This handbook is not meant as a stand-alone study guide. We do recommend that you watch the course videos one time through, paying attention to the lessons covered. Follow along with the course videos using this guide. Take notes on the pages where needed. Then, watch the videos a second time, practicing the examples yourself on your own database.

Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................... 3 Lesson 1: Getting Started ............................................................................................ 5 Lesson 2: Form Design 1 ............................................................................................ 11 Lesson 3: Form Design 2 ............................................................................................ 15 Lesson 4: Form Formatting 1 ..................................................................................... 18 Lesson 5: Form Formatting 2 ..................................................................................... 24 Lesson 6: Questions From Students ........................................................................... 29 Review...................................................................................................................... 35


Introduction Welcome to Microsoft Access 2010 Beginner Level 2 brought to you by AccessLearningZone.com. I am your instructor Richard Rost.

This class focuses on Designing & Formatting Forms from Scratch. Today you will learn how to Design a Form from the ground up. Pre-Requisites

Visit the site AccessLearningZone.com to get yourself a copy of Level 1. Topics covered

Setup a trusted location

Form Design View

Adding Fields

Manipulating Form Objects

The Grid

Formatting Your Form

Themes

Using Layout View

Questions From Students




We will be using Microsoft Office Access 2010 in this class. If you are using Microsoft Office Access 2003 or older, you should visit my website and look for my Access 2003 series. This class follows Access 2010 Beginner Level 1. I strongly recommend you take that class before Access 2010 Beginner Level 2. Other Courses

Access Seminars Forum Please ask any questions in the Interactive Student Forums.

AccessLearningZone.com/forums Sample Database I’d recommend following along at home and creating the database yourself but if you need a copy download it here. AccessLearningZone.com/databases

http://www.599cd.com/site/courselist/access-seminars/

http://www.accesslearningzone.com/forums

http://www.accesslearningzone.com/databases


Lesson 1: Getting Started Let’s begin today by downloading the Sample Database we built in Level 1.

AccessLearningZone.com/databases Right Click

Save link as … Save Target As…

Chrome / Firefox Internet Explorer

Choose where you wish to save it, I’d suggest the Desktop. It’s a zip or compressed file. Access-2010-B1.zip Double click to open the folder then drag it onto the desktop.

You can now delete the Zip file too. Now double click to open the database. If you are going to save the file to your desktop make sure you back it up nightly.



Office uses these Security Warnings because people can use VBA code to make files act maliciously.Therefore files downloaded from the Interent are automatically disabled so this code can’t run. Only enable content you know is safe, like databases from my site. Startup Forms are also disabled, we will create these in future lessons. To get around this warning message we can set up a Trusted Folder. This will bypass any Security Warnings. To do this right click anywhere on the Desktop and select New | Folder

Give it a name, TRUSTED, for example.


Now in Access go to File | Options | Trust Center | Trust Center Settings …

Trusted Locations | Add new location …

Click on Browse … and select the TRUSTED folder on the Desktop


Now we can see the Folder we selected, also click on Subfolders and click OK.

Its now added to the Trusted Locations list.

Click OK then OK. Now close the database down, move the database to the TRUSTED folder and open the folder, then open the database and there will be no warning. You can add a Shortcut to the Desktop and it will still open without a warning. Right Click on the file, drag to the Desktop and let go, then Click on Create shortcut here.


Editors Note: Creating Shortcuts is covered in my Windows classes.

Lets open the CustomerT and then click on Design View and see what it consists of. This is all you will need to make if you haven’t made or downloaded a copy of the database yet.

Remember no spaces in Field names.

NumEmplyees is Long Integer, DicountRate is a Double. Switch back to DataSheet View and fill in a few Records.

http://www.599cd.com/site/courselist/windows/


It’s always better to have sample data in your Form to see how it looks. You can have a look in the Queries and Reports but we won’t need them for this class.


Lesson 2: Form Design 1 A Form is just a nice way of displaying your data from a Table on the screen. They allow additional control and security. You can control what type of information is input into different Fields, whether you can edit data and lots more. As a rule of thumb you never want your users to interact with your Tables/Queries directly. Building good Forms is more of an Art than a Science, it just takes practice. Access can build the Form for you but being able to do it yourself gives you much more control and customization. Create | Form with a Table selected will create a Form for you, like we did in the first lesson. This lesson we will see how to build a Form from scratch.

Click on CustomerT then the Create tab and click on Form Design.

Access hasn’t added any Fields on the Form so click on Add Existing Fields

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If you don’t have a Field list just click on Show all Tables the expland the Table.

To add a Field to the Form. Click on one then drag it onto the Form.

Access creates two controls on the Form. A Label to identify the Field and a Textbox to store the data.

Let’s add a few more Fields. Line them up with the other Textboxes. Practice this, if you make a mistake

and they don’t line up just Press Delete and try again.

You can also Double-Click a Field to add it to the Form.

Label Textbox


To move a Field you need to make sure you are clicking on the border of the control and that the cursor is like a cross. (4 way pointing arrow) This will also move the label. These two objects are bound together.

You can move them separate of each other by just Clicking on the dark box in the top left hand corner of the control. You can add multiple controls to the Form by clicking on one Field, holding down the Shift key then Clicking on the last Field you want in the list.


Now drag the Fields across.

To select specific Fields hold down the Ctrl key and Click on the ones you want.

Click and Drag and bring those over. We are now going to clean up the Form a little.

We shall delete the Label on LastName and put the two together. You don’t need to keep the Label, just the Textbox. Now edit the text in the Label. Click off it to deselect, Click on it and it will highlight (Yellow box), Click again to edit the Label. Lets see how it looks.


Lesson 3: Form Design 2 Let’s continue working on this Form. Make amendments on the labels, resize the textboxes, both horizontally and vertically.

We shall put City, State and Zip all together on one line.

Access will try and fit the controls to fit with the Grid (those dots in the background).

It doesn’t always happen as shown with CustomerID whereas CompanyName does.


We want all three Fields to be lined up, so Click and Drag over the three Fields then let go and it will highlight them all. Now you can resize all three together.

Let’s add a few more Fields to the Form. Again we shall resize a few at the same time. Click and Drag, with the two way pointing arrow, over

Phone, NumEmployees, DiscountRate and CustomerSince and resize together.

Just practice, add the final 3 Fields. CreditLimit, IsActive and Notes.

Move IsActive up top and amend the size of Notes as it’s a Memo Field so needs more room.


You can amend the position of a few more fields and resize the Form so there isn’t as much space around it.

Now delete the original CustomerF as we don’t need it and click on the Form we are working on.

Cltr+S to Save and name this CustomerF, Close and Re-Open.


Lesson 4: Form Formatting 1 So we need to add some formatting, make it look nicer. Let’s start with a different colour background. Click anywhere on the Form and the Detail section will turn black.

Click on Format tab then the Fill button and choose a colour, this can be from the Themes or the Standard Colours.

You can also change the colours of controls.


I also change the ID to a Grey as this is an AutoNumber and can’t be changed.

So click on the ID Field and then Select Grey.

If we check out Form View we can see that CustomerID is Grey showing the user it can’t be changed.

Let’s change the Labels to black, as they are hard to read on the powder blue background.


Lets Click and Drag over the rest of the Labels and change them all at once.

Another option is to move the mouse to the Ruler bar and see the cursor changes to a downward arrow, Click now and Drag and it will highlight all below it. Click once or Click and Drag.

Finally Ctrl+Click to highlight individual controls.


Let’s line up all the Numbers, Currency etc. We can use Layout View, which is a hybrid of Design View and Form View. This is new to Access 2007/2010 and much easier than switching between the above to make changes in previous versions.

Lets click on Format then Align Left.

You can change other Formats too, if you are familiar with Word you shall know how to do this. Fonts, Font Size, Bold, Italics etc.


See those pound(#) signs, these show up when the Field is too short to show what is in it.

We can change the size of Fields in Layout View just Click on Drag on the control, now let’s line them all up.

You can’t Click and Drag to highlight >1 Field in Layout View but you can Ctrl+Click to select >1.


Select them all and Click on Align Left.

You can also modify Labels in Layout View, just Click then Click (not quite a Double Click) to get into Edit mode then Change CustomerID to have a space in it.

Note: I don’t recommend moving Fields around in Layout View. Do this in Design View


Lesson 5: Form Formatting 2 This lesson we shall look at Themes. A Theme is a collection of Colours and Fonts that are packaged together to give your Forms and Reports a uniform Look & Feel. To preview a Theme just hover over one and it will change the Form to show this.

We shall pick Aspect, notice how the Font size has increased so we will have to change the Label sizes, also the hyperlinks have changed colour.

Note: Select a Label then Double click on the black dots to autosize it.

This isn’t very nice so let’s change to Office.

Since the Background colour of the Form and the CustomerID were selected from the Standard Colours these didn’t change whereas if they were from the Themes section they would have.


So we shall change the Background colour to a light purple from the Themes.

Now go through the Themes and you will see the Background changing. Another thing I like to do is make the Notes Field look like a Sticky Note.


This is quite bright so go further down in the list to More Colours and select one from the Standard Tab. You can get more indepth using the Custom one but Standard works most of the time.

Let’s add a border to the Notes box, Click up to on Shape Outline, Select red then Deselect the Notes Field as you won’t see the change otherwise as it will be highlighted.

You can amend other properites too like Line Thickness, whether its transparent.


There is one special effec you can add to the textbox. Double Click on the border.

This will bring up the Property Sheet. Click on the Format tab, then go down the Special Effect and select Shadowed.

Close the Property Sheet and Click off the Notes control and you will have a Shadowed effect. You can change the colour and font too. Make it look like a hand written script.


Note: Save your Forms often!. Ctrl+S


Lesson 6: Questions From Students What is an LACCDB file? When you create an Access database in Access 2007/2010 it creates an ACCDB file.

Note: Older versions of Access were mdb for the database file and ldb for the locking file.

You might not see the file extensions in Explorer. To see this Click Alt to show the File Menu then Tools | Folder Options.

Click on the View tab. Now scroll down and un-tick the “Hide Extensions for known file types”.


If you open a database another file is created (laccdb):

Access has been designed to be used by more than one person but needs to keep track of who is viewing which Record so if you are looking at Joe Smith and a colleague tries to do the same Access will show them a warning say it’s being viewed, this is what the laccdb is doing.


I don’t like the tabbed interface. Can I switch back to overlapping forms like older versions of Access? Access opens objects in tabs by default in the newer versions.

To change this go to File | Options | Current Database, Click on Overlapping Windows

…

Then click OK. There will be a warning message, OK.


Close and re-open the database. Now when you open a Form/Object it will be in its own Window.


What do the thumbtacks mean on the Recent files list? As with all Office programs you will see the 4 most recent files down the left hand side, but Click on Recent and you will see a longer list.

To the right you will see the Thumbtacks.

Just Click on a tack to pin it to the Recent List, Click on it again to unpin it.

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Can you add data from more than one table to a form? The short answer is Yes, the long answer is wait until we get to out Expert Level classes. You will need to set up Relationships between the Tables.

For example on the CustomerF you might want to see a list of recent orders. That involves two different Tables and the information doesn’t easily go onto one Form because we have to set up a One-To-Many Relationship. This generally involves a Form with a Sub-Form on it. This is quite complicated, it will be covered in Expert Level 1 – Previously shown in Access 201. Can you change the background colour of a checkbox? No. – You can change the Label background colour but not the checkbox. Most objects on the Form you can but Checkboxes are a no no. There are thrid party add-ons but these can cause problems long-term, I don’t advise using them.

http://www.599cd.com/site/courselist/access/access201/


Review Let’s take a few minutes to review what we covered in class.

Setup a trusted location

Form Design View

Adding Fields

Manipulating Form Objects

The Grid

Formatting Your Form

Themes

Using Layout View

Questions From Students Sample Code

http://www.599cd.com/access/studentdatabases/ Links

AccessLearningZone.com

AccessLearningZone.com/contact

AccessLearningZone.com/forums

AccessLearningZone.com/databases

RICK’S NOTE: I really do enjoy getting surveys from you! Make sure you visit the web

page above and fill out the survey for this class. Let me know if I’ve moved too fast, and whether or not I covered material that was

helpful to you! http://www.AccessLearningZone.com/survey

What’s next? Microsoft Access 2010 Beginner Level 3 Contact Us. If you have any questions, visit www.AccessLearningZone.com/contact or post your question(s) on the Student Forum discussion board. Credits: Course development: Richard Rost Handbook authoring: Alex Hedley

http://www.599cd.com/access/studentdatabases/


http://www.accesslearningzone.com/contact

http://www.accesslearningzone.com/forums


http://www.accesslearningzone.com/survey

http://www.accesslearningzone.com/contact


Copyright Notice / Terms of Use

This course, handbook, videos, and other materials are COPYRIGHT 2012 by Amicron Computing. All rights reserved. No portion of this course, handbook, videos, or other course materials may be reproduced, copied, edited, or otherwise distributed without the express written permission of Amicron Computing. Amicron Computing shall not be held liable for any errors or omissions in this document. Subject to our TERMS OF SALE, Amicron grants you a license for ONE PERSON to use this handbook along with the accompanying video tutorial. You may NOT transfer your license to use (give or sell) the materials to any other party or person. Your license is non-transferable. This handbook and accompanying video tutorial are sold on a PER-USER basis. Your copy is for YOU alone. You may not give or sell it to someone else when you're finished with it. We do have volume discounts available for organizations that wish to train multiple people. This handbook and/or the accompanying video tutorials may NOT be used as part of a training course without express, written permission from Amicron Computing and the purchase of an Instructional License. For details, contact:

Amicron Computing 137 Huntleigh Circle

Amherst NY 14226 USA www.amicron.com

267-295-6093 voicemail 866-603-0320 fax

http://www.amicron.com/

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