Chapter 2. Creating Access Tables

IN THIS CHAPTER

  • Creating a new Access database

  • Creating a table

  • Navigating in the Table window

  • Entering field names and descriptions

  • Selecting a field data type

  • Entering field properties

  • Changing a table design

  • Creating a primary key

  • Saving a table's design

  • Renaming, copying, and deleting tables

In this chapter, you learn how to create a new Access database and its tables. You establish the database container to hold your tables, forms, queries, reports, and code that you build as you learn Access. Finally, you create the actual tables used by the Access Auto Auctions database.

Note

This chapter uses the Chapter02.accdb database. If you have not already copied these files onto your machine from the CD, you'll need to do so now.

Getting Started with Access 2007

As you open Access 2007, the default environment (see Figure 2-1) is revealed. We'll examine the Access environment in more detail later in this chapter, but you should understand the major components of the user interface as you get started using Access 2007. Even experienced Access developers are surprised at how different Access 2007 looks from previous versions.

Each time you open Access, the welcome screen may or may not look different, depending on whether you have elected to have Office Online periodically updated. In an effort to provide a high level of support for Microsoft Office users, Microsoft has equipped each of the Office applications with the ability to communicate directly with Microsoft's ...

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