Access™ 2007 VBA Programmer's Reference

3.2. New Look

Access's new user interface is fast, functional, and intuitive. It puts power at your fingertips by displaying commands and options when and where you need them, yet at the same time, leaves you in control with the capability to resize, customize, and hide at will.

Most of the new features fall into more specific categories discussed later in this chapter and book. But there are a few crosscutting features that really help define the new look and feel of Access. Getting Started, the Ribbon, and tabbed windows help set the foundation for the other new features. So let's explore them.

3.2.1. Getting Started

Upon opening Access, users are greeted by an intuitive graphical interface that displays links to a new database, recent files, and the template groups. Clicking on a template group—personal, business, or educational—displays related templates. When a template is chosen, the pane on the right prompts and guides the user through downloading the file or creating the database and linking it to a SharePoint site. There'll be more about SharePoint shortly. For now, suffice it to say that the program walks the user through creating the file and the links, and it prompts you to create a backup copy of the database on the SharePoint site.

If a new database is selected, the user is prompted to save the file. As soon as the file is saved, the database opens to a new table ready to accept data, and the user can immediately start typing input. The Ribbon shows appropriate ...