Access 2019 for Dummies

435 Pages·2018·19.52 MB·English

by  Laurie Ulrich Fuller

Access 2019
®

Access 2019
®
by Laurie Ann Ulrich and Ken Cook
Access® 2019 For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108
of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher
for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken,
NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related
trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written
permission. Microsoft and Access are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned
in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS
OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES
OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR
EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED
IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS
REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE
PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN
ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF
FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION
THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS
SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED
BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within
the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone]. For technical support, please visit
https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with
standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to
media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at
http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018954128
ISBN: 978-1-119-51326-1
ISBN: 978-1-119-51325-4 (ePDF); ISBN: 978-1-119-51328-5 (ePub)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents at a Glance
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part 1: Basic Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: Access 2019 Basic Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 2: Navigating the Access Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER 3: Database Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Part 2: Getting It All on the Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
CHAPTER 4: Sounds Like a Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
CHAPTER 5: Table Tune Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
CHAPTER 6: Remodeling Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
CHAPTER 7: Types, Masks, and Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Part 3: Data Management Mania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
CHAPTER 8: A Form for All Reasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
CHAPTER 9: Importing and Exporting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
CHAPTER 10: Automatically Editing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
CHAPTER 11: Access and the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Part 4: The Power of Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
CHAPTER 12: Finding, Filtering, and Sorting Your Data — Fast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
CHAPTER 13: I Was Just Asking . . . for Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
CHAPTER 14: I Want These AND Those OR Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
CHAPTER 15: Number Crunching with the Total Row . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
CHAPTER 16: Express Yourself with Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
CHAPTER 17: Take Charge with Action Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Part 5: Simple and Snazzy Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
CHAPTER 18: Fast and Furious Automatic Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
CHAPTER 19: Professionally Designed Reports Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
CHAPTER 20: Groups and Page Breaks, Headers and Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
CHAPTER 21: Mailings to the Masses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Part 6: The Parts of Tens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
CHAPTER 22: Ten Common Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
CHAPTER 23: Ten Uncommon Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
APPENDIX A: Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Foolish Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Icons Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
PART 1: BASIC TRAINING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: Access 2019 Basic Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
What Is Access Good For, Anyway? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Building big databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Creating databases with multiple tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Databases with user forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Databases that require special reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
What’s New in Access 2019? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Reach Out with SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
How Access Works and How You Work with It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Opening Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Selecting a starting point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Now What? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
CHAPTER 2: Navigating the Access Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Diving Right In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Working with Onscreen Tools in Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Clicking tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Using buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The File tab and Quick Access tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Accessing panes, panels, and context-sensitive tools . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Customizing the Access Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Repositioning the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Adding buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Removing buttons from the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Minimizing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Working with ScreenTips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Mousing Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Navigating Access with the Alt Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
CHAPTER 3: Database Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Database Lingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Data, no matter how you pronounce it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Fields of dreams (or data) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Table of Contents vii
Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Field Types and Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Choosing Between Flat and Relational Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Isolationist tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Tables that mix and mingle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Building a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Adding and Removing Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
One more, please . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Oops, I didn’t mean to do that . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
PART 2: GETTING IT ALL ON THE TABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
CHAPTER 4: Sounds Like a Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Planning Your Database Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Reviewing fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Determining data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The new normal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Understanding normal forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Normalizing your tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Building Tables in Design View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Creating fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Setting data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
CHAPTER 5: Table Tune Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
The Primary Key to Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
The lowdown on primary keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Creating a primary key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Making Tables Get Along . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Rules of relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Relationship types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Building Table Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
The Relationships window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Table relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Indexing for Faster Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Creating your own index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Adding and removing indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
CHAPTER 6: Remodeling Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Opening a Table for Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Inserting Records and Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Adding a record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Inserting a field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Deleting a field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
viii Access 2019 For Dummies