Introduction to Records

Data Entry Fundamentals   Introduction After creating a table, you (actually the user) can start(s) populating it with information. Data entry consists of entering values into the database. To do this, you can use a table or some of the other objects we will study. Data is entered in a table by typing it into cells. Some fields can be configured to accept some types of data and reject others. Some other fields would allow anything. This depends on how the database fields were setup. A table's cell holds one particular unit of data. All cells on the same (vertical) column belong to the same category of information. As reviewed in the previous lesson, a horizontal range of cells is called a record; and all cells on this range belong to the same record: Data Entry on a Table To perform data entry on a table, you can click a cell under a column header and type a value. Although a table appears with many rows of cells, when a table is empty with no record, only the cells just under the column header are accessible. Those cells appear with a type of blue color. If you click one of those cells, its background becomes white and its borders are orange, indicating that it is ready: Another way to indicate an empty record, the field of the most left column is marked with (New) and its row of records uses the same light-blue color. After typing a value in a cell, you can press Enter or Tab to move the caret to the next cell. In many circumstances you will also be able to move to the next cell by pressing the right arrow key. Sometimes you can move to the next record even if the current record is not completed. In this case, you could press the down arrow key. When a record has been completed, the background color of its cells changes. The next record under it has the first cell marked as (New) and its empty cells are in blue. The other cells remain white: The white cells cannot receive data: if you click them (with the left mouse button), nothing happens. You can only right-click them to get a context-sensitive menu. There are three kinds of fields or cells the user will face: a field in which the user can type data, a field that displays a list as a combo box the user has to select from, and a field that does not receive input from the user. If you as the user have to select from a list, click the field that holds the list and select from the combo box. There are two kinds of combo boxes, those that accept new entries from the user and those that allow only a selection from a preset list. The classic field allows the user to just type the appropriate data in a field. After setting the data in a particular field, you can click another cell and type the desired data. The easiest way is to press the right arrow key to move to the next field or the left arrow to move to the previous field; pressing Enter would work as well. After typing data, if you press Enter at the end of a record, the caret would move to the beginning of the next record. At anytime, you can press the up arrow key to move to the same category field of the previous record. If you press the down arrow key, the same category of the next record would receive focus. Practical Learning: Performing Data Entry on a Table Start Microsoft Access From the resources that accompany these lessons, open the Bethesda Car Rental1 database In the Navigation Pane, double-click Company Assets : Table Click the first empty field under Category and type Printer  Press Enter and type HP for the Make Press Tab and type LaserJet 4200dtn as the model Click the empty box under Acquired Date and type 10/08/2010 Complete the table as follows:   Category Make  Model  Date Acquired Purchase Price Printer HP LaserJet 4200dtn 10/08/2010 1950.95 Desktop Computer  IBM  NetVista M42 10/08/2010 1035.00 Laptop  Gateway  200XL  12/05/2010 2095.95 Printer  Xerox  Phaser 8200 10/22/2010 1250.55 Digital Camera Olympus  C-50 11/06/2010 450.75 Desktop Computer IBM  ThinkCentre S50 10/08/2010 1055.55 Close the Company Assets table Record Management in Datasheet View   Record Selection Record maintenance consists of copying, pasting, or deleting records, etc. Some of the operations you will perform on one or more records on a table require that the record(s) be selected first: To select a row or record in Datasheet View, click the desired row header To select a record, click any cell on its row. On the Ribbon, click Home. In the Find section, click the Select button and click Select To select more than one record, click and hold your mouse on one of their headers, then drag to cover the other desired row or rows's headers. When all desired rows are highlighted, release the mouse. Another technique used to select more than one row consists of clicking one row that will be at one end, pressing and holding Shift, and then clicking the row that will be at the other end. To select all records of a table: Press Ctrl + A Click the button at the intersection of the column headers and the row headers Practical Learning: Selecting Records From the resources that accompany these lessons, open the Cruise1 database In the Navigation Pane, double-click Cabins: Table to open it To select one record, position the mouse on the box to the left of the third record until the mouse turns into a right pointing arrow Then click. Notice that all cells of the second records are highlighted Click the box to the left of the 7th record Press and hold Shift To select a range of records, click the box to the left of the 3rd record, and release Shift Notice that 5 records have been selected To select all records, position the mouse on the button at the intersection of the column headers and the row headers Click Notice that all records have been selected. Click any cell in the table Record Deletion If a record is not needed anymore or has become irrelevant in a table, you can delete it. To do this: You can click a row header and press Delete You can right-click a row header and click Delete Record In both cases, a message box would come up to warn you. If you find out you were making a mistake, you can click No. If you still want to delete the record, click Yes. You can use this same approach to delete more than one record. Practical Learning: Deleting Records The Cabins table should still be opened. To delete a record, right-click the box to the left of the fourth record Click Delete Record A warning message box will appear. Read it and click Yes To delete more than one record, click and hold the mouse on the box to the left of record number 5, then drag up to include record number 2 in the selection On your keyboard, press Delete Read the warning message box and press Enter Close the table Copying/Pasting Records If you have a list of records from one table and you want to use those records in another table, you can copy the records from one table and paste them in another table. You have various options. You can copy the values of a column from one table and paste the values in another column. Both columns should be of the same type. That is, you should not attempt to paste the names of people in a column of a Boolean type (a Yes/No column that display check boxes). You can also copy and paste many columns. When selecting the columns, they should be selected in a range. After selecting and copying, you can paste the values in a range of columns of another table. The columns from the originating table and the range of columns from the target table must be of the same type. That is, the first column in each range must be of the same type; the second column of both ranges must be of the same type, and so on. You can also copy a whole record or a range of columns. First select the range of records. Then, either right-click the selection and click Copy, or press Ctrl + C. You can then paste the records in another table. If you display a table in Datasheet View, to copy a record, you can right-click the box on the left side of the most left field of the column and click Paste: To apply the copied record to a new one, right-click the left box of the first empty record and click Paste. Before copying a record in a form, the form should have the Record Selectors property set to Yes. To copy a record, you can right-click the record selector and click Copy: After copying the record, you can get to the first empty record, right-click its record selector and click Paste. After pasting a record, you can make the necessary changes. You must also manually take care of ensuring the uniqueness of values in the appropriate fields. For example, if a column is meant to hold unique values such as employee numbers or Social Security numbers, after pasting the record, to finalize it, you must make sure you change the value in the new record. Otherwise, before moving on, you would receive an error. Practical Learning: Copying and Pasting Data Into a Table From the resources that accompany these lessons, open the Cruise2 database In the Navigation Pane, double-click Cabins: Table In the Navigation Pane, double-click Cabins Update: Table In the Cabins Update table, right-click the Size column header and click Copy   Click the Cabins tab Right-click the Size column header and click Paste When you receive a message box whether you want to add the 10 records, click Yes Click the Cabins Update tab Select the last two columns: Available and Description Right-click the selection and click Copy Click the Cabins tab Select the last two columns: Available and Description Right-click the selected columns and click Paste Close the Cabins Update table In the Navigation Pane, double-click New Cabins: Table Click the box on the left side of record number 4 Press and hold Shift Click the box on the left side of record number 1 Release Shift Press Ctrl + C Click the Cabins tab Click the box on the left side of (New) Press Ctrl + V When asked whether you want to add the four new records, press Enter Close all tables

 

Form Creation   Introduction You will usually not provide tables to the users for data entry. Instead, you will use objects called forms. A form appears in a view friendlier than that of a table. Here is an example of a form presented to a user: For you as the database developer, a form only serves as a relay between the source of data, which can be a table, and the user who looks at it. Of course, in order to have a form in your application, you must first create it. When it comes to data of a database, there are two broad types of form: data-unrelated and data-related. Unrelated Forms Although most of the forms you will use in a database are meant to display data from a table, you can create an independent form whose functionality and behavior do not depend on the data from a database. Such a form can be used to display other types of information to the user. The form can be referred to as unrelated. To create a blank form, on the Ribbon, click Create and, in the forms section, click Blank Form. You would be presented with an empty rectangular object. Automatic Forms The other category of form involves those used to display data to the user. Such forms are primarily made for data entry. Before creating such a form, you must decide where data would come from. The source object can be a table or other means we will study in future lessons. If the data of a form will be based on a table, you can specify it, before or while creating the form. To easily create a form that would display data, in the Navigation Pane, select the table. In the Ribbon, click Create. In the Forms section, click Form. Practical Learning: Creating a Form Automatically The Cruise2 database should still be opened. In the Navigation Pane, click New Cabins: Table to select the table On the Ribbon, click Create In the Forms section, click Form The Name of a Form Like a table, you can create a temporary form to test something and get rid of the form after use (you do this by not saving the form). As done for a table, if you intend to preserve a form, you must save it. To save a form: You can right-click its tab and click Save You can attempt closing the form. You would be prompted to save the form If the form was not saved previously, you would be prompted to give it a name. Like every object of a database, a form must have a name. Microsoft Access is very flexible when it comes to names of objects. For example, a form can be named D#%bb or 5&#GM* or anything like that. As you can imagine, such names are not realistic. For this reason, you should give easily recognizable names to your form so you would be able to predict what the form is used for. If a form is based on a table, it may be a good idea to give the same name as the table. If a form is independent, that is, if it doesn't display data from a table, you can give it a name that reflects its role in the database. Practical Learning: Naming a Form On the form tab, right-click Cabins and click Save Accept the suggested name for the form as New Cabins. Click OK Close the form The From Wizard For a typical database, a form is used to view, enter, manipulate, and search data. Because users spend a great deal of their time looking at forms, you should create and make them as attractive and friendly as possible. Form design can take a long time in database development but Microsoft Access provides quick means to get around. The Form Wizard provides an easy and fast means of creating a form. To launch the Form Wizard, on the Ribbon, click Create. In the Forms section, click Form Wizard. This would start the wizard. The first page of the Form Wizard allows you to choose the originating table that will supply the necessary fields in the form. Once you have selected the object, its corresponding fields display in the Available Fields list box, you can select all fields or decide which ones you want to include in the form. The 2nd page of the wizard allows you to select the desired layout of the form. The 3rd page of the Form Wizard allows you to name the form. Practical Learning: Using the Form Wizard The Cruise2 database should still be opened. On the Ribbon, click Create In the Forms section of the Ribbon, click Form Wizard   In the first page of the wizard, in the Tables/Queries combo box, select Table: Cabins In the first page of the wizard, click the Select All Fields button  Click Next Click Next Accept the name of the form as Cabins and click Finish An automatic form is created for you To close the form as a Windows object, click its Close button Data Entry on a Form Data entry of a database is mainly performed on forms as they provide a friendlier display of information than tables. Data entry on a form is performed using various types of Windows controls. On text boxes, the user enters data by typing it. On a combo box, depending on how the object was configured by the database developer, the user may have to only select an item from the list. In some other cases, the user may be allowed to enter new data. After entering or changing data on a control, to move from one field to the next, the surest way is to press Tab. On most occasions, the user can also press Enter. The Enter key may not move the focus from a text box that allows multiple lines of text. If the user is simply reviewing data without performing data entry, the keyboard's arrow keys can also be used to move among fields. Practical Learning: Form Data Entry To create a new database, click File and click New Set the Name to BCR1 and and click Create Double-click ID and type CustomerID Right-click Click to Add and click Text Type Full Name and press Enter In the menu that appears, click Text, type Driver's License # and press Enter In the menu that appears, click Text, type Address and press Tab In the menu that appears, click Text, type City and press Enter In the menu that appears, click Text, type State and press Tab In the menu that appears, click Text, type ZIP Code and press Enter To save the table, right-click Table1 and click Close When asked whether you want to save it, click Yes Set the Name to Customers and press Enter To create a new form, on the Ribbon, click Create In the Forms section, click click Form Wizard In the Tables/Query combo box of the first page of the Form Wizard, select Table: Customers Click the Select All button and click Next Accept the Columnar Layout and click Next In the style page, select Paper and click Next Accept the suggested name of the form as Customers and click Finish Click the text box on the right side of Full Name and type Ernestine Aarons Press Tab and type A-682-638-146 Press Enter and type 6044 Lolita Drive Moved to the next record Click the text box on the right side of Full Name and type Raymond Simms Click the Next Record button to get to the next record Click the text box on the right side of Driver's License # and type 837-62-5860 Click the Previous Record button twice to return to the first record Complete the form with the following records:   Full Name Driver's License # Address City State ZIP Code Ernestine Aarons A-682-638-146 6044 Lolita Drive Silver Spring MD 20904 Raymond Simms 629-49-2746 815 Arundela Rd NE Washington DC 20008 Johnny Edmondson 837-62-5860 10696 Great Alberta Crt Alexandria VA 21233 Albert Faughty F-374-590-749-205 702 Mechanics Drv College Park MD 20707 To close the form, click its close button Finding and Replacing Data   Editing Data Editing a value consists of changing it. This can be done on the table or the form (or on a query as we will learn). To do this, first locate the value in the field. If you are working on a table, you can click the value and use the keys (left, right, Home, End, Backspace, or the Space Bar) to edit the value. If you are working on a form, you can click the label next to a field. This would completely select the corresponding value in the control. You can then press F2 to position the caret in the control and edit its value. Alternatively, you can click the control's field and edit the value. Practical Learning: Editing Data From the resources that accompany these lessons, open the Ceil Inn2 database In the Navigation Pane, double-click Customers: Table to open it In record number 2, click the empty box under Emergency Name Type Albert Lomey and press Enter Close the table In the Navigation Pane, under Customers: Table, double-click Customer to open the form Click the Next Record button once to navigate to the second record Click the Emergency Name label and type 301-412-5055 Close the form Finding Data Sometimes there will be some regular problems in your database. For example during data entry, some information could be missing, mistyped, or entered in the wrong field. These problems would be easy to locate on a small table or form. If the database grows, values could become difficult to locate. Fortunately, Microsoft Access provides many tools you can use to find values and take actions. To assist you with finding a value in a table or a form, the Home tab of the Ribbon is equipped with a section named Find: To start looking for a value, you can click the Find button or you can press Ctrl + F. This would open the Find and Replace dialog box with the Find tab selected: The Find and Replace dialog box is modeless, meaning you can access the table or form in the background while the dialog box is present. To specify the value to look for, type it in the Find What combo box. If you had previously used the dialog box, the Find What combo box keeps track of the previous searches and stores them in the control. This would allow you to perform a search on a value previously used. The Look In combo box allows you to select the column where the value should be located. By default, when the Find and Replace dialog box displays, it selects the column or field that had focus and puts its name in the Look In combo box. You can look into that column but, if you want to search the whole table, select its name in the Look In combo box. The Match combo box allows you to specify how close the match should be. The options are Any Part of Field, Whole Field (the default), and Start of Field. The Search combo box allows you to specify the direction to follow. The options are Up, Down, and All (the default). After specifying the options, you can click Find Next. After using the Find and Replace dialog box, to dismiss it, you can click Cancel or press Esc. Practical Learning: Editing Data The Ceil Inn5 database should still be opened. In the Navigation Pane, double-click Customers: Table to open it In the Find section of the Ribbon, click the Find button In the Find What combo box, type Carney In the Look In combo box, select Customers In the Match combo box, select Any Part of Field Click Find Next Click Find Next again. Notice that a second result is found In the second result, while the Find and Replace dialog box is still opened, on the table, click the found Carney and press Tab three times to get to its Emergency Phone Press F2 to position the caret in the cell and edit it to display 990-326-5144 In the Find and Replace dialog box, replace Carney with Beckins Click Find Next. Notice that the Phone # of that record is incomplete Click the right side of the incomplete telephone number and type 1440 to make it 410-944-1440 Click the Find and Replace dialog box Replacing Data We have seen that you can use the Find and Replace dialog box to simply locate a value. Instead of just finding it, you may want to replace the found value with an alternate. To assist you with this, you can use the Replace section of the dialog box. To get it, in the Find section of the Ribbon, you can click the Replace button or you can press Ctrl + H. This would open the Find and Replace dialog box with the Replace tab selected: You can also open the Find and Replace dialog box as we did for finding, then click the Replace tab. The Replace section of the dialog box provides the same options at the Find counterpart with the addition of the Replace With combo box, the Replace and the Replace All buttons. After specifying what to look for in the Find What combo box, the Replace With combo box allows you to specify the value to replace the Find What with. Practical Learning: Editing Data The Ceil Inn5 database should still be opened. In the Navigation Pane, double-click Customers: Table to open it In the Find section of the Ribbon, click the Replace button In the Find What combo box, type ratner In the Replace With combo box, type Rattner In the Look In combo box, select Customers In the Match combo box, select Any Part of Field Click Find Next Once the value is found, click Replace Close the Find and Replace dialog box and close the table In the Navigation Pane, under Customers: Table, double-click the Customers form Press Ctrl + H to display the Replace dialog box In the Find What combo box, replace the string with Annie and press Tab In the Replace With combo box, type Annette Make sure the Look In combo box displays Customers and make sure the Match combo box is set to Any Part of Field. Click Find Next Once a match is found, click Replace All Click the right side of the incomplete telephone number and type 1440 to make it 410-944-1440 Close the Find and Replace dialog box and close the form Introduction to Record Printing   Table Printing The primary function of the table is to provide a means of storing and arranging information of a database. Nevertheless, you can print data of a table, especially if for example you are in a hurry and do not have access to another object. You can print data on a table whether the table is opened or not. To print a closed table, locate it in the Navigation Pane and click it to select it, then click File, position the mouse on Print and select one of the three options. In the same way, if the table is opened in Datasheet View, click its tab to give it focus, then click File -> Print and select to print or to preview. The Print menu of the Office Button presents three options: If you click Print, the Print dialog box would be presented to you. It allows you to specify the printer you want to use. Most of the time, the Name combo box will present the default printer; otherwise, you can select one: After specifying the printer, if you are ready to print, you can click OK. To customize the printing job, you can click Properties. A dialog box, whose contents depend on the selected printer, would come up. Among the various options you would have is that of specifying the orientation of the paper (Portrait or Landscape). Again, remember that different printers provide different features. After setting the properties of the printer, you can click OK. Once you are ready to print, you can click OK on the Print dialog box to send the job to the printer If you select Quick Print from the Print menu of the Office Button, the print job would be sent directly to the printer. Microsoft Access would use the default printer that is set in Control Panel and would use the previous settings that were set on that default printer If you select Print Preview, Microsoft Access would draw a print job on the screen for you. This allows you to see what the final job would look like on the paper. The characters on the screen may appear too small for you. To zoom in, you can click the middle of the window. To zoom out, you can click it again. Once you are ready to print, on the Ribbon and in the Print section, you can click Print. This would send the print job to the printer Practical Learning: Printing Tables In the Navigation Pane, click Customers: Table to select the table To print data from the table, click File, position the mouse on Print and click Quick Print From the Navigation Pane, double-click the Company Assets table to open it click File, position the mouse on Print and click Print Select the desired printer Name combo box and click Properties Based on your printer, select the Landscape radio button (usually in the Orientation section of a Paper Layout tab) and click OK On the Print dialog box, click OK Close the table Form Printing Although not part of their primary role, forms provide a quick means of printing data, especially in the absence of desired reports. There are various issues related to printing forms, including printing all records or just some of them. You can print a form without opening it. Once you know the form you would like to print, locate its name in the Navigation Pane and use the same steps reviewed for a table. When a form is opened, you have the option of printing all of its records or the selected one. In the Form View, to print just one record, navigate to the record you would like to print, click the Form Selection bar to select the record and proceed to print. Practical Learning: Printing Forms From the Navigation Pane, under Customers: Table, double-click the Customers form to open it click File, position the mouse on Print and click Quick Print To navigate to the 3rd customer, click the Next Record button twice click File -> Print -> Print On the Print dialog box, click the Selected Record(s) radio button Click OK Verify that only the displaying customer's record was printed Close the Customers form Open the Cruise2 database you were working on earlier In the Navigation Pane, under Cabins, double-click Cabins We will print records from 3 to 7. Click the Next Record button twice navigate to record number 3 Click the Record Selector bar Press and hold Shift. Click the Next Record button four times to display the seventh record where the Cabin ID field would display 7 (even though the record # still displays 3) Release Shift On the Ribbon, click File -> Print -> Print On the Print dialog box, click the Selected Record(s) radio button and click OK Verify that records from 3 to 7 have been printed Close the Cabins form Reports Fundamentals   The Report Wizard A report provides an object used to print a database's records. Although you can print tables or forms, reports are customized to be printer friendly. They can perform and display calculations. Once again, Microsoft Access provides wizards to quickly create reports. Microsoft Access can help you quickly create a report using one of the pre-designed layouts. This is done using the Report Wizard. The Report Wizard is available from the Reports section of the Create category of the Ribbon. Practical Learning: Using the Report Wizard On the Ribbon, click Create In the Reports section, click Report Wizard On the first page of the wizard, click the arrow of the Tables/Queries combo box and select Table: Cabins Click the Select All Fields button  Click Next Accept anything in the second page and click Next Accept anything in the third page and click Next In the Layout section, click the Columnar radio button: Click Next Accept the suggested Title of the report as Cabins and press Enter Report Printing The report is the favorite object used to print data. As done with the other objects, you can print a report whether it is opened or not. Before printing a report, you must first select or open it. If you want to print a report without opening it, in the Navigation Pane, locate the desired report and click it to select it. Then, proceed from the Office Button as we reviewed for the table and the form. In the same way, you can first open the report from the Navigation Pane and use the Print menu from the Office Button the same way we described for the other objects. Practical Learning: Printing a Report The Cabins report should still be opened. click File, position the mouse on Print and click Print Preview To start the printing process, in the Print section of the Print Preview, click Print On the Print dialog box, select the printer and make sure the All radio button is selected Click Properties, click the Portrait radio button (in the Orientation section) and click OK To send the print job to the printer, on the Print dialog box, click OK Close the Employees report Lesson Summary    Exercises   Yugo National Bank Open the Yugo National Bank1 Open the AccountTypes table fill it up as follows:   Account Type ID Account Type Description 1 Checking   2 Saving   3 CD   Print the table and close it Watts A loan Create a blank database and name it Watts A Loan1 Create a table with the following fields: TransactionID (you will rename the ID column), TransactionNumber, TransactionDate, TransactionAmount, and Notes. Save the table as Transactions World Statistics Open the World Statistics1 database Use the Table button in the Tables section of the Ribbon to create a new table with the following fields: CountryID, CommonName, InternetCode, LongName, and GovernmentType Save the table as Countries and switch it to Design View