Understanding Access's Table Display

You're probably familiar with the basic terms for many of the components that comprise the basic window in which all conventional Windows 95 applications run. (These controls, although similar in function, have a somewhat different appearance and location than those used in Windows 3.x.) The presentation of Access windows differs with each basic function that Access performs. Because Part I of this book deals almost exclusively with tables, the examples that follow use Table view. Figure 3.2 shows Access for Windows's basic display for operations with tables. Table 3.1 describes the window's individual components.

Table 3.1. Components of the Access Display for Tables

Term	Description
Active window	The window to which all mouse and keyboard actions are directed. When an application or document is active, its title bar appears in color (dark blue, unless you have changed your Windows color scheme). If the application title bar and a document title bar are active, the docu-ment title bar receives the mouse and keyboard actions.
Application Control-menu box	The icon for the application Control menu that controls the presentation of the application window. You display the application Control menu by clicking the box or pressing Alt+spacebar.
Application title bar	A bar at the top of the application's window that displays its name. You can move the entire application, if it isn't maximized, by clicking the application title bar and dragging it to a new position.
Application window	The window within which Windows displays Access. Each application that you launch runs within its own application window. (Figure 3.2 shows the maximized Access 97 application window.)
Caret	A vertical flashing line that indicates the insertion point for keyboard entry in areas of a window that accept text. (The caret isnOt visible in Figure 3.2.)
Current Record button	A button that indicates a single selected record in the table. When you are editing the current record, the button icon displays a pencil rather than a triangular arrow. The Current Record button also is called the record pointer.
Current Record selection	Buttons that position the record pointer to the first, next, preceding, and last record number in the table, and show the number of the currently selected record. If the table has a key field, the record number reflects the sequence of records in the primary key's sorting order; if there is no primary key in the table, the record number corresponds to the order in which records were physically added to the table.
Database window	The window that controls the operating mode of Access and selects the active document window's current function. From the database components displayed in the Database window, you select the component (such as a particular table) to display in the document window.
Document Control-menu box	The icon for the document Control menu that controls a document window's presentation. To access the document Control menu, click the box or press Alt+- (hyphen).
Document title bar	At the top of each document's window, a bar that displays the document's name. You can move the document, if it isn't maximized, by clicking the application title bar and dragging the document to a new position.
Document window	The window that displays an Access database component. Tables, queries, forms, reports, macros, and modules are referred to as documents in Windows terminology. You can have multiple Access documents of any type open simultaneously. These windows are called multiple document interface (MDI) child windows because the Access application window is their parent.
Field scroll bar	The scroll bar that enables you to view table fields that are outside the bounds of the document window. Record scroll bars provide access to records located outside the document window.
Function tabs	Six tabs with which you select a page that displays a list of tables, queries, forms, reports, macros, or modules in the database.
Inactive window	A window in the background, usually with a grayed title bar. Clicking the surface of an inactive window makes it active and brings it to the front. If an inactive window is not visible because other windows obscure it, you can make the window active by choosing its name from the W indow menu.
Maximize button	A button that causes Access to occupy your entire display. Clicking the document's Maximize button causes the document to take over the entire display. When a window is maximized, as shown in Figure 3.2, this button's icon changes to the Restore button. Figure 3.3 shows a maximized table document.
Menubar	A horizontal bar containing the main menu choices. The specific menubar choices and the commands in the menus themselves change depending on Access's status. Menubars and toolbars collectively are called command bars.
Minimize button	A button that enables you to collapse the application or document window to an icon at the bottom of your display.
Mode buttons	Three buttons that determine the operating mode of Access. Open places Access in Run mode. New or Design puts Access in Design mode, where you can create or edit tables.
New Record button	A button with an asterisk that indicates the location of the next record to be added to a table. Entering data in the new record appends the record to the table and creates another new record.
Restore button	A double set of boxes that, when clicked, returns the window from full display to its normal size, with movable borders. When displayed, the Restore button takes the place of the Maximize button in the window's upper-right corner.
Status bar	A bar, located at the bottom of the application window, that displays prompts and indicators, such as the status of the Num Lock key.
Toolbar	A bar containing command buttons that duplicate the more commonly used menu choices. The number and type of toolbar buttons change depending on which basic function of Access you are using.

Maximized Document Windows

Access uses a windowing technique that you should know about; otherwise, you might accidentally minimize or close Access when you intended to minimize or close a maximized document. After you click a document window's Maximize button, the document window takes the place of the application window and occupies the entire display, except for the menu bar and toolbar (see Figure 3.3). Most other Windows applications that display multiple documents, such as Word for Windows and Excel, have a similar capability to expand a document to occupy the entire window.

The document Control-menu box and the document Minimize, Restore, and Close buttons move to the menubar's extreme left and right, respectively. The document's title is added to the application title bar at the top of the display. To return the document window to its original size, established when the application window was first active, click the document Restore button; alternatively, click the document Control-menu box and then choose Restore from the document Control menu. You can close the document window by clicking the document Close button, or by double-clicking the document Control-menu box. If you accidentally click the application Close button (or double-click the application Control-menu box just above the document Control-menu box), however, you close Access 97. You receive no warning that you are about to exit Access unless you have changed the design of an object without saving those changes.

Document Windows Minimized to Icons

Working with several overlapping windows limits each to a size that enables you to select another by clicking its surface. This overlapping might overly restrict your view of the data that the windows contain. You can minimize Access document windows and the Database window to icons that remain within the application window, as shown at the bottom of Figure 3.4. If you minimize a document window to an icon rather than close it, you can quickly return the window to its original size by double-clicking the icon. If you single-click the icon, you can choose how the window reappears by using the document Control menu, as shown for the Northwind Database window in Figure 3.4. You can also restore, maximize, or close a minimized icon by clicking the corresponding button within the icon.

If you choose to display your document window in maximized form by choosing Maximize from the document Control menu that appears when you click the icon, the document hides the icons at the bottom of the application window. In this case, choose the document that you want from the Window menu. If you size your document windows (like the window in Figure 3.4) by dragging their borders, you can avoid the substantial mouse movement and two-step menu-selection process to select the active document.

The Toolbars in Table View

The buttons that appear in Access's toolbar, and the number of toolbars displayed, changes according to the function that Access is currently performing. When you are working with tables in run mode, Access 97 displays the Table Datasheet and the Datasheet Formatting toolbars (see Figures 3.5 and 3.6). The next two sections describe the toolbars that appear in table run mode (Datasheet view).

The Table Datasheet Toolbar. The Table Datasheet toolbar appears whenever you open an Access table in Datasheet view. Figure 3.5 shows the Table Datasheet toolbar, and Table 3.2 describes the buttons that appear on the toolbar.

Table 3.2. Appearance and Functions of Buttons and Other Elements of the Table Datasheet Toolbar

Icon	Button	Menu Sequence	Function
	Design View	View, Design View	Changes the table display to design mode, in which you specify the properties of the table.
	Datasheet View	View, Datasheet View	Returns the table display to run mode (Datasheet view) from design mode. (You cannot see this button in Figure 3.5; it appears only when the table is in Design view.)
	Save	File, Save	Saves the database.
	Print	File, Print	Prints the table.
	Print Preview	File, Print Prev iew	Displays the contents of a table in report format and enables you to print the table's contents.
	Spelling	Tools, Spelling	Starts the spelling checker.
	Cut	Edit, Cut	Cuts the selected information to the Windows Clipboard.
	Copy	Edit, Copy	Copies selected information to the Clipboard.
	Paste	Edit, Paste	Pastes information from the Clipboard into Access at the caret's current location.
	Format Painter		Copies a control's format to another control. Used only in Design view; it is enabled only when you select a control.
	Undo	Edit, Undo	Returns you to the status immediately preceding the last action that you took. This button is inactive if there is no action to undo. Access pro-vides a single-level Undo feature that repeals only one action.
	Insert Hyperlink	Insert, Hyperli nk	Opens the Insert Hyperlink dialog, which lets you add an URL or UNC address to a hyperlink field in a table. Chapter 16, "Working with Hyperlinks and HTML," describes hyperlink fields in more detail.
	Web Toolbar		Displays or hides the Web toolbar, which lets you activate your Web browser to view HTML pages stored locally on your computer, network, or the Internet. The Web Toolbar button is a toggle button—in its "up" position, the Web toolbar is hidden; in its "down" position, the Web toolbar is displayed.
	Sort Ascending	Records, Sort, Ascending	Sorts the records in ascending order, based on the current field.
	Sort Descending	Records, Sort, Descending	Sorts the records in descending order, based on the current field.
	Filter by Selection	Records, Filter, Filter by Selection	Filters records based on the selected text in a field.
	Filter by Form	Records, Filter, Filter by Form	Enables you to enter criteria in a table datasheet to establish how records are filtered.
	Apply/Remove Filter	Records, Apply Filter/Sort	Applies or removes a filter.
	Find	Edit, Find	Displays the Find dialog that locates records with specific characters in a single field or all fields.
	New Record	Edit, Go To, Ne w	Selects the tentative append record.
	Delete Record	Edit, Delete R ecord	Deletes the active record.
	Database Window	Window, 1	Displays the Database window.
	New Object		Displays a drop-down list from which you choose the type of new object that you want to create: tables, forms, reports, queries, macros, or modules.
	Office Assistant	F1	Activates the Microsoft Office Assistant described later in the "Using the Office Assistant" section.

The Datasheet Formatting Toolbar. In addition to the Table Datasheet toolbar, you can display the Datasheet Formatting toolbar whenever you view a table in Datasheet View. Choose View, Toolbars, Formatting (Datasheet) to add the toolbar. The buttons in the Datasheet Formatting toolbar provide shortcuts to various text-formatting commands. In Datasheet view, the text-formatting commands apply to the entire table; you cannot format individual cells in Datasheet view. Figure 3.6 shows the Datasheet Formatting toolbar, and Table 3.3 summarizes the action of each button on the toolbar.

Table 3.3. Appearance and Functions of Buttons and Other Elements of the Datasheet Formatting Toolbar

Icon	Button	Menu Sequence	Function
	Select Object		Displays a drop-down list from which you can jump quickly to any field in the table.
	Font	Format, Font	Enables you to select the font (type- face) for text in a table.
	Font Size	Format, Font	Enables you to select the size of the text in a table.
	Bold	Format, Font	Turns bold text formatting on and off for the text in a table.
	Italic	Format, Font	Turns italic text formatting on and off for text in a table.
	Underline	Format, Font	Turns underlining on and off for text in a table.
	Fill/Back Color	Format, Cells	Displays a palette of colors from which to choose the background color for the table's data cells.
	Font/Fore Color	Format, Font	Displays a palette of colors from which to choose the color of the text in the table.
	Line/Border Color	Format, Cells	Displays a color palette from which to choose the color of the gridlines that indicate rows and columns in the table.
	Gridlines	Format, Cells	Displays four buttons that enable you to choose which gridlines are shown: horizontal and vertical, vertical only, horizontal only, or none.
	Special Effect	Format, Cells	Displays three buttons that enable you to choose the cell display style: flat, raised, or sunken.

Toolbar Customization

Access 97 uses the resizable, customizable, floating toolbars that have become standard in Microsoft applications such as Excel and Microsoft Word. In Microsoft Office 97, menubars and toolbars have been combined into a single object, called a command bar, and now share many features. The primary characteristic that distinguishes a menubar from a toolbar in Access 97 (and other Office 97 applications) is that every application has at least one menu bar, and the menubar may not be hidden. In all other respects, menubars and toolbars are now the same.

Access 97's View, Toolbars menu choice enables you to select which toolbars are currently visible. The View, Tool bars menu lists those toolbars pertinent to Access's current operating mode. Figure 3.7 shows the View, Toolbars menu for Table Datasheet view. A check mark at the left of a menu choice indicates that that specific toolbar is now displayed. To display or hide a toolbar, click its name in the submenu.

The Customize choice on the View, Toolbars menu opens the Customize dialog (see Figure 3.8), which lets you display as many toolbars at once as will fit in your display or hide toolbars that Access would otherwise display automatically. To display a toolbar, click the Toolbars tab to display the Toolbars page (if necessary), and then click the box to the left of the toolbar name so that the check box is selected. To hide a toolbar, click the box again to clear it. For help in using the Customize dialog, click the Office Assistant button at the lower-left area of the Customize dialog to activate the Office Assistant, if it isn't already active (see "Using the Office Assistant" later in this chapter).

You also can use the Customize dialog to change the viewing options for toolbars. The Options page enables you to select various toolbar viewing options (see Figure 3.9). If you're using SVGA 1024×768 screen resolution, you may want to select the Large Icons check box to cause the toolbar button icons to approximately double in size; this makes the icons easier to discern, and easier to click. The Show ScreenTips on Toolbars check box governs whether Access displays ScreenTips (formerly known as ToolTips) hints on the mouse pointer for toolbar buttons. The Show Shortcut Keys in ScreenTips check box determines whether Access displays the keyboard shortcut (if there is one) as part of the ScreenTip text. Finally, the Menu Animations drop-down list lets you choose how Access draws menus on-screen. You may choose None (for no special effects when drawing menus), Random (Access randomly chooses an animation effect each time you open a menu), Unfold (the menu unfolds like a fan), or Slide (the menu opens like a roller-shade) as the technique for displaying Access's menus.

In addition to displaying multiple toolbars, you can reshape or reposition the toolbars to suit your own taste. Click a blank area of the toolbar and hold down the left mouse button to drag the toolbar to a new location. The toolbar turns into a pop-up floating toolbar, similar to the toolbox that you use to add control objects to forms and reports. Pop-up toolbars always appear on top of any other windows open in your application.

Figure 3.10 shows three floating command bars: the Table Datasheet toolbar, the Formatting Datasheet toolbar, and the Menu Bar. (These are the same toolbars—discussed in the preceding section—that Access displays in Datasheet View mode. The Menu Bar—which is Access's main menubar—was moved from its position at the top of the Access application window to demonstrate its new features as a command bar.) Command bars in their fixed position are called docked command bars, whereas command bars in their pop-up window are referred to as floating command bars. After you change a command bar to a floating command bar (or dock it), Access always displays the command bar in that location until you reposition it.

Right-Click Shortcut Menus

Another feature that Access 97 shares with other Microsoft applications, as well as Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, is the shortcut menu that appears when you right-click an Access database object. Shortcut menus (also called pop-up or context menus) present choices that vary depending on the type of object that you click. Figure 3.11 shows the shortcut menu for a field of a table selected by clicking the field name header.