Creating a Blank Database
Creating a blank database is very simple, because you're just creating an outer shell at this point, without any tables, forms, etc. Just do one of the following:
If you just started Access, and the Microsoft Access dialog box is still displayed (see Figure 5.1), follow these steps:
Click Blank Database.
If the dialog box is gone, you can't get it back until you exit from Access and restart it. But you don't need that dialog box to start a new database; at any time you can follow these steps:
Select File, New, or click the New button on the toolbar. The New dialog box appears (see Figure 5.2).
Type a name for your new database (preferably something descriptive) in the File name box. For example, I typed Kennel Records. Then click Create. Access creates the new database, as shown in Figure 5.3.
Figure 5.2. The New dialog box's different tabs give you options to create different kinds of databases.
Your database is completely blank at this point. You can click on any of the tabs in the database window (see Figure 5.3), but you won't find anything listed on any of them. Later, you'll learn to create tables (Lessons 7 and 8), forms (Lesson 13), queries (Lesson 19), and reports (Lesson 21) to fill these tabbed windows.
Figure 5.3. A new, blank database window.
