WORKING ON TABLES

WORKING ON TABLES

NAMING FIELD

1. This will bring up the Table Design View

2. There are three columns here that should be explained in detail

o Field Name: This is where you type the name for your column. A common practice is to make it one word and to use capitalization for multiple words squished into one (e.g. SaleNumber)

o Data Type: This column is where you specify the type of data that will be stored. If you are storing money then select Currency. The most common types of data are: Text, Number, Currency and Date/Time.

o Description: Here you can type optional notes to remind yourself or provide useful information for others who might be viewing this file later.

3. The first column in our tbl_Sales example was Employee, so let's enter in Employee in the Field Name column and choose Text from the Data Type column. If click inside the Data Type column you will see that it is actually a drop down select box with many options to choose from. Select the Text option.

4. Enter the following information for our remaining three columns of tbl_Sales:

o Field Name: Product, Data Type: Text

o Field Name: Price, Data Type: Currency

o Field Name: SaleNumber, Data Type: Number

5. Before we are finished here, we need to make a Primary Key. A primary key is restriction that we place on a column stating that there can be no duplicate values in that column. We will be talking about keys later, but for now right-click in the SaleNumber row and choose Primary Key from the pop-up menu.

6. We have finished our table's outline so click the X in the top right to close the design view (don't close Access, just the Design Window).

7. Click yes and enter "tbl_Sales" for your table's name

Although this process of creating an Access table might seem overly complicated, with time you'll be able to create and edit existing tables very quickly. Feel free to revisit this page if you are having trouble creating an Access table.

Click here for animated tutorial on How To Work with Table!