Access97 –

This is the opening screen for a new data base.

There are four major components to a data base:

Tables, Queries, Forms and reports.

Tables:

These are composed of fields.

A field is what you store a particular piece of data in. A name, part of an address, a phone number etc.

A group of fields make up a record.

A group of records make up a table.

To set up a table: click on the table tab, select new, then new table.

There are two parts to a field the field name and the data type.

The field name is the name you give it. It is good practice not to include spaces in the name. It is also good to make the name mean something. e.g if the field is to hold surnames then call it Surname.

Data Type:This is a description of the type of data that is going into the field. There are 8 data types. We will work with the first seven of these. The last type is outside the scope of a beginning course.

text:this is used for entering text into the field, or entering numbers that are treated as text, such as phone numbers. Text fields have a restriction of 255 characters.

memo:Same as a text field but the restriction is 32,000 characters

Number:These are values that are used as numbers. That is where you want to perform calculations with them.

Date/time:Dates and times

Currency:This sets up the field to take numbers in currency format £####.00

Counter:This automatically increase by one as you add new records.

Yes/No:This field accepts either yes or no.