Instructions for Creating Silly Survey Database

Instructions for Creating Silly Survey Database Create a New Database 1. Find the shortcut or the file that starts MS Access and click it to activate the program. 2. In the Create a New Database Using portion of the dialogue box, select the Blank Database radio button. (See Figure 1) Figure 1 3. The File New Database dialogue box appears. (Figure 2) Access requires that you save the file (give it a name and a location) before you begin working with it. That is because as you enter data into the database (after you have designed it), the data is saved automatically as you enter it and move from field to field and record to record. Figure 2 4. Name you database Silly Survey and save it in the My Documents folder. 5. After Access creates the file the program opens and you will see the Database Window. (See Figure 3) The Database window is the holding place for all the objects that you will create Chris Harris Instructional Technology Figure 3 Consultant charris@esc2.net - 1 -

that will make up the Silly Survey database. Database files or applications that you create with MS Access will consist of tables, forms, queries, and reports. (Macros and Modules are beyond the scope of this workshop but they are also elements that can be included in an Access database file or application.) Your file can have multiple tables, queries, forms and reports, but all of them together make up the database file. You will both create and view all of the database objects that you create for you database file from this window. Notice that the window is empty right now. That is because you haven t created anything yet. Creating Access Tables Most often when you are creating a database file, the first thing you will need to do is create a holding place for the data that you want to store in the database. Remember, a database is, first and foremost, a data storage structure. In MS Access data is stored in tables. A table is a collection of data about a specific topic, such as products, supplies, or for our purposes today, personal information. Tables store data items in a row-column format similar to that used by spreadsheet applications. So before we can enter data into a table, we have to create the table. In the Database window click on the Tables tab to give it the focus. Click on the New button to activate the New Table dialogue box. (Figure 4) Figure 4 1. In the New Table dialogue box there are five options for creating a new table. We are going to use the Design View for all of the tables that we create today, but you should experiment with the other options. One of them may be more to your liking. Select Design View in the window and click on the OK button to activate the Table 1 Design View window. (Figure 5) Figure 5 2. You should take note that the database window is still open. It is in the background and does not have the focus right now, but it is still there. Also notice that the Design View window is divided into two parts, the grid at the top and the Field Properties at the bottom. We will be - 2 -

working in both windows. The grid at the top is divided into three columns. Two of them are required the third is optional. As we saw earlier, databases are made up of fields and records. In this window you are going to tell Access what fields you want to include in this database table. Click in the Field Name column and Row 1. Type in the name of the first field (which for our Silly Survey database will be First Name). 3. Tab over to the next column, Data Type. Be sure that it says Text. 4. Tab over to the third column, the Description column. This information is optional, but if you choose to use it, the text that you enter here will be shown in the status bar at the bottom of the table when you click in this field in Datasheet view. Type Enter your first name only. 5. Click in the Field Length box in the Field Properties portion of the New Table window. Change the field length from 50 to 25. (This is a space saving technique that will help keep your databases as small as possible.) We will discuss other properties as the need arises. 6. Click in the top section of the window and add the fields for middle initial (MI) and City. 7. The next field should be named Gender and the data type should be set to Lookup. In the dialogue box, select the second radio button, I will type in the values that I want and click next. In the first cell enter Male. Hit the Tab key and type Female. Click next and finish. 8. Finish the table with the information below. (Note: we will make the Longest Toe, Roll Tongue, Inee/Outee and Bend Finger fields lookup fields using the lookup wizard. The Hair Color field will also be a lookup field, but we will create a new table to relate to that field.) 9. To make the Longest Toe field a lookup field, click in its Data Type cell, click on the drop down arrow, select Lookup, select the I will type in the values that I want radio button, click next, type Toe 1 in the first cell, hit the tab key and type Toe 2. Continue until you have entered through Toe 5. Click Next and Finish. 10. Make the Bend Finger field and the Inee or Outee field lookup fields with the selections being Yes and No. 11. Save and close the table. 12. Create a new table in Design View Figure 6-3 -

13. Add one field to the table Hair Color, and make it a text field. Save the table as Hair Color Table. Close the table. 14. Open the Silly Information Table in design view. Click in the data type column for the Hair Color field. Click on the drop down arrow and select Lookup wizard. 15. Leave the first radio button selected and click next. 16. In this dialogue box you select the table or the query from which you want the values for this field to be selected. In our database there is only one so click next. 17. This dialogue box will list all the fields from the table you selected in Step 16. Again, we only have one so select it and click next two times and then finish. Then click Yes on the save message box. You didn t see any apparent change, but in the field properties, click on the Lookup tab and notice all the information that has been added by the lookup wizard. 18. Close the Silly Survey table and open the Hair Color Table in Datasheet view. Enter the hair colors brunette, brown, red, gray, black, and blonde and close the table. 19. Open the Silly Survey table in Datasheet view. Click in the Hair Color field, click on the drop down arrow and you should see the hair colors that you just entered in the Hair Color table. 20. You have now designed all the tables that you need for this database. Creating Access Forms In Access, tables are the primary storage structure for data. However, in a large database with many fields and many records, working with data in a table (datasheet view) can be hazardous to your data. Access provides another object that is designed for working with your data. In this section of the workshop you will learn how to create a form. 1. Close any tables that are open 2. Click on the Forms tab in the database window. 3. Click on the New button and select Form 4. In the drop down box at the bottom of the dialogue box select the Silly Information table and click on OK. 5. Since this is going to be our data entry form we want all the fields from the table listed on the form. Click on the second button to move all the fields from the left side to the right side of the dialogue box and click on Next. 6. Select the Columnar layout and click Next. 7. Select Stone and click Next. 8. Give your form a name Silly Survey Data Entry Form would be a good name. Click finish. Now you have created a new form, and it looks good and it is functional. But suppose that you wanted it to look differently or to do some different things. Let s take a look at just a few of the ways that Access allows you to edit a form. - 4 -

9. Click the View button to switch from Form View to Design View. Maximize the widow. 10. Explore the three parts of the form, Header, Detail, Footer 11. Move mouse to the right side of the light gray area, the design grid, click and hold the left mouse button, and drag the edge of the window to the right. 12. Make the size of the picture control smaller and move it into the lower right hand corner of the form. 13. Move the Roll Tongue label and list box and the Raise Eyebrow label and list box to the right side of the form under the Inee/Outee label and list box. (To control the distance from the end of the label to check box, use the Left property in the Properties sheet or click on the large handle in the upper left-hand corner of the text box or label and drag it where you want it to be.) 14. Move the Longest Toe and Shoe Size labels and fields to the right side of the form 15. Align the left side of all the labels on the right side of the form, including the picture label and control box. 16. Align the left side of the text boxes (Bend Finger, etc). Be sure that you include the Raise Eyebrow label. 17. Make all the controls on the form bold. (Use the mouse pointer in the left ruler to select all the controls.) 18. Remove the Bold setting from all the labels while leaving the text boxes bold. 19. Make the text in the text boxes blue. Select the text boxes, click on the drop down arrow on the right side of the Font Color button on the Formatting Toolbar. 20. Add a title to the form in the Form Header section. Place mouse pointer on the line between the header and detail bars, click and hold, and drag the detail bar down. 21. On the Toolbox (View-Toolbox) select the Aa button, the label tool. Click and drag in the Form Header section of the form. Make it large enough to contain the words Silly Survey Data Entry Form. When you release the mouse button, the cursor will be ready for you to type the title. 22. Enlarge the font to 18 and make the color blue. You may have to enlarge the label to see all the letters. Center the title in the label. Your form should look somewhat like Figure 7. Figure 7 23. Now we are going to change the tab stop settings for the controls on the right side of the form. Click on the Bend Finger text box, click on the Properties button, select the Other tab, find the Tab Index property and change it to 8. - 5 -

24. With the Properties dialogue box still open, click on the Inee/Outee text box and change its tab stop to 9. Continue down the list until all the tab stops are in order. The picture control should be #13. 25. Switch back to Form View and tab through controls. If you need to make any adjustments to the tab order, go back to Design view and do so now. 26. Change the size of the Gender list box, age text box, hair color list box, eye color text box, bend finger list box, Inee/Outee list box, longest toe list box, and shoe size text box. Also change the alignment of the age text box to left aligned. 27. Delete the label on the picture control. 28. Right click on the picture control and select properties. Click on the All tab and find the Size Mode property. Experiment with this property until you find one that works. 29. Use the handout to enter data into your database using the Silly Survey Data Entry Form. Queries Asking Your Database A Question Having a database is good, but what are you going to do with it once you have all that data stored away in such a nice orderly fashion? You have to be able to extract data from the database if it is going to be useful and so, in this section you will learn how to create and run simple queries. For example, if you wanted to know the first name and middle initial of everyone in the database whose belly button is an inee, a query will allow you to do that. Here is how you create one. 1. In the database window click on the Queries tab and click on the New button. 2. Select Simple Query. In the next dialogue box in the Tables/Queries list box, select Silly Information Table. 3. Since we aren t interested in all the information in all the fields for this query, we are only going to select two fields. Click on Name and click on the top arrow. Now scroll down until you can see the Inee/Outee field and move it over to the Selected Fields box. Now click Next. 4. Give the query a name. Let s name this one Inee Query. Click Finish. You should now see the first name of everyone in your database and the information about their belly buttons. But we wanted to know just the names of the people who have Inees. 5. Click on the View button to move into Design view. The Query Design window is divided into two parts. The top part contains the table that the query is querying. The bottom half, called the query by example grid can be used to visually construct the question (query) that you want to ask the database. 6. In the Inee/Outee column click in the Criteria row. Type Inee (without the quotes). Click on the Run button on the toolbar (the large red exclamation point). Now you should only see the people in the database who have an inee belly button. 7. Save the query. 8. Let s take this one step further. Let s ask the database to show us the gender of everyone who has an inee. 9. In the table in the top half of the window, click and hold on the gender field. Drag it to the third column in the grid and release the mouse. 10. Run the query. You should see the name, belly button information, and gender of every one in the database who has an inee. 11. In the Inee/Outee column remove the check from the Show row check box. Run the query. - 6 -

12. Check the Show box again. Place your mouse just above the Inee/Outee column until it becomes a heavy dark arrow pointing down. Click the mouse to select the entire column. Move the mouse into the bar just above the Inee/Outee field and click and hold the mouse button. 13. Drag the mouse to the right side of the gender column and release the mouse. Run the query. 14. Save and close the Inee Query. 15. Create a form that you can use to view the results of this query. Creating Reports in Access 97 The last step needed to complete the Silly Survey Database application is to create a report. Remember that reports are created for output, usually for printing but also for web and on-screen presentations. Let's create a report that will show us the name, hair color, and eye color of everyone in the database. 1. Click on the Reports tab in the database window, click on the New button, select "Report " and in the list box, select the Silly Information Table. Click OK. 2. Move the name, hair color, and eye color fields from the "Available Fields" box to the "Selected Fields" box and click Next. 3. This page in the wizard gives you the opportunity to add some grouping to your report. If, for example, you tell the wizard that you would like to group by hair color, Access will put all the people with red hair together, all of the blondes together, and so on. For our report we are not going to add any grouping to this report. Click Next. 4. This page allows you to choose a sort order. If you use the list box to select the name field, the report will put all the names in alphabetical order. If the field is number field it will be listed on the report numerically. Click Next. 5. This is the layout page. Select tabular, portrait, and be sure to check the text box at the bottom of the box. Click Next. 6. Choose a style. This will have an effect on the appearance of the report, but only on font, style, color and size. Click Next. 7. Give your table a name that will identify it to you next week and next month. Our report will be called "Name-Hair-Eye Color Report." Click Finish. - 7 -

Field Name Data Type Properties Caption Comments Name MI City Gender Age Hair Color Eye Color Text Text Text Lookup Number Text to begin with, then lookup wizard Lookup Longest Toe Lookup Raise Eyebrow Roll Tongue Yes/No Yes/No or Lookup Bend Finger Lookup Inee/Outee Picture Lookup OLE Required = Yes Enter first only your name Input Mask = "L.", Middle Intial Field Size = 2 Set Default Value Property Smaller Field size=more efficent operation, faster and less memory Type in values and then show properties to demonstrate how easy the wizard is to use. Put mouse in field size Enter your property and press F1 to age or the show help on this property. age that you Choose the one that want us to seems most appropriate.- think you are byte Entering one is optional Entering one is optional Entering one is optional Create as text. Close table and create new table-"hair Color" with one field for for hair color. Come back main table and make this field lookup values from new table. Type in values Type in values, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1 is big toe and 5 is little toe. This may or may not work, depending on the filters that have been installed. - 8 -