Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Office 2003 in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You!
  • Introduction
  • Who Should Read This Book?
  • What This Book Does for You
  • Can This Book Really Teach Office 2003 in 24 Hours?
  • Conventions Used in This Book
  • Part I. Working with Office 2003
  • Hour 1. Getting Acquainted with Office 2003
  • Part II. Processing with Word 2003
  • Hour 2. Welcome to Word 2003
  • Hour 3. Formatting with Word 2003
  • Hour 4. Managing Documents and Customizing Word 2003
  • Hour 5. Advanced Word 2003
  • Part III. Computing with Excel 2003
  • Hour 6. Understanding Excel 2003 Workbooks
  • Hour 7. Restructuring and Editing Excel 2003 Worksheets
  • Hour 8. Using Excel 2003
  • Hour 9. Formatting Worksheets to Look Great
  • Hour 10. Charting with Excel 2003
  • Part IV. Presenting with Flair
  • Hour 11. PowerPoint 2003 Presentations
  • Hour 12. Editing and Arranging Your Presentations
  • Hour 13. PowerPoint 2003 Advanced Features
  • Hour 14. Animating Your Presentations
  • Part V. Organizing with Outlook 2003
  • Hour 15. Communicating with Outlook 2003
  • Hour 16. Planning and Scheduling with Outlook 2003
  • Part VI. Tracking with Access 2003
  • Hour 17. Access 2003 Basics
    • Database Basics
    • Looking at Access
    • Creating a Database
    • Summary
    • Q&A
  • Hour 18. Entering and Displaying Access 2003 Data
  • Hour 19. Retrieving Your Data
  • Hour 20. Reporting with Access 2003
  • Part VII. Combining Office 2003 and the Internet
  • Hour 21. Office 2003 and the Internet
  • Hour 22. Creating Web Content with Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint
  • Part VIII. Publishing Eye-Catching Documents
  • Hour 23. Publishing with Flair Using Publisher 2003
  • Hour 24. Adding Art to Your Publications
  • Part IX. Appendixes
  • Appendix B. Business Contact Manager and Office Extras
  • Part X. Bonus Hours
  • Hour 25. Using FrontPage 2003 for Web Page Design and Creation
  • Hour 26. Managing Your Web with FrontPage

Looking at Access

When you start Access, you'll see a screen that looks similar to Word, as Figure 17.3 shows. The New File task pane provides you with links you can use to create a new database or load an existing database. As with Word and Excel, Access supports the use of template files on which you can base new database files that conform to a predetermined pattern.

Figure 17.3 The Access screen is empty when you launch Access from the Start menu.

Here are the fundamental steps you follow most of the time when you want to work with Access:

1. Open an existing database so that you can modify the database structure or work with the database information. Select a database from the list or click the More option to browse a list of existing database files. The section of the New File task pane where you open an existing database is labeled Open.
2. Create a new database, which requires that you manually set up the entire database structure, including tables, fields, and other pertinent database-structure information. You can also create a more advanced database project, which creates a database system that runs in a networked client/server workspace where the Access database might transfer data to multiple workstations attached to the server. The section of the New File task pane where you create a blank database is labeled New.
3. Create a new database that is a copy of an existing database. The New File task pane contains the section for creating a new database file from an existing one. You can get to this option by selecting More. This New File task pane option in effect makes a copy of an existing database file.
4. Create a database file based on a template. Access provides templates that create sample blank databases that track data such as asset management, expenses, and inventories. Microsoft provides additional templates on the Web as well.

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