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
  • Hour 18. Entering and Displaying Access 2003 Data
  • Hour 19. Retrieving Your Data
    • Using Data Filters
    • Using Queries
    • Summary
    • Q&A
  • 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

Q&A

1. Should I use a filter or a query?

   When you quickly want to see a subset of a table, use a filter. You sometimes use the subset in another way (as input to a report, for example), so creating a query that you can name and execute makes more sense.

2. If I save a filter as a named query, what does the query's Query Design view look like?

   Filters are less powerful than queries, but they are easier to designate. As you create more queries and get used to your data needs, you will find that many of your queries are little more than filters. Instead of messing with the Query Design view to design the query, generate a simpler Filter by Form filter and save it as a query. If you then want to modify the filter-based query or add more complex criteria, open the query's Query Design view and you can see that Access selected the proper source table and field names for you. You can then add to the criteria lines and request additional fields if you want.

3. Does the row on which I place criteria make a difference?

   Yes, although you are getting into some confusing logic. The way you specify criteria between two fields often indicates how you want the combined criteria to work. If you place one field's criterion on the same row as another field's, an implied and relation takes place, and Access extracts only those records that contain a match for both criteria values. If you place one field's criterion on a different row from another field's, an implied or relation takes place between them.

4. How can I see my data in two ways, say, with the field names arranged alphabetically and with the fields arranged in the order of my table's design?

   Create a query that extracts all the fields from your table. The query's output, or data subset, will contain all data that the original table contains. (The subset will be the same size as the table.) Set up the query's output for ordering the fields alphabetically. Queries aren't just for creating smaller subsets of tables; you can create a query to report table data in an order that differs from a table's original design order.

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