- Understanding Access's Approach to Application Design
- Creating an Access Application from a Template File
- Touring the Contact Management Application
- Using the Switchboard Manager
- Exploring Form Design View and VBA Class Modules
- Downloading Templates from the Microsoft Office Update Site
- Saving a Form As a Data Access Page
- In the Real World--Putting What You've Learned in Perspective
In the Real World--Putting What You've Learned in Perspective
If you're new to Access, many terms used in this chapter might sound like ancient Aramaic. The objective was to give you an overview of some of the most important objects that make up an Access application, the relationships between these objects, and how you assemble the objects you create into self-contained, easily navigable applications. Using the Database Wizard helps you quickly understand the components and comprehend the behavior of a completed Access application. If you're interested in designing an Access inventory management application, for example, use the Inventory Control template to create an elementary sample application. You're likely to find that one of the Database Wizard or downloaded templates bears some resemblance to your intended application. Most of the Access templates offered on the Office Templates site have sample data, which makes it easier to determine whether you can use the design as a starting point for the application you intend to create.
If you didn't perform the step-by-step tutorial to create the sample application and Web page of this chapter, not to worry. There's a copy of the Contacts.mdb database and Contacts2.htm in the \Seua10\Chaptr03 folder of the accompanying CD-ROM. Sample databases for most of the chapters are included in corresponding \Seua10\Chaptr## folders.
The remainder of this book covers each category of Access objects in detail, beginning with Table and Query objects and then progressing to Form and Report objects. By the time you get about halfway through this book, you gain the experience necessary to design your own versions of these objects. The last half of this book deals with advanced topics, such as exporting Access forms and reports to XML-based Web pages, creating Data Access Pages with spreadsheet, PivotTable, and PivotChart controls, and writing professional-quality VBA code.