Creating a Database

Generally, when you need to create a new database, you'll start Access and select Blank Database from the New File task pane. Enter the name of your database in the File New Database dialog box and click Create to generate the blank database file. Access offers the default database filename db1.mdb, but you should give your database a more meaningful name. For example, if you want to track rental property information, you might name the database Rentals. (Access adds the .mdb extension, so your database will be stored as Rentals.mdb.)

When you enter a name and click the Create button, Access displays the Database window, shown in Figure 17.4. The Database window title bar includes the name of your database (Rentals in Figure 17.4). As you add to your database, the Database window shows the various components of the database, such as tables.

Figure 17.4 The Database window displays a list of your database objects as you create them.

Tables are not the only items that appear in databases. You will generate database reports and other elements, called objects, as you work on your database file. The Database window lists the names of all database objects at the left of the window. In the right side, you will see a list of tasks that Access is ready to perform on whatever object you click.

Note

A database object is a piece of an Access database. A table is an object, for example. A database report that prints database data is an object. Your data values, however, are not objects.

In most cases, when you create a database, the first task you want to perform is to create the database's first table. The first Database window task, Create Table in Design View, will help you create a new table to hold data.

Understanding Database Objects

As you create your database, you add objects to the Database window's seven object categories. Any database can contain many objects from each category. The following are brief descriptions of seven kinds of Access objects:

• Tables— Related data within a database

• Queries— Stored instructions that select data from one or more tables for reporting, analysis, and data-management purposes

• Forms— Onscreen representations of paper forms that you and others use to enter data into tables

• Reports— Printed listings of database data

• Pages (also called Data Access Pages)— Internet-ready data table pages that you can view with Internet Explorer 5 from Web pages

• Macros— Stored task lists for Access commands

• Modules— Programs written in Visual Basic, a powerful (but advanced for nonprogrammers) programming language with which you can automate any database task

As you create your database, you create one or more instances of the database objects. You might create 25 tables and 50 reports, for example. When you want to create, edit, or work with one of the database objects, return to the Database window to do so. The toolbar always contains a Database Window toolbar button that quickly returns you to the Database window. To create a new instance of one of the objects, click on the object and select the appropriate task that works with the object.

Access provides an Outlook-style grouping mechanism at the bottom-left of the Database window. If you find yourself creating many objects within the same database, you might want to group some objects into new groups that you create. To create a new group, right-click a blank area under the Groups label and select New Group, enter a group name, and click OK to add the new group to the existing group list. For simple databases, you'll probably just keep all the objects ungrouped within the Database window.