Chapter 5

Exploring the Microsoft Access User Interface

Summary: The Access user interface is easy to get used to. We’ll cover some of the
basic features here. The user interface in Access 2007, 2010 and 2013 are nearly
identical for core features.

What you will learn:

Getting started

When you first open Access 2016, you will have the option of creating a new
database, or opening an existing database. Normally, you will create a new database
for each new data project.
We will create a blank database.

When Access opens a new database, you will see a new, empty table, ready for you to
add fields and data. We’ll explore table creation and data import in the tutorial

Task 1: Making Tables and Importing Data into Access.

Like other programs in the Microsoft Office suite, Access uses “ribbon” menu system
in which commonly used commands are grouped together on a fat toolbar. You will
likely find yourself using the File, Home, Create and External data ribbons most
frequently.

File isn’t really a ribbon, but instead gives access to all the standard operations for
opening, saving and renaming the database and objects within it, as well as options for
configuring the database. The Save As command allows you to save the database with
a name other than the default name (e.g. Database1), as well to save it in the more
recent .accdb format, used since Access 2007, or the earlier .mdb formats. As a rule,
you should use the newer format unless you absolutely need the database to be
compatible with one of the older versions of Access going back to Access 2000. This
could happen if you have to share the database with someone who owns one of the
older versions.

The same File>Save As routine is used to save individual tables and queries, when
they are open in the user interface.

If you click on Options on the purple panel to the left, the configuration options for
Access will open. We’ll point out a few key ones.

On the General options screen you can change the default folder for saving new
databases, as well as the default database format. Again, we’d recommend sticking
with .accdb unless you expect to have to open the database in an earlier version of
Access.
The General screen also gives you the option of changing the colour scheme and
design of the user interface.

The Current Database screen permits a range of changes to how the database
behaves. These include whether to have open windows arrayed as overlapping
windows, or in tabs, whether to see a list of values in a field when using the filter, and
whether to compact and repair the database every time it closes. Generally speaking,
you can leave the default options as is and you will have a satisfactory user experience.

The Datasheet screen allows changes to how the datasheet appears.

The Object Designers screen contains options for how objects such as queries are
designed. Probably the most important setting is the one labelled, SQL Server
Compatible Syntax (ANSI 92). If checked for the current database, this will change
aspects of the SQL query language used, to make it compatible with Microsoft’s
server database system SQLS Server. This will also set the wildcards used in LIKE
queries to be the same as used by MySQL, as noted in Chapter 7.
You can find a great deal more about the various options available in this Microsoft
help file: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Set-user-options-for-the-current-
database-29b6b7be-4c3b-43a7-b8f0-5e1c68f5adce#__toc309288143

The main user interface

Tables, and queries you have saved appear in the Navigation Pane to the left side of
the screen. Clicking on the small downward-pointing arrow at the top of the
Navigation Pane allows you to configure how various objects (tables, queries, etc.) are
arrayed in the pane. This is mostly personal preference.
The default, object type, groups the objects together by type. The choice labeled
Tables and Related Views groups all queries together with their associated tables.
Tables shows only tables, and Queries only queries. You can also create custom
groups, grouping together tables and queries by themes you choose.

Like other Microsoft Office products, Access uses the “ribbon” interface. Instead of
separate menus and toolbars, the two are combined into a fat bar that appears across
the top of the screen.

There is plenty of flexibility around the look of the ribbon, and even whether it
appears. Right click anywhere on the ribbon to see options to customize the ribbon or
hide it completely (collapse ribbon). You can always right click again to toggle the
ribbon back on. Hiding it can be useful when you have a lot of data you want to view
on your screen.

The Home ribbon contains commonly used commands that you use for
manipulation of both tables and queries.

When a table is selected in the navigation pane, the View button allows you to toggle
between viewing the data in the table (datasheet view) and the design of the table
(design view).
Above is table datasheet view, below, table design view. You’ll find more on table
design in the tutorial Making Tables and Importing Data into Access.

The Clipboard area of the ribbon contains all the standard commands for copying,
pasting and cutting values.

In the Sort and Filter area, the Filter icon—it looks like a funnel--allows you to create
filters, which are simple queries that allow you to narrow down the view of your data.
This book focuses on the more powerful SQL queries, but you can find information
online on how to use the filter functionality, if you like. The ascending and descending
order sort icons allow you to sort columns in a table or query in much the same was
as you would do in Access. Again, however, a query allows you to do the same, more
powerfully.

The Text Formatting area allows you to change how text is formatted in database
tables and queries. You can change the font, font size, font style and fill. Any changes
you make will apply to all of the data in the selected table or query.
The Create ribbon allows you to create new tables and queries. These features are
described in the tutorials Making Tables and Importing Data into Access and
Getting Started Writing Queries in Access.

You will likely find yourself using the External Data ribbon whenever you need to
import data from an external source.

This ribbon contains icons that start up wizards for importing data from Excel
spreadsheets, delimited text files, and other file formats, including other Access
databases. It also has links to wizards that permit the reverse, the export of data from
Access tables and queries to Excel, delimited text, and other formats. You can even
email a table or the output of a query, using Microsoft’s cloud services.

Generally speaking, the user interface for Access is quite similar to that for Excel, its
companion in the Office Professional suite. This makes it easier for users to make the
transition from one to the other.

Please see the tutorial Getting Started Writing Queries in Access for a detailed
discussion of the interface for writing SQL queries in Access.