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About this lesson
Understand the Access Interface including the different workspace elements, the ribbons, and the backstage area.
Exercise files
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2.03 the-access-workspace-and-backstage-area - Exercise.docx53.2 KB 2.03 the-access-workspace-and-backstage-area - Exercise solution.docx
164.5 KB Contacts01.accdb
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Quick reference
The Access Interface, Views, and Backstage
In this lesson, we are going to familiarize ourselves with the Access Interface and Backstage area and learn how to switch between different database views.
When to use
Understanding the Access interface, where to go to access commands and other functionality is an essential skill that we will use every time we create an Access database.
Instructions
The Access Interface
- In the top left-hand corner of the title bar, we can see the Quick Access Toolbar or QAT. This toolbar provides a quick way of accessing commands we use frequently.
- Underneath the QAT, we have tabs that contain ribbons. Ribbons organize commands logically into groups making them easier to find.
- The Main window displays the database we have loaded. We can edit records and design our database from here.
- On the left-hand side is the Navigation pane. This contains the different elements contained within the database. Database elements are grouped by type in collapsible and expandable menus. Double-click on any element to display in the main window. We can use the search bar at the top to search for specific elements.
- The Status bar shows useful information. We can customize what information we see in the status bar by right-clicking and toggling off or on different options.
Views
Tables can be viewed in different ways in Access. Which view we choose depends on what we want to do with the table. For example, if we want to view the data and make changes, we would switch to Datasheet view. If we want to make changes to the design, we would switch to Design view. If we want to view a form as it looks to the user, we would switch to Form view.
To switch between views:
- From the Home tab, click View.
- Select a view.
- OR, use the view icons on the right-hand side of the status bar.
The Backstage Area
The Backstage area is the administration area in Access. It's where we go to create new databases, open databases, close and save databases as well as print and access our options and other file information.
- Click the File tab.
Hints & tips
- To navigate the ribbons using the keyboard instead of the mouse, press the ALT key to show all ribbon keyboard shortcuts.
- It's important to have a look through Access Options. This is where we go to customize our copy of Access and control its behavior.
- 00:00 In this lesson, we're going to take a quick whiz around the access interface so
- 00:07 that you're familiar with what all parts of the screen do.
- 00:13 Now, we currently still have the tech sales ticketing database open.
- 00:16 So I'm just simply going to close this down, and what we're going to
- 00:21 do is reopen from our recent list the contacts database template.
- 00:27 Let's click on Enable Content and take a walk through the interface.
- 00:30 Now, the first thing you have at the top of the screen are all of these
- 00:34 different tabs.
- 00:35 And each tab is basically what we refer to as a ribbon.
- 00:40 And ribbons contain commands organized into different groups which will
- 00:45 help you execute different commands in your database.
- 00:49 And all of the commands are categorized onto ribbons in a logical fashion.
- 00:53 On the Home tab, in general, we have the most popular tools,
- 00:56 things that you're going to use all the time.
- 00:59 If we want to create something, whether it's a table or a query or a form or
- 01:04 a report, we would use the Create tab for that.
- 01:07 If we want to import data maybe from an external
- 01:10 file we would go to the External Data tab.
- 01:12 And we're going to find all of our database tools,
- 01:15 such as creating relationships between tables, on the database tools tab.
- 01:20 And then finally we have a Help tab which gives us easy access to training and
- 01:25 help files.
- 01:26 What you'll also notice is that for some of these groups, for
- 01:30 example, the text formatting group on the end here,
- 01:33 some of these groups have a little diagonal arrow in the bottom corner.
- 01:37 And if you click that it's going to open up a dialog box which is going to give you
- 01:42 access to some additional options related to that group of commands.
- 01:46 So don't forget about those little hidden menus.
- 01:49 Next to our tabs we have the Tell me what you want to do box.
- 01:53 And we're going to cover this more in the help section of the course, but
- 01:57 this is where you can go if you want to quickly access help or
- 02:00 find out where a command is on any of the ribbons.
- 02:03 In the top right-hand corner we have everything you would expect from
- 02:06 a Microsoft application.
- 02:07 We have access to our account details.
- 02:10 We can minimize, maximize, and close down access from here as well.
- 02:16 Now, underneath the ribbons you can see currently I have a whole host of
- 02:20 different icons.
- 02:21 And, again, we have an entire separate lesson on this little toolbar just here.
- 02:26 And the name of this toolbar is the Quick Access Toolbar or QAT for short.
- 02:31 And we can customize this Quick Access Toolbar to include commands that we need
- 02:35 to access frequently.
- 02:37 It's really just a quick way of clicking on buttons that you use all the time
- 02:41 without having to hunt through all of the ribbons above.
- 02:44 In the main window this is where whatever you're clicked on is going to show.
- 02:49 And as I said, everything that you open appears in its own separate little tab.
- 02:54 So at the moment I only have the contact list open, but
- 02:58 if we take a look on the left-hand side notice the navigation pane.
- 03:03 This template contains lots of different elements.
- 03:06 We have Tables, Queries, Forms, Reports, Macros, and Modules.
- 03:12 If you're creating a database from scratch when you first open it you're not going to
- 03:17 see any of these things in here.
- 03:19 You're going to need to build them.
- 03:20 But because this is a template all of these items are already included in
- 03:24 that template.
- 03:25 So if I was to click on something else, so let's go to Tables and
- 03:29 double-click on Contacts, it's now opening in a separate tab and
- 03:33 I can simply toggle between my two open tabs.
- 03:37 If you want to close down a tab just click the cross in the corner of the tab to get
- 03:41 rid of it.
- 03:42 So this navigation pane on the left-hand side basically categorizes the different
- 03:46 elements, the different things that you create in your database.
- 03:50 These are collapsible so if you want to collapse them up you can and
- 03:54 just focus in on maybe reports or forms, that's fine.
- 03:57 And you can also use the search bar just above to search for
- 04:01 different items because this navigation pane is going to get longer and
- 04:05 longer the more complex your database is.
- 04:08 So if I was just looking for settings I could type that into there and
- 04:11 it's going to jump me straight to it.
- 04:14 Click on clear search string to bring everything back.
- 04:18 So that is your navigation pane and the main window.
- 04:21 One thing to know as well is that from time to time you're going to get a pane
- 04:25 open up on the right-hand side, and that pane is very
- 04:28 much contextual to whatever it is that you're doing at the time.
- 04:31 And you're going to see examples of that throughout this course.
- 04:34 And then finally at the bottom of the screen we have the status bar.
- 04:38 Now at the moment the status bar is pretty much empty.
- 04:42 It says form view over on the left-hand side because that is the view that we're
- 04:46 currently in.
- 04:46 Now views is a really important topic, again,
- 04:49 something we're going to be using throughout this course.
- 04:52 But just so you know, on the Home tab you have a view drop down and it allows you
- 04:56 to toggle between different views for whatever it is that you have open.
- 05:01 So currently I'm viewing this in Form view but
- 05:03 I could go to Design view if I wanted to make changes to the layout of this form.
- 05:08 Now, again, we're not going to go too far off on a tangent but
- 05:11 just be aware of this process of switching between different views.
- 05:15 On the same note, in the status bar on the right-hand side we also have another way
- 05:20 of switching between our views.
- 05:22 So you can see here I'm in Form view.
- 05:24 I can quickly switch to Layout view or
- 05:26 switch to Design view from down here as well.
- 05:30 This status bar can also be customized.
- 05:32 If you right-click on it you're going to get a pop-up menu, and
- 05:35 you can choose what information you want to display in the status bar.
- 05:39 For example, you can see that I have Caps Lock selected.
- 05:42 So if I was to press Caps Lock I can see in the status bar on the right-hand side
- 05:47 that I currently have Caps Lock on.
- 05:49 So the status bar is an information area that you can
- 05:53 customize to show information that might be of interest to you.
- 05:57 And then the only other thing we really need to speak about is the File tab,
- 06:00 because, as we've seen, this works slightly different.
- 06:04 It's not a ribbon that contains commands.
- 06:06 It allows us to jump into what we refer to as the backstage area.
- 06:11 This is where all of your administration stuff takes place.
- 06:15 It's where we come to create new documents, to open existing databases.
- 06:21 We can see some info about our account in here.
- 06:24 We can save, we can print from here as well.
- 06:26 And we can also do things like access our account settings and
- 06:31 customize our copy of access using options.
- 06:35 So now is the time to have a look through all of the ribbons, familiarize yourself,
- 06:40 and get comfortable with navigating around the access interface.
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