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About this lesson
How to adjust Print Properties and Print database objects.
Exercise files
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14.04 printing-and-print-properties - Exercise.docx43 KB 14.04 printing-and-print-properties - Exercise solution.docx
73.8 KB TechGurusTicketing36.accdb
1.1 MB TechGurusTicketing36 - Complete.accdb
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Quick reference
Printing and Database Documenter
Document design changes and send them to the printer.
When to use
We access printing properties whenever we want to print a file to ensure we have the correct paper, page size, orientation and margins set.
Instructions
Database Documenter
The Database Documenter documents all design details of the table, form or report.
- From the Database Tools tab, in the Analyze group, select Database Documenter.
- From the Tables tab, select ‘tblTicket’.
- Click OK.
Printing and Printer Properties
- From the Print Preview tab, in the Page Size group, click Margins.
- Select Narrow.
- From the Print Preview tab, in the Page Layout group, click Portrait.
- From the Print Preview tab, in the Print group, click Print.
- Select Microsoft Print to PDF from the Name drop-down list.
- Click OK.
Hints & tips
- To send a print to the defalt printer with all default settings, go to File > Print > Quick Print.
- 00:04 In this final lesson of the course, we're going to run through printing and
- 00:08 printer properties.
- 00:10 Now before we get going on printing,
- 00:12 there is one other thing I'd like to point out to you.
- 00:16 And that is something that can be really useful.
- 00:20 If we jump up to the database tools tab in the analyze group,
- 00:24 we have a database documenter.
- 00:28 So if we click this,
- 00:29 what this will allow us to do is basically document the design of our database.
- 00:35 So it's going to produce a, I guess you could call it a report that shows me all
- 00:39 the design features of my database.
- 00:42 It doesn't show me the data in any of the tables or anything like that, but I get to
- 00:46 see all of the properties of the design, and this can sometimes be really useful.
- 00:52 Now notice here in this document window, we have numerous different tabs.
- 00:56 So if I click on the tables one,
- 00:58 I'm seeing all of the tables that I have in my database.
- 01:02 I can see my queries in here, the forms I have in here, the reports, so
- 01:07 on and so forth.
- 01:08 So for example, if I click on the tables tab, and let's choose table ticket,
- 01:14 If I click on OK I basically get a report which documents all of table ticket so
- 01:20 I can see exactly where that database is stored.
- 01:24 I can see all of the properties for this table.
- 01:28 If I scroll down even further, I can see the columns that I have in this table.
- 01:32 So ID, ticket number, I can see the data type in use as well.
- 01:38 And if I want to see more of this report, I can put it on to two pages or
- 01:42 I can spread it across eight pages, for example, and
- 01:45 then zoom into whichever one I want to see.
- 01:48 So don't forget about the database document tab because it's going to list
- 01:53 out in a report style all of the design properties for your table, your form, or
- 01:58 whatever it is that you've selected, so super useful.
- 02:01 Let's click Close Print Preview.
- 02:04 So now that we've got that under our belt, let's move on to talking about printing.
- 02:08 And I will say that if you've printed documents in any other Microsoft
- 02:12 application, everything is pretty much the same in access.
- 02:15 So let's start by opening up something else.
- 02:19 Let's open up our ticket detail report.
- 02:22 Now it might be that I want to print out this report.
- 02:26 So all I need to do is jump up to file and go down to print.
- 02:30 Now notice here that we have a quick print option.
- 02:33 And what this will do is that it will send whatever table or
- 02:37 report that you have currently open straight to your default printer.
- 02:42 And if you're not sure if you've set up a default printer,
- 02:46 if you go into the print option you can see here what your default printer is.
- 02:50 And I've got mine set to print a PDF because I print a PDF a lot more than
- 02:55 I physically print to a printer.
- 02:57 Now, if the printer you want to use as your default isn't listed in here by
- 03:02 default, you'll need to open up your printers on Windows 10 or Windows 11,
- 03:06 whatever you're using, and make it your default printer.
- 03:10 Now if we just jump back into print, so that is what quick print will do.
- 03:14 It's a one click way of sending whatever you've got open directly to your default
- 03:19 printer.
- 03:21 If you need to modify things that is when you would come into print, so
- 03:24 you can change the printer that you'll sending to.
- 03:27 You can modify the properties of that printer.
- 03:31 Now, notice that because I have print PDF selected I don't get many options,
- 03:35 I can only choose landscape or portrait.
- 03:39 If you have an actual physical printer selected here you'll find that
- 03:42 you have more settings that you can change.
- 03:45 I can choose my print range, so if I want to print all pages or
- 03:49 specific pages of this report.
- 03:52 And I can also choose the number of copies that I want to print.
- 03:55 Now, let's jump back into print.
- 03:58 The final option we have here is print preview.
- 04:01 And that's basically going to open up your report or
- 04:03 whatever you have selected in print preview mode.
- 04:06 So this is what it's going to look like when you print it out.
- 04:09 And it's when we're in this mode that we get that print preview ribbon where we can
- 04:14 then make adjustments to the margins,
- 04:16 the size of the paper that we're using, the orientation if we're using columns,
- 04:21 and we can zoom in and zoom out of our report.
- 04:23 And of course if you want a quick way to print you can always use the keyboard
- 04:27 shortcut Ctrl P, that's going to pull that print window straight up,
- 04:31 you can select your printer and click on OK.
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