Microsoft Access 2010
Quick Reference
Navigating Access
File Tab
In 2010, the office button has been re-
placed by the File tab. In this tab you will
find options for saving files, opening and
closing files, creating new files from tem-
plates, printing, and saving and publishing
your database.
Database, New/Template
1. From the File tab click New.
2. In the pop up window select the desired
type of database.
3. Name the database. (Note: Do not add
spaces to database names.)
4. Click Create.
5. All new databases begin with one clean
table.
Open a Saved Database
1. From an already opened database, click
the File tab, and run cursor over the
Open buton.
2. Click from recently opened items or
click the Open tab.
3. From the pop up window select the
saved filed. Highlight it. Click Open.
Important: When working with pre-saved
databases, a Security Warning bar will
appear below the Ribbon. Because Access
runs primarily on Macros (the same pro-
grams as viruses) your computer disables
these to try and protect itself. In order for
your database to run properly:
1. Click the Options button in the Secur-
ing Warning bar.
2. In the Microsoft Office Security Op-
tions dialogue box select the option
“Enable this content” and click OK.
Save
To save a database that has not previously
been saved:
1. Under the File tab, click Save As. (The
default save under the File tab saves
only the objects open in the database,
not the whole database.)
2. In the pop up window title the database
and open the field where you’d like to
save.
3. To re-save a database click Save in the
Quick Access Toolbar.
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Contextual Tabs
Quick Access Toolbar
Function Tabs
Groups
{
Object Tabs
Object
List Viewing Screen
Print
The Print button under the File tab allows
you to:
1. Print: a window will open with printing
options.
2. Quick Print: prints document with
default settings and default printer.
3. Print Preview: shows how your docu-
ment will look before you print.
Close
Exit in the File tab closes Access. You can
also click the X in the top right of the
screen.
Object Tabs
The Function tabs contain different
displays of the Ribbon where you will find
the functions of Access:
1. Home: contains basic functions.
2. Create: insert new functions such as
tables, forms, reports, and queries.
3. External Data: controls imported and
exported files, data, and lists.
4. Database Tools: contains functions for
controlling databases.
5. Contextual Tabs: according to what ob-
ject (table, query, form) is open external
tabs provide more functions specific to
those objects.
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Help Button
Ribbon
Page Navigation Pane
View Navigation Pane
Tables
Tables are the meat of a database. They
contain all the data that is used to make
every other object in a database. The
columns of a table, which make up the
headings, are called fields and the rows of a
table are called records.
Create new Table
1. Click Table in the Create tab of the
Ribbon.
2. To add a new heading type in the cell
under Add New Field. A new heading
field will appear as you press enter or
tab on the previous heading. (Note:
these titles should have no spaces.)
3. To save, right-click the Object tab and
click save in the drop menu. Name the
table and click OK.
Create Table in Design View
Design view, another way to create a table,
is simpler and often preferred. Design
View shows only fields of a table, not all
records or data of a table. Each field is dis-
played as a row. Characteristics of that field
are edited in the Field Properties screen
at the bottom of the Viewing Screen.
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 Design View 5. Follow the Import Spreadsheet Wizard
window to format your data. Be sure to
leave out spaces when titling field head-
ings and choose a unique field of the
table for the primary key.

Field options include:
1. Text: normal format
that allows for 255
characters of type.
2. Memo: normal typing
format that allows for
over 60,000 characters
of text for long notes.
3. Number: only accepts numbers; re-
quired to make calculations.
4. Date/Time: formats raw numbers of the
data into dates and recognizes the dates
for queries.
5. Currency: formats raw numbers into
monetary value.
6. Auto Number: creates a unique identi-
fier that is used for primary keys.
7. Yes/No: displays a check
box in datasheet view
when the data can only
be one of two options.
8. OLE Object: allows you
to insert a picture as
part of the record data. (Note: when (Or other types of document.)
loading files, pictures must be bitmap 2. In the “Get External Data”
files.)
9. Hyperlink: takes any text and turns it
into a hyperlink.
10. Attachment: links the text to a outer
data or document source.
11. Calculated: creates an expression using
the expression builder.
12. Lookup Wizard...: turns the field into
a Combo or drop down List Box so
data is limited to preselected entries.
Design View can be accessed by clicking
View in the Home tab of the Ribbon or
right-clicking on the table tab in the Ob-
ject Tabs bar of the table you want to see in fields and records.)
Design View.
Single Table Query
After entering the Field Headings and data
type in Design View, you will need to re-
turn to Datasheet view to enter the records
and detailed data of the table.
Import External Data
You may often need to import into your
Access database data from other docu-
ments. The most common document to
import is an Excel file. This allows you to
enter data in all at once instead of going
through and entering each piece of data
one at a time.
1. In the External Data tab of the Ribbon
click the import Excel button . of the fields. Or, click the field criteria
dialogue box, click the Browse button contextual tab to see the criteria options
to search for the Excel file to import.
3. After locating the file, click Open.
4. Choose whether the data is to be ap-
plied to a new table, an already existing
table, or as a linked data. (Linked data
differs from imported data in that Excel
remains the main source of data where
it will continue to be manipulated
instead of directly in Access.) Click OK.
Queries
Queries are questions asked to retrieve, or-
ganize, or manipulate data from the tables.
(Query Design opens a new query
in Design view and allows you to
manipulate and change your query
the way you want. Query Wizard
is less intuitive but adds preset
1. In the Create tab of the Ribbon, click
Query Design.
2. In the Show Table dialogue Box, click
the table to be included in the new
query. Click Add then Close.
3. Double-click the fields in the table box-
es to show in the query (the order they
appear in the field properties box is the
order they’ll appear in the query table).
They will appear in the field properties
pane at the bottom of the screen.
4. In the field properties pane, edit the
criteria (operators) manually for each
to change in the field properties pane
and click in the Design
available. (When entering in criteria
don’t use commas or dollar signs. )
5. In the Design contextual tab
click the large red exclamation
point to process the query.

Query Operators
Operators manipulate the results of a query to fit produce more precise answers.
Whenever using filed names in a query operator they must be surrounded by brackets [ ].
Logical Arithemetic
Datasheet view Sign Definition Example Sign Definition Example
And Pull both results Expr1 And Expr2 + Sum two numbers [total]+[tax]
Or Pull both or either Expr1 Or Expr2 - Difference [price]-[coupon]
Not Do not pull result Not Expr * Multiply two numbers [number]*[price]
Xor Pull either, not both Expr1 Xor Expr2 / Divide two numbers [total]/[number]
Between Within a range Between 1 And 10 ^ Raise to an exponent number^power
Like Match sting values w/ Like “instruct*”
wild card operators Comparison
Sign Definition Example
Wildcards - not functional with “between”...”and”
= Equal to [salary]=40000
Sign Definition Example > Greater than [salary]>20000
* Any # of characters “L*” (Liz, Lynne) < Less than [salary]<60000
? One character “H?” (He, Ha, etc.) >= Greater or equal to [salary]>=20000
# Any single digit “1#” (14, 12, etc.) <= Less or equal [salary]<=60000

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Many Table Query
For you to be able to make a query that
includes many tables, those tables must be
connected together with relationships. (See
Relationships section.)
1. In a new query add more than one table
from the Show Table dialogue Box. (To
add another table to an already existing
query click Show Table in the Design
contextual tab of the Ribbon.)
2. Follow steps 3-5 from the Single Table
Query instructions.
Creating Custom Field
You can create a field that is not found
in the original source table. For example,
wanting to find what the salary of em-
ployees would be with a 5% raise you
would enter “Raises: [salary]+.05*[salary]”
in the Field row of the field proper-
ties table. (Everything before the colon
is the title, everything after is the in-
formation for the field in the query.)
Common Properties
• Check or uncheck the box in the field
properties to hide or show the field in
the query table
• The order of alphabetical or numerical
data can be arranged
in ascending or
descending order.
• If there are several fields that you want
to order ascending or descending, Ac-
cess with take the first field to the left
and order the records according to that
criteria first and then use the other sort-
ers to sort within the first criteria.
• A little trickier is ordering the records in
a query according to a field, but want-
ing that field to appear after a different
field that also has an ordering property.
In this case, make two columns of the
same field and make one invisible by
unchecking the box in the field proper-
ties. Set this one to the very left of the
field properties table and place the
other where you want it to appear in
the query table.
Data
1. Update: if new information has been
added to a table you go enter your
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query and without creating a new query
can automatically update the query in-
formation to reflect the new table data.
2. Insert/Delete: add new fields of infor-
mation to your existing query.
SQL View
SQL (Structured Query Language) is writ-
ten in standard query language and used
to modify a query. In an open query, click
View and SQL in the Home tab of the
Ribbon.
Forms
Forms are used to easily enter data into
view that is easy to manipulate. There are
three different views for editing a form:
Form View, Layout View, and Design
View. Design View is the most common
view and allows you to edit any part of the
form: layout, text, heading, or boxes.
Create new Form
1. Close all tables from Viewing Screen.
2. In the Object List, highlight the table
you’d like to edit with a form.
3. In the Create tab click . 1. Highlight the table in the Objects List
Autoform
Autoform inserts the table’s informa 2. In the Create tab in the Ribbon click
-tion into a simple and generic format
for you to begin editing.
Often, data will be displayed one record
at a time. To navigate between records, or
even create a new record, use the arrow
keys in the Page Navigation Pane
Stacked Format
In the Design view, when manipulating
the layout, the record boxes are stacked
together so whatever changes you apply to
one box applies to all. To remove the stack-
ing feature:
1. Highlight all the boxes that are stacked
together.
2. Right click and in the drop down menu
click Layout.
3. In the second drop down menu, click
Remove.
Buttons
A commonly used feature is the button.
This feature creates a any type of just as it looks in a table. There are group-
button you’d like to use when fill- ing and sorting methods that organize the
ing out forms.
1. Click this button in the Design contex-
tual tab.
2. Click and drag on the screen to form
the button.
3. In the Command Button Wiz-
ard dialogue box, select the type
of function the button will pre-
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form and what it will look like.
Features
• Other controls such as Combo Boxes,
Option buttons, and check mark boxes
are found in the Design contextual tab.
• To edit background color, font, text
color, or other features of the form click
or highlight the area to change and
you’ll find the correlating field in the in
the Field Task Pane
REPORTS
Used to display and print data in an easy-
to-read format. You can also sort or group
the data by specific fields.
Create Report
that you’d like to make a report.
. Access will automatically insert
data from the selected source.
3. The first view Access brings you to
is the layout view. (When opening a
saved report, Access opens it in print
preview. Right click on the report in the
objects tab and select a different view
to edit the report.) This view is ideal for
quickly deleting unwanted columns and
changing column width.
4. To create a report from the Report
Wizard, click in the
Create tab of the Ribbon, and fol-
low the Report Wizard dialogue box
instructions.
5. Click in the Create tab of the
Ribbon to begin a report
from scratch
Grouping & Sorting
Access’s AutoReport puts data into a report
data. For example, you can order birthdays
in a list by month:
1. Click “Add a group” in the Group,
Sort, and Total pane at the bottom of
the Design View screen.
2. Select the field to group the data by; in
this case it is Birthday month. (To be
able to group by birthday month there
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 must be a field in the original source of
the report.)
3. Choose from the grouping options to
group smallest to largest or largest to
smallest, add a header or footer to the
grouping, or other organization tools.
Sorting orders the data from within groups
to be more organized. For example, within
the birthday month grouping you may
want to sort by last name.
1. Click “Add a sort” in the Group, Sort,
and Total pane at the bottom of the
Design View screen.
2. Choose the field to sort the data by; in
this case it is Last Name. (Again, Last
Name has to be a field in the original
report source to be able to use it as a
sort method.)
3. Choosing the sorting options such as al-
phabetical ordering, header, footer, etc.
Relationships
Relationships show how different tables
correlate. Access has three different types
of relationships: one-to-one, one-to-many,
and many-to-many. In order to create Re-
lationships each table involved must have a
Primary Key.
Primary Keys
A Primary Key is an identifier that estab-
lishes the originality of a table and is neces-
sary to creating Relationships.
1. Open the Design View of a table.
2. Choose a field unique in the table and
highlight it.
3. Click the Primary Key button in the
Ribbon.
4. A small gold key will appear to the
left of the field you’ve selected as your
primary key . of the mouse on the same criteria in
One-to-one Relationships
One-to-one relationships exist when one
record in the primary table is related to
just one record in the related table. (Ex. A
person has one SSN; a SSN belongs to one
person.)
One-to-many Relationships
One-to-many and many-to-one relation-
ships exist when one record in the primary
table is related to several records in the
related table and a record in the related
table has one related record to the primary
table. (Ex. One person owns many differ-
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ent colored objects but each color relates to
only one person.)
Many-to-many Relationships
Many-to-many relationships exist when
several records in one table are related to
several records in another table. These
relationships are simplified by making two
or more one-to-many relationships. (Ex. A
student may have many classes and a class
may have many students.)
Create Relationship
1. In the Database Tools tab click Rela-
tionships.
2. If there are not tables opened to create a
relationship, a Show Table window will
appear. Add tables to the Relationship
Viewing Screen by highlighting tables
and clicking Add.
3. When you are finished adding tables
click Close.
4. To form a relationship between any two
tables there must be the same field in
both tables (Ex. course_id in courses
and course_id in schedule).
5. You will normally create a relation-
ship using primary keys because they
are unique and identify with a specific
table. Click and hold a primary key and
drag it to another table box and let go
that table.
6. In the Edit Relationships dialogue box,
make any desired edits and click Create.
A line will connect to two boxes to
show a relationship was made.
7. To save established relationships click
Close in the Ribbon and Yes in the pop
up box. Or right-click the relationship
tab in the Object Tabs bar and select
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save from the drop menu.
Help
For questions, click the help button
at the top right of the Access window.
Also, for an example of how an intricate
Access database and all the objects work
together, see Access’s sample company
database, Northwind. In the New or Open
window click Sample in the navigation
pane. Click Northwind 2007 from the
main view and click Download.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Press Alt to see the shortcut paths on the
Ribbon.
General
New Ctrl + N
Open Ctrl + O
Exit Alt + F4
Print selected object Ctrl + P
Save Ctrl + S
Save As F12
Copy Ctrl + C
Cut Ctrl + X
Paste Ctrl + V
Spell Check F7
Find/Replace Dialogue Box Ctrl + F
Nxt Occurrence in Find/Rpl Shift+F4
Close Active Window Ctrl + W
Switch Views (Forward) Ctrl + comma
Switch Views (Back) Ctrl + period
Undo Ctrl + Z
Select all Ctrl + A
Objects List
Rename Selected Object F2
Navigate Up, Down Arrows
Move to last Object End
Move to first Object Home
Open Selected Object Enter
Open Object (Design View) Ctrl + Enter
Table
Move Between Cells Tab, Arrow Keys
Go to First Field of Record Home
Go to Last Field of Record End
Open a Combo box F4
Move Down in Combo Box Down Arrow
Exit Combo Box Tab
Select, Deselect Yes/No Box Spacebar
Highlight Text Shift + Arrow kys
Copy Selection to Prvs Rcrd Shift + Up Arrow
Copy Selection to Nxt Rcrd Shift + Dwn Arrw
Select all Records Ctrl + A
Insert Current Date Ctrl + Semicolon
Move up one Page Page Up
Move down one Page Page Down
Questions?
Go to http://train.byu.edu/access to find
more resources for Microsoft Access. Schedule
your next Access class at http://it.byu.edu/
training.
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