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At this point you will still be in the design
window. You have two choices. If you look at the Button Bar
just below the Menu Bar Area (File, Edit, View, etc.) you
will see that the first button on the left that has a small
sheet of paper with some data on it (see arrow on the
right). Point to this button with the mouse and pause,
you will see a "Tool Tip" that indicates that this button is the
View Button. This is logical because you have been
designing your table and now want to view the data that you have
placed in the database (table). If you are familiar with
spreadsheets it looks like a tiny version of one. You can
click-on the View Button and go right into entering data in your
table. However, it might be good to see how to enter data when
we first open Access.
So, point and click-on File in the Menu
Bar, then click-on Close. You will return to the main
database window where we started (PERSON: Database).
You should see the Tables Tab with the
Personnel Table highlighted. Notice that there are three
Buttons at the top portion of the window which
indicate: Open, Design, New. If you click-on New you can
add another table to the Person database. If you click-on the
Personnel Table (make sure that it is “blue”) and then
Open you will open the table you created and can enter
data. If you click-on Design, you will be back in the
design window and can alter your design. Note: if you find, as
your are entering data, that you made a field too small, you can
go to Design View and make the field a larger width at any time
you desire.
So let's click-on Open. The
Personnel Table will appear on the screen. If the window does
not fill the screen, point to the Expansion “square” in
the upper-right corner directly to the right of Personnel:
Table in the blue bar. This will expand your Table to fill
the desktop.
Move the cursor arrow over buttons below menu
bar. As you do, notice that the "Tool
Tips" will tell you what each button does.
Now notice, below the Button Bar,
that the fields you created in your Personnel
Table are displayed in what is called Datasheet View
(see the bottom of the last page). Notice
the small “button” under File in the menu bar.
It shows a small blue triangle, pencil, and a ruler
(like the one on the right). This is a “toggle”
which will take you back to Design View if you need to
make design changes while you are in Datasheet view. If you
go back to Design View, you can then “toggle” back to Datasheet
view when you have made your corrections. Under Last Name
you will see the cursor flashing, this means that you are ready
to begin entering data. You may type the data and tap
Enter, or click with the mouse in each field. If you
make a mistake you may retype the data. If you see a
mistake later you can come back at any time and correct it.
Under each field, type the following in the
area below the Field Name:
Field Name
To be typed
1. Last Name
Smith
2. First Name
Chris
3. Social Security #
123-45-6789
4. Street address
100 Main Street
5. City
Lynchburg
6. State
va
7. Zip
24501
8. Gender m
or f (your choice)
9. Favorite Number
2001
10. Date Hired
7/01/1993
11. Salary
40000
12. Application Received Point
the mouse to the little square and click the
left mouse button. You will see a check mark
appear in the square. A click in the square indicates that the
application has been received. If you do not click, then that
will mean the application has not been received.
As you are entering this data you will notice
several things.
Social Security Number
and Date Hired – You’ll “see”
your Input Mask work.
State and Gender
– you typed in small letters – notice how the
Format ( >
) forced the letter(s) to be capitals.
Favorite Number –
since the Favorite Number is “too big” you
will see your error message appear. Click-on
OK in the message screen and then create a
Favorite number that will work.
Salary -
notice how your Currency formatting created
$, commas and
periods.
When you have
completed typing the information, tap Enter so the
cursor will move down to the next record. You are now ready to
insert your second entry.
Note: When you
tapped Enter, Access automatically saved your first
record. This can be reassured by the display of the hourglass.
Also note: As you
began typing your first record a small pencil appeared in the
left margin. This indicates that you are "writing to" this
record (editing). Below the pencil an
* (asterisk) also appeared. This
indicates that your next record will go below the first.
There are (2) ways of entering the data
into the database:
1. The way you just did, called Datasheet
View
or 2. Form View (we’ll create a
from in just a second).
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