Creating A Database

Introduction:
Creating a database is, of course, your first concern. The usual problem lies on how and where to start. The primary decision you will make, and that you will be changing, is the purpose of your database. What do you expect from the database? Actually, that's the first mistake. The question is, what do your users expect from this database? If an auto part dealer hires you to design and create her database, you would spend some time finding out how she wants the software to behave, what kinds of business partners and customers she has, what information she will be entering in it, will this same piece of software be used for other purposes besides running her business (pay roll, appointments, etc)?

Once the business sides have been discussed (normally, this stage will never stop, until you deliver the final product), you will need to plan your database. At this time, we will not cover software engineering.

Creating a Database from a Template:
Microsoft Access ships with a few sample databases that you can use or learn from (don't hold this against me but this is an area where MS Access 97 is better than MS Access 2000). To experiment with one, we will create a database using one of the templates.

1. Start Microsoft Access. If you just started the application, you will see the starting Microsoft Access dialog. Click the second radio button; in MS Access 97, it is the Database Wizard radio button; in MS Access 2000 it is the Access database wizards, pages, and reports radio button.
2. And click OK. This opens the New  dialog.
3. From the New dialog, click the Databases tab.
4. From the Databases tab, click Asset Tracking, and click OK.
5. In the File New Database dialog, type My Personal Resources to replace the suggested File Name, and click Create.
6. After a few seconds, the Database Wizard is ready to guide you in creating your database project. Click Next.
7. The Database Wizard has a few suggestions to create your database. You can examine them, then add some fields you think are important for your database. For this exercise, accept only the defaults and click Next.
8. For the style of the screen display, choose Stone and click Next.
9. For the style of the printed report, choose Bold and click Next (if you don't have a printer installed and connected to your computer, you will not have access to the report features; an alternative is to install a "fake" printer and make the computer "think" that there is printer; although you will not be able to print, at least you can preview the reports).
10. For the title of the database, type Personal Resources and click Next. Then click Finish. For a few seconds (sometimes minutes), the Database Wizard will create a database for you.

Access database wizards

Creating A Database From Scratch:

Creating a database from scratch gives you the advantage of overall control about your application. As you might have found out, the (few) templates shipped with Microsoft Access (2000) cover a very tinny part of the database issues. This is because they were provided as samples you could learn and experiment from. Most of the time, they don't cover what you want. So, you will have to be a little more creative. Fortunately, Microsoft Access comes equipped to help you throughout the whole process.

Creating a database from scratch simply means starting from a blank database and adding the different components.

Creating A Blank Database:

1. If you had already started Microsoft Access, from the Standard toolbar, click the New button; or from the main menu, click File -> New... This opens the New property sheets. from the General tab, click Databases (the second property sheet), and click OK.
2. If you don't have a database opened yet, start Microsoft Access. From the Microsoft Access dialog box, choose the Blank Access Database radio button. Then click OK.
3. Since Microsoft Access is going to create a file to store the necessary components of your database, it requires a name. From the File New Database dialog box, in the Save In combo box, choose one of your drives, for example C:, then click the New Folder icon to create a folder called Microsoft Access Exercises. Normally, that folder becomes the base folder, otherwise, make sure that's the folder in your Save In combo box. In the File Name edit box, type Books as the name of your database. Click Create to create the new database file.

Creating A Blank Database

Setting Some Startup Options:

To make sure that Microsoft Access always first goes to your favorite folder whenever you are creating or saving a database, you change the options in the Tools menu.

1. From Microsoft Access main menu, click Tools -> Options...
2. In the General tab, change the Default Database Folder to C:\Microsoft Access Exercises.
3. Now, download the exercises necessary for this tutorial and install them in C:\Microsoft Access Exercises. If you are using WinZip, when WinZip prompts you to choose where to unzip the files, type the path as C:\Microsoft Access Exercises. If you are using a program like ZipCentral (you can get it free), when the program has finished unzipping the files, copy or cut all the files (in ZipCentral, on the main menu, click Actions -> Select All). Then paste the selected files to your default folder which is C:\Microsoft Access Exercises.

Database Properties:

Whether you work alone or in a group, communication and documentation are important. Yourdatabase project has its own properties that you can use to find out some details about your file, to enter some notes about the project, or to give directives to other people who have access to the database.

I know when you created and saved the My Personal Resources database, I didn't specify where it would be saved. If you too don't remember, let's find out; and while we are at it, let's do some maintenance work.

1. From Microsoft Access, if you are not currently running the My Personal Resources database, click File. A list of most recently opened databases appears. From that list, click My Personal Resources.
   
2. Once more, from the main menu, click File -> Database Properties.
3. From the Properties dialog, click the General property sheet. Examine the various sections. These are self-explanatory. Note and write down the path where the database is located. By default, it would be C:\My Documents.
4. Click the  Summary property sheet. Change the summary sheet to look as follows (besides the Author and Manager, you can change any item(s) to whatever you like):
   
5. Explore the other property sheets and examine what they have to offer. The Statistics tab gives you statistics about your database and its summary access. The Contents tab shows a list of the components that are part of your database. The Custom tab shows, and allows you to customize, the field named associated with your database. When you have finished working with the database Properties, click OK (if you click Cancel, any change you made will be discarded).
6. On the main menu, click File -> Exit.