Description

Want to build professional databases? Take an Access training!

Want to link your customers' contact details to their orders? Or combine data from countless sources into a single database? Access is without a doubt the program for you. You might be thinking: what about Excel? But as spreadsheet software, it's less suitable, since you can't create complex searches, user-friendly data entry forms, or professional reports with it. Choose the right — and easiest — path right away: take an Access training at Xylos. In just one day, you'll learn how to design your own database. Eager to piece together your own databases, or want to better understand the structure of existing ones? Then sign up now for the first module of our Access training: designing and creating a database.

Objectives

What will you get out of our Access training?

Once you've completed this introductory Access training at Xylos, you'll soon have full control over your database structures. No one will need to tell you how to:

• Set up a relational schema

• Define tables and their relationships in Access

And the terminology will become part of your everyday vocabulary too: primary key, foreign key, record, field, index, composite key, referential integrity, and more. Note: this Access training covers standard databases only, not web databases, as these have limited functionality.

Target audience

Anyone who wants to create a database in Access to bring structure to their data.

Prerequisites

This is an introductory module, so you don't need any specific prior knowledge to take this Access training. Experience with lists in Excel is a nice bonus — Excel and Access share a number of similarities that come in handy.

Contents

Introduction

• The different components of a database: tables and relationships

• The different components of a table: fields, records, primary and foreign keys

Normalization

• Why normalize?

• Setting up a database structure using Codd's normalization method (limited to the first 3 steps): preparation, splitting off repeating fields, splitting off functional dependencies, splitting off transitive dependencies

Tables in Access

• Creating a table in Access via design view and datasheet view

• Defining a primary key in a table

• The different data types

• The different field properties: setting a default value, restricting data entry, defining input masks, requiring a value, and more

• Adding/removing an index on one or more fields

• Creating a dropdown list with fixed values or one that looks up values in another table

Relationships

• Defining relationships

• What is referential integrity?

• Relationship types: one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many

Datasheet view

• Entering, changing and adjusting data

• Customizing the datasheet view: alternate row color, font

• Creating totals in datasheet view

External data

• Linking tables to external data sources: Excel, Access, ODBC (SQL), SharePoint

• Importing data from external data sources

• Collecting data via email