Microsoft Access 2010 Beginner Level 4 Tutorial Table Field Properties, Database Maintenance, Find,

Student Interaction: Access 2010 Beginner 4

Richard on 6/26/2012: This Microsoft Access video tutorial picks up where Level 3 left off. This class continues teaching table field properties plus a lot more. You will learn: - More Field Properties - Required & Allow Zero Length - Text Align & Format - HTML Encoded Rich Text - Indexing Fields - Compact & Repair - Backing Up Your Database - Find & Replace - Questions From Students Click here for more information on Access 2010 Beginner Level 4, including a course outline, sample videos, and more.

James Fisher on 6/26/2012: Another great class Richard. When will Access 5 be out, and what does this cover?

Reply from Richard Rost:

Thanks, James. We're going back into some form design for Level 5. Should be out in a couple of days. Remember, for every 1-hour class I release, there's (1) at LEAST a whole day of planning/outlining, (2) at LEAST one day of recording video, (3) usually a whole day just to get it up on the web site, and then (4) another day of promoting it properly. Remember, I'm mostly just a one-man-band... gotta wear all these hats myself. But that's OK because I couldn't just record video all day. I'd go nuts. This gives me a chance to mix up my job a bit. :)

Judy B on 6/27/2012: Another great course and a lot of useful hints.
BUY these...they have so much content and such a good value.
Customer support is great and available when you need them.

Thanks Richard and support staff !

Reply from Richard Rost:

Aw gee... thanks. :)

Judy B on 6/27/2012: P.S.
When do you sleep?

Reply from Richard Rost:

Generally between the hours of 4am and 9am. :)

Joy on 6/29/2012: I am looking forward to lesson 5. When will it be available?

Reply from Richard Rost:

Working on it now. I hope to have it finished and online by Monday.

Srinath Nandyal on 7/2/2012: Lesson 2 (Field Properties 8) At about 4:15 into the lesson, you refer to "Quick formatting tool bar". Are you referring to the tool bar that appears in the top right ribbon?

Reply from Richard Rost:

I apologize for that... looks like my screen capture recording software didn't get an image of it. In Microsoft Word or Excel when you highlight some text a little mini formatting toolbar pops up just above and to the right of the text. You can select some simple formatting options like bold, italics, font, color, etc. That's available in Access too when working with Rich Text. My screen capture software just didn't record it, and I didn't realize that until you mentioned it just now. :) Thanks.

Kristine Gregoire on 7/17/2012: Can I enter a field in a form that everytime the form opens up it inputs the current date. I'm trying to count the number of months a document has been expired. In one field I entered the expiration date and and in another I want "today's" date to populate so I can visually see how many months it's been expired. Also, can I create an expression in another field to count the number of months from the time the document expired to current date? Then when the document comes in and is 'Locked' I can just have a total number of months it was expired. Sorry! Kind of confusing.

Kris

Reply from Richard Rost:

Kristine, I covered the DATE function in Level 3. Just set that as the DEFAULT VALUE for your field (either in the form or the table itself) to get the current date.

Now counting the number of months is a little more tricky. If you want just a "good enough" value then you can simply subtract the number of days and divide by 30. Like this:

=(Date()-MyDateField)/30

That will give you ROUGHLY the right number of months. If you want a more exact value, you'll have to use the DATEDIFF function, which is a little more advanced.

on 7/25/2012: on acess 2007 where do i find compact and repair database?

Reply from Richard Rost:

It's under the Office Button (the big round button in the upper-left corner) then under MANAGE > Compact & Repair Database. This is one of those examples of why Microsoft needs to stop playing with the menus! :)

Mike on 9/15/2012: Compact And Repair in 2007?

Reply from Richard Rost:

Are you asking if Compact & Repair exists in Access 2007? Yes. Absolutely. It has existed in every version of Access I can think of back to at LEAST Access 2000 (probably all of them). You'll find it under the Office Button > Manage. This is because Microsoft likes to confuse users by moving commands all over the place. :)

Bob on 11/1/2012: Thanks for explaining the concept of INDEXING and how such decisions may not affect a database with hundreds of records, but does with thousands of records. And the potential effects of accessing a database over a network. All good tips that the student won't have to learn the hard way.

Reply from Richard Rost:

Thanks. You don't realize it when you first start working with databases, but as your db grows from a few hundred to a few hundred THOUSAND records, you'll see the benefits of indexing properly the first time you have to wait 3 minutes for a report to load. :)

Bob on 11/2/2012: Hello Richard - In Beginner-4, Video-6 @ at the 2:45 mark you explain that the 'CustomerID' is really for Access, not for me (the user), and can't be customized short of some programming. If I were to create a new input field with something like a customer "Code" with a prefix such as "CST-xxxx", will this new field complicate life when I begin to set up relations to other tables later down the road? Thanks!

Reply from Richard Rost:

Yes, you will complicate things tremendously. If you want your own "code" then that's fine. There's nothing wrong with TWO fields: an ID Autonumber and your own manual typed-in code. You'll use the ID for relationships later, but you can still print YOUR customer "code" on invoices, etc.

Gwyneth Thompson on 12/6/2012: FYI - in the pdf handbook for lesson 4, the review page (what was covered in class section) hasn't been changed from lesson 1...

other than that, these Lessons are great - have learned a lot and am looking forward to creating my own database!! I just hope I can remember everything!!

gwyneth

Reply from Richard Rost:

Thanks for letting me know, Gwyneth.

Ehem... Alex...??? :)

Alex Hedley on 12/7/2012: Just left it in there to see if people pay attention, not!

D'oh!
Yeah I made a template from Beginner Level 1 and forgot to change it :p

Thanks for letting me know Gwyneth, that'll be a slap on the wrist for me!

Alex

Reply from Richard Rost:

Haha. FYI: he sent me the updated file this morning. Now I just need to get off my butt and upload it.

gwyneth thompson on 12/12/2012: you guys are too funny!!

thanks for laughs :)

Reply from Richard Rost:

Our comedy duo will be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitress... and try the fish. [ba dum dum]

Nick WILLIAMS on 1/9/2013: If your memo field is at the bottom of a form, and the form isn't long enough to read all the text, how can you lengthen the form in a way that will let you see the whole text box? When I lengthen the form the text box remains truncated.

Reply from Richard Rost:

Do you mean in design view? Just grab the bottom of the form and drag it down to make it longer. If need be, you'll get a scroll bar when you switch back to form view.

eleni elefterias on 1/21/2013: My Product database went from 145 to 293. What happened? I don't know if there was data entered there or not. My staff think there was a glitch in Access. We went over the products but all seem to be in the database and nothing is missing. How can I bring back those numbers and or information lost? I did the steps in this lesson Video 6 Beg 4 but they did not work to bring back any numbers.What could the problem be?

Reply from Richard Rost:

Don't worry about them. You should never use Autonumbers for values where you CARE about what they say. Just move on. If you add a record and delete it (or even hit ESC while editing and don't save it) the Autonumber is gone. Ignore it. Move on.

Mike Rand on 3/11/2013: At about 00:45 You say, "Well then we get into my discussion that bad data is better than no data." I think you meant just the opposite. (You do clarify later on what you are trying to say.)

Reply from Richard Rost:

I did... you're right. Oops. Slip of the tongue! NO DATA is better than BAD DATA! That's the second little goof like that to have been discovered this week. I must be slipping in my old age.

Mike Rand on 3/11/2013: Your "little goofs" are far outweighed by the excellence of your courses.

Reply from Richard Rost:

Why, thank you very much. :)

John Banovic on 5/10/2013: In regards to the 'Allow Zero Length' and 'Required' properties- Is there a method to customize the Access error box text? Such as, have the error message box read "First name field cannot be left blank" or "You must enter a first name" rather than "You must enter a value in the 'CustomerT.FirstName' field."

Reply from Richard Rost:

You would need to set up a validation rule and custom validation text for that.

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