Unit 2. Create, open and close a Database

Unit 2. Create, open and close a Database (I)

Basic Access concepts.
If you want to learn or revise basic database concepts or want to learn the Access2003 managing objects read here .

Creating a database.

To create a new database we need to:

Click on the option Blank database... in the task pane that appears to the right of the screen.

If this pane is not visible we can use the File menu on the menu bar and select New...

Or we can click on the New  button on the tool bar. In this case a task pane will appear and we have to select Blank database...

The following dialogue box will appear next where we indicate the name of the database we are creating and where it should be stored. In the Save in: box click on the arrow on the right to select the folder where we are going to save the database. Note how in the lower box appear all the subfolders of the selected folder. Double click on the folder where we want to save the database. The buttons that appear on the right of Save in, are explained here . In the File name: box write down the name we want to call the database. click on the Create button.

A new database is created to which Access assignes a .MDB extention, and it will appear in the Database window:

If you look at the Database window, on the left appear the different types of objects that we can have in the database, (tables, queries, forms,...) and on the right, depending on the type of object selected on the left, Access shows us the objects of this type that are already been created and allows us to create new distinct objects. In our case the object selected is the Tables, the primary element of any database as all the rest of the objects are created from this. At this moment there are no tables created, when these are made they will appear on the right of the window below the Create... options. We will study these options in the next unit.