Microsoft Office Access 2007 Forms, Reports, and Queries

Paul McFedries is the president of Logophilia Limited, a technical writing company. Now primarily a writer, Paul is well known as a teacher of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows, and has worked as a programmer, consultant, database developer, and website developer. He has written more than 50 books that have sold more than three million copies worldwide. These books include Tricks of the Microsoft Office 2007 Gurus (Que, 2007), Formulas and Functions with Microsoft Excel 2007 (Que, 2007), VBA for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (Que, 2007), and Windows Vista Unleashed (Sams, 2006).

Contents
Introduction      1
What’s in the Book      2
This Bookís Special Features     2
The Examples Used in the Book     3
    I    CREATING FORMS
1    Creating and Using a Form      7
Building a Basic Form     9
Building a Standard Form     9
Building a Split Form     11
Building a Multiple Items Form     11
Creating Simple Forms with the Form Wizard     12
Navigating a Form     14
Creating a Form in Design View     15
Displaying the Design View     15
Changing the Record Source     15
Understanding Form Controls     16
Adding Fields to the Form     17
Changing the Size of the Form     18
Viewing the Form     18
Assigning an AutoFormat in Design View     19
Working with Form Properties     20
Working with the Form Header and Footer     20
Adding a Logo     22
Adding a Title     23
Formatting the Background     23
Creating a Form Interactively in Layout View     25
Case Study: Protecting the Form and Data from Other Users     26
From Here     27
2    Working with Form Controls     29
Manipulating Form Controls     29
Inserting Controls on a Form     30
Selecting Controls     30
Formatting Controls     31
Adding Conditional Formatting     31
Sizing Controls     33
Moving Controls     34
Creating a Control Layout     36
Working with Control Margins     38
Grouping Controls     38
Ordering Overlapped Controls     39
Converting an Unbound Control to a Bound Control     39
Changing a Controlís Type     40
Setting the Tab Order     40
Adding Labels to the Form     41
Inserting a Label     41
Editing the Label Caption     42
Using Labels to Create Keyboard Shortcuts for Controls     42
Adding Text Boxes to the Form     43
Inserting a Text Box     43
Using Text Boxes as Calculated Controls     44
Case Study: Creating a Mortgage Calculator     46
From Here     48
3    Designing Forms for Efficient and Accurate Data Entry     49
Preventing Errors by Validating Data     50
Helping Users with Text Prompts     50
Preventing Errors with Data Validation Expressions     51
Using Input Masks for Consistent and Accurate Data Entry     52
Using Controls to Limit Data Entry Choices     55
Working with Yes/No Fields     56
Using Option Buttons to Present a Limited Number of Choices     59
Case Study: Using an Option Group to Select the Shipper     61
Using Lists to Present a Large Number of Choices     62
Entering Data with ActiveX Controls     67
Entering Numbers Using a Spin Button     68
Entering Numbers Using a Scrollbar     69
Entering Dates Using a Calendar     71
Collecting Form Data via Email     72
Sending the Access Data Collection Email Message     72
Replying to an Access Data Collection Email Message     74
Managing the Access Data Collection Replies     75
From Here     75
4    Designing Forms for Business Use     77
Using Forms in a Business Context     77
Why Collect the Data?     78
What Is the Data?     78
Who Are Your Users?     78
Ten Design Guidelines for Business Forms     79
1. Make Forms Fast     79
2. Make Forms Foolproof     79
3. Mimic Paper Forms When Practical     79
4. Give Users What They Need and Then Stop     79
5. Donít Neglect the Keyboard     80
6. Watch the Field Order (and the Tab Order, Too)     80
7. Watch Your Screen Resolution     80
8. Make Form Text Readable     80
9. Go Easy on the Extras     81
10. Organize Your Form Controls     81
Organizing Controls on the Form     81
Making Good Use of Lines and Rectangles     82
Organizing with Option Groups     83
Organizing with a Tab Control     84
Enhancing Form Text     86
Formatting Text     87
Text Formatting Tips and Guidelines     87
Applying Fancier Form Formatting     88
Working with Colors     88
Adding Images to Your Forms     91
Creating a Shadow Effect for Text     92
From Here     93
5    Creating Specialized Forms     95
Creating a Multiple-Table Form     95
Understanding Subforms     95
Creating a Form and Subform with the Form Wizard     96
Creating a Subform in the Form Design View     98
Working with Form Command Buttons     99
Case Study: Creating a Switchboard Form     102
Creating a Form Pop-Up Box or Dialog Box     103
Creating a Pop-Up Form     103
Creating a Modal Form     104
Using a Custom Form with a Parameter Query     105
Creating the Custom Form     105
Adjusting the Parameter Query     106
Using the Custom Form and Parameter Query     107
Creating a Startup Form     107
Creating a PivotChart Form     108
From Here     110
    II    DESIGNING AND CUSTOMIZING REPORTS
6    Creating and Publishing a Report     113
Creating a Basic Report     113
Creating Simple Reports with the Report Wizard     114
Creating a Report in Design View     116
Displaying the Design View     116
Changing the Record Source     117
Understanding the Architecture of Access Reports     118
Understanding Report Controls     119
Adding Fields to the Report     120
Adding Labels to the Report     120
Adding a Logo     121
Adding a Title     122
Adding Page Numbers to the Report     122
Adding the Date and Time to the Report     123
Changing the Size of a Report Section     124
Previewing the Report     124
Assigning an AutoFormat in Design View     125
Working with Report Properties     126
Formatting the Background     126
Manipulating Report Controls     128
Creating a Report Interactively in Layout View     136
Publishing a Report     137
Publishing on Paper     137
Publishing to Email     138
Exporting to Word     138
Exporting to PDF or XPS     139
From Here     140
7    Designing Effective Business Reports     141
Using Reports in Business     141
Whatís in the Report?     142
What Is the Goal of the Report?     142
Who Are Your Readers?     144
Ten Design Guidelines for Business Reports     145
1. Copy Legacy Reports When Practical     145
2. Give Users What They Need, Then Stop: Part 1     145
3. Give Users What They Need, Then Stop: Part 2     145
4. Use Page Numbers     146
5. Use Dates and Times     146
6. Watch the Field Order     146
7. Watch Your Screen Resolution     146
8. Make Report Text Readable     147
9. Always Sort and/or Group Data     147
10. Organize the Report Layout     147
Organizing Controls on the Report     147
Making Good Use of Lines and Rectangles     148
Creating Page Breaks     149
Enhancing Report Text     150
Formatting Text     150
Text Formatting Tips and Guidelines     151
Applying Fancier Report Formatting     152
Working with Colors     152
Adding Images to Your Reports     153
Adding Special Effects     154
Creating a Shadow Effect for Text     154
From Here     155
8    Designing Advanced Reports     157
Sorting and Grouping a Report     157
Setting Up Sorting Options     158
Setting Up Grouping Options     158
Sorting and Grouping Using an Expression     161
Adding Calculations to a Report     161
Using the Totals List     162
Inserting a Text Box     162
Using Text Boxes as Calculated Controls     163
Case Study: Creating an Invoice Report     165
Using Advanced Methods to Launching a Report     167
Launching a Report with a Command Button     167
Launching a Report with a Macro     169
Controlling Report Output     174
Adding Page Breaks After Sections     174
Starting Sections at the Top of a Row or Column     174
Avoiding Widowed Records     175
From Here     175
9    Creating Specialized Reports     177
Creating a Multiple-Column Report     177
Setting Up the Report     178
Tweaking the Page Setup     178
Troubleshooting Multiple Columns     180
Case Study: Using Multiple Columns to Reduce Report Page Count     181
Creating Mailing Labels     184
Running the Label Wizard     185
Creating a Custom Label     187
Creating a Mail Merge Report     187
Creating a Multiple-Table Report     189
Understanding Subreports     190
Creating a Report and Subreport with the Report Wizard     191
Creating a Subreport in the Report Design View     192
Creating a PivotChart Report     194
From Here     195
    III    CREATING POWERFUL QUERIES
10    Creating a Basic Query     199
Sorting Records     199
Sorting on a Single Field     200
Sorting on Multiple Fields     200
Filtering Table Data     201
Filtering by Selection     203
Filtering Excluding Selection     203
Filtering in Place     204
Applying Text, Numeric, and Date Filters     204
Filtering by Form     206
Learning About Filter Criteria     207
Creating a Filter     208
Working with Queries     210
Creating a Query     210
Creating a New Query Object     211
Selecting the Fields to Include in the Query     212
Entering the Query Criteria     213
Excluding a Field from the Query Results     213
Returning Only the Top N Values     213
Setting Field Properties     214
Running the Query     215
Querying Notes for Business Users     216
Case Study: Querying for a Mail Merge     217
Querying the Customers Table     218
Running the Mail Merge     219
Creating Queries with the Query Wizards     220
Creating Crosstab Queries     220
Creating Find Duplicates Queries     222
Setting Up a Find Unmatched Query     222
Working with a Query Dynaset     223
Understanding the Datasheet View     223
Navigating Fields     224
Entering Data     224
Adding More Records     225
Navigating Records     225
Selecting a Record     226
Copying a Record     226
Deleting a Record     227
Formatting the Datasheet     227
Working with Query Properties     228
From Here     229
11    Building Criteria Expressions     231
Using Operands in Criteria Expressions     232
Literals     232
Identifiers     232
Functions     233
Using Operators in Criteria Expressions     233
Comparison Operators     233
Arithmetic Operators     234
The Like Operator     235
The Between...And Operator     235
The In Operator     235
The Is Null Operator     235
Compound Criteria and the Logical Operators     236
Using the Logical Operators     237
Understanding Operator Precedence     238
Setting Up a Calculated Column     239
Calculating Inventory Value     240
Calculating Discounted Product Totals     241
Using the Built-In Functions     241
Using Text Functions     243
Using Date and Time Functions     246
Using Math Functions     251
Using Financial Functions     253
Working with the Expression Builder     256
From Here     257
12    Working with Multiple-Table Queries     259
Relational Database Fundamentals     259
The Pitfalls of a Nonrelational Design     259
How a Relational Design Can Help     262
Types of Relational Models     264
The One-to-Many Model     264
The One-to-One Model     265
The Many-to-Many Model     265
Enforcing Referential Integrity     266
Establishing Table Relationships     267
Understanding Join Lines     267
Identifying Join Types     268
Adding Tables to the Relationships Window     269
Joining Tables     269
Editing a Relationship     271
Removing a Join     271
Working with Multiple Tables in a Query     271
Adding Multiple Tables to a Query     271
Adding Fields from Multiple Tables     272
Nesting Queries Within Queries     273
Joining Tables Within the Query Design Window     274
Creating Other Types of Joins     275
Creating Outer Joins     275
Creating Self-Joins     278
Creating Theta Joins     279
Creating a Unique Values Query     280
Case Study: Drilling Down to the Order Details     282
Adding a Subdatasheet to a Query     284
Working with Query Subdatasheets     284
From Here     286
13    Creating Advanced Queries     287
Creating a Totals Query     287
Displaying the Total Row in the Design Grid     288
Setting Up a Totals Query on a Single Field     289
Setting Up a Totals Query on Multiple Fields     289
Filtering the Records Before Calculating Totals     290
Creating a Totals Query for Groups of Records     291
Grouping on Multiple Fields     291
Creating a Totals Query Using a Calculated Field     293
Creating a Totals Query Using Aggregate Functions     294
Combining Aggregate Functions and Totals     295
Creating Queries That Make Decisions     296
Making Decisions with the IIf Function     297
Making Decisions with the Switch Function     299
Case Study: Calculating a Customer Discount Rate     300
Calculating a Simple Discount Rate     300
Calculating a Complex Discount Rate     301
Running Parameter Queries     302
Creating a Simple Query Parameter     302
Specifying the Parameter Data Type     304
Running Action Queries     304
Modifying Table Data with an Update Query     304
Removing Records from a Table with a Delete Query     306
Creating New Tables with Make-Table Queries     307
Adding Records to a Table with an Append Query     309
From Here     309
14    Creating PivotTable Queries     311
What Is a PivotTable?     311
How PivotTables Work     312
Some PivotTable Terms     313
Creating a One-Dimensional PivotTable     314
Display Data Field Details     314
Displaying the Sum of the Data Field Values     316
Hiding and Showing the Data Details     318
Inserting an AutoCalc Data Field Summary Calculation     318
Changing the AutoCalc Calculation Type     320
Creating a Calculated Field     321
Removing a PivotTable Field     322
Creating a Multiple-Field One-Dimensional PivotTable     322
Creating a Two-Dimensional PivotTable     323
Analyzing Customer Orders by Product Category     324
Adding a Temporal Dimension to the PivotTable     326
Filtering a PivotTable     332
Using the PivotTable AutoFilters     332
Displaying Only the Top or Bottom Items     333
Grouping Field Items     335
Adding a Filter Field     335
Pivoting a PivotTable     336
Moving a Field to a Different Area     337
Changing the Field Order     338
Formatting a PivotTable     339
From Here     339
15    Querying with SQL Statements     341
Viewing the SQL Statement     341
Using SQL to Perform a Select Query     342
Understanding the SELECT Statement     343
Using SQL with Multiple-Table Queries     346
Adding a Calculated Column to the SELECT Statement     349
Using SQL to Total and Group Records     350
Using SQL to Set Up a Parameter Query     350
The Full SQL SELECT Syntax     351
Using SQL to Perform Action Queries     351
Using SQL to Perform an Update Query     352
Using SQL to Perform a Delete Query     352
Using SQL to Perform a Make-Table Query     353
Using SQL to Perform an Append Query     353
Using SQL to Create Subqueries     354
Using a Subquery to Define a Field     355
Determining Whether a Unit Price Is Greater Than the Average     355
Using a Subquery to Define Criteria for a Field     356
Using Subqueries That Return Dynasets     356
In Predicate: Customers Who Have Placed Orders     357
All Predicate: Products Cheaper Than All the Condiments     358
Using SQL to Create Union Queries     359
From Here     360
    Index     361