Creating Microsoft Access 2007 Tables

As is the case with all Microsoft Office 2007 products, the biggest difference in how to do anything in Microsoft Access 2007 is the ribbon bar as opposed to the drop down menus. Much of the functionality between Microsoft Access 1997, 2003 and 2007 remains the same.

There are a few different ways to create tables in Microsoft Access 2007 just as there were with the previous versions.

Creating a Table by Entering Data

1. Open your Access database.
2. Go to the Create ribbon.
3. Click on Table.
4. Enter data into the table. (Note: Access automatically decides the data type for the field as you enter data.)
5. Hit the Tab key to add a new field to the record.
6. To change the name of a field, right click on the field name (Access will use default field names of Field1, Field2, etc) and click on Rename Column.
7. Be sure to save the table and name it appropriately.

Creating a Table by Design

1. Open your Access database.
2. Go to the Create ribbon.
3. Click on Table Design.
4. Enter the Field Name, Data Type, and Description for each field you want in your table.
5. Be sure to save the table and name it appropriately.

Creating a Table from a Template

1. Open your Access database.
2. Go to the Create ribbon.
3. Click on the Table Templates dropdown and select the type of table you want from the list (Contacts, Tasks, Issues, Events, Assets).
4. A table is automatically created with certain fields in it.
5. Be sure to save the table and name it appropriately.

Important things to remember when creating Microsoft Access tables:

Be sure to setup your tables the right way the first time. Make sure that all of the field names and data types are what you want them to be before you enter any data into the table. It becomes harder and you can lose data if you end up changing a field data type or field name after you already have a lot of data in the table.

Pick your data types carefully. This will determine what can and cannot be entered into the field. If the field will contain both letters and numbers, be sure to pick Text as a data type. Look at the field size for the data type to be sure that it is big enough for the data you will be entering. Checking the format of the data type and changing it when necessary is also useful, especially for dates and numbers.

You can also use input masks for Text or Date data types. The phone number and zip code input masks can be helpful in making sure that the correct type of data is entered and can help avoid data entry errors. However, if you will be entering international phone numbers or addresses, do not use the phone number and zip code input masks.