Microsoft Access Tutorial - Data Access Page (using Design View)

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a data access page using the Microsoft Access design view. The previous tutorial showed you how to create the data access page using the wizard built into Microsoft Access.

The design view offers more flexibility and more options in terms of how you want the data to appear on the page.

1. Open the Database

Open Microsoft Access and any database that has tables which you would like to create a data access page for.

2. Click Insert -> Page

On the right pane, select "Design View" and on the drop down menu select the table you would like to use. Once finished, click on OK.

3. Add Fields to Design View

This will bring up a blank page that says "click here and type title text". This is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor which allows you to add fields and change the text and background colors. There are many options about how you can display the different fields on the data access page.

You will notice on the right that there is a section called "Field List" which has all the tables in your current database along with the different fields inside each table that are available for you.

You can choose to drag and drop an entire table into the data access page design view window so that the page will have all of the columns. If you do it that way you will have other options available as soon as you drop the table onto the design view window.

You can also select individual columns and drag and drop them onto the page where you would like to see them. There should be a floating window called "Toolbox", and that is what you will use to manipulate the options for displaying the text in the data on the page. You can right click on any field or text for the data and it will give you more options for manipulation. You can even resize and change the setup here on the page to meet your needs. This little page has a lot to offer and a number of commands that you can spend some time looking into to discover what is available for you to do with these data access page design view windows.

Once you're familiar with this, you will learn how to create more advanced data access pages. Once you are finished making changes, click on "File -> Save" to save your HTML page. You can open the data access page by double clicking on the icon in Access or in the folder on your hard drive where you saved it. If you want to make changes to the layout of the page, you will need to open it using Microsoft Access.

On the main Microsoft access dialog window on the left pane under objects there is an option called "Pages", click on that to see the different pages that are available. You will see the pages on the right pane and you can right-click on a page and click "Design View" to make changes to the layouts of a data access page that you have already created in the design view.