Rizal Technological University

College of Business and Entrepreneurial Technology

WRITTEN REPORT
CHAPTER 5 : MODIFYING THE TABLES

Submitted by:

Daileg, Trisha M.
De Paz, Shaina
Enetorio, Elaiza Mae
Montes, Charmaine
Pigao, Ferjean Grace
After you create an Access table, you can modify it , enter data into
manually or import data from somewhere else, such as Excel.

How to Add a New Field in the Existing Table

1. Open the table, then click the header with the text Click to Add.

2. A drop down menu will appear. Select the data type: ( Text, Number, Currency
Date and Time, Yes/No, Memo, Attachment, Hyperlink)

3. Type a Name for your field, then press the enter key.

 In addition to making basic modifications to your tables, like adding and moving
fields, you can make more advanced modifications that let you set rules for your
data. All of these changes can help make your tables even more useful.

Adding and rearranging fields

 Access makes it easy to rearrange existing fields and add new ones. When you
add a new field, you can even set the data type, which dictates which type of data
can be entered into that field.

There are several types of fields you can add to a table:

 Short Text: This is the default option and is best for most text in Access. You
should also choose it for numbers you don't plan to do math with, like postal
codes and phone numbers.
 Number: This is best for numbers you might want to do calculations with, like
quantities of an item ordered or sold.
 Currency: This automatically formats numbers in the currency used in your
region.
 Date & Time: This allows you to choose a date from a pop-out calendar.
 Yes/No: This inserts a checkbox into your field.
 Rich Text: This allows you to add formatting to text, like bold and italics.
 Long Text: This is ideal for large amounts of text, like product descriptions.
 Attachment: This allows you to attach files, like images.
 Hyperlink: This creates a link to a URL or email address.

How to Rearrange , Insert and Delete Fields.

To Move a field
1. Locate the field you wish to move, then hover your mouse over the buttom boarder
of the field header. Your cursor will become a four sided arrow.

2. Click and drag the field to it's new location.

3. Release your cursor. The field will appear in the new location.

To Delete a field
1. Open the desired database by clicking the Microsoft Office button and clicking
open.
2. Right click on a table and choose delete.
Rename a Table
1. Open the desired database by clicking the Microsoft office button and clicking open.
2. Right click on a table and choose Rename.
3. Type in the new name.

Totals
 The totals button provides you the opportunity to add a total row to your database.
The total can be sum average , a count , minimum, maximum, standard deviation,
or the variance. To set up totals row:
1. Click the totals button on the home tab
2. Click the down arrow of the cell where you want the totals.

To Delete a Record
1. Open the table that you intended to delete the row.
2. Select the row.
3. Press Delete or Right click on the selected row and click Delete.

To Delete Field Value

1. Open the table that you want to delete the field value.
2. Select the field value.
3. Press Delete.

The Primary Key

 The primary key is aunique identifier for a record. The primary key cannot be the
same for two seconds. You can create a primary key by choosing the field you
want to set as a Primary Key.

Three kinds of Primary Keys

1. Auto Number Primary Keys - Automatically enters a sequential number when
someone adds a new record to a table.
2. Single Fiels Prrmary Keys - The best choice for a primary key is a single column
that uniquely identifies the item.
3. Multiple Field Primary Keys - It is used when it takes more than one column to
identify a item. When choosing multi-column keys, make sure the combine keys are
always unique.

To add an AutoNumber Primary Key

1. In the Navigation Pane, right click the table to which you want to add a primary
key and then click Design View;

2. In the first empty row of the table design grid in the Field Name column, type a
name.

3. In the Data Type column, click the drop-down arrow and then click the Auto
Number.

4. Under Field Properties, in New Values, click Increment to use incremental.

5. On the Design Tab, in the tools group, click Primary Key.

To Remove a Primary Key

 Removing the primary key does not delete the field or fields from your table,
however. Rather, it removes the primary key designation from those fields.
Removing the primary key also removes the index that was created for the
primary key.

1. Before you can remove a primary key, you must make sure that it doesn't
participate in any table relationships. If you try to remove a primary key that is part of
one or more relationships, Access warns you that you must delete the relationships
first.
To delete a table relationship, complete the following steps:
a. If the tables that participate in the table relationship are open, close them. You
cannot delete a table relationship between open tables.
b. On the Database Tools tab, in the Relationships group, click Relationships.
c. Select Add Tables (Show Table in Access 2013).
d. Click the table relationship line for the table relationship that you want to delete
(the line becomes bold when it is selected), and then press the DELETE key.
e. On the Design tab, in the Relationships group, click Close.

2. After you delete the relationships, in the Navigation Pane, right click the table from
which you want to remove the primary key and then click Design View.

3. Click the row selector for the current primary key.

If the primary key consists of a single field, click the row selector for that field.
If the primary key consists of multiple fields, click the row selector for any field in the
primary key.

4. On the Design tab, in the Tools group, click Primary Key.

The key indicator is removed from the field or fields that you previously specified as
the primary key.

To Change a Primary Key

 To change a table’s primary key follow the steps:
1. Remove the existing primary key using the instruction. Remove a primary key.
2. Create a new primary key using the instructions. Specify field to use as the Primary
Key.
To enter data into a date field
1. Type the date
2. Select the date from the calendar that appears to the left of the field when you click
in the field. You click the calendar to open it. Use the left arrow at the top of the
calendar to move to the previous month; use the right- arrow at the top of the calendar
to move to the next month. When you reach the proper month, click the proper date.

To enter data to an OLE Object

 An object linking and embedding (OLE) object is an external file, such as a
document, graphics file, or video file that was created using an external
application and which can be inserted into another application.

1.Right Click in the field . A menu appears

2.Click Insert Object. The Microsoct Office Access dialog box appears.

Create New
 Click the Create New radio button if you want to create a new object.
1.Click the object type you want to create.
2.Click OK. Access opens the program for the object type you selected. You can
create the object.
3.Create the object and then close the program for the object type you selected.
Access links to the object.

To create from file

 Click the create from file radio button if you want to use an existing file.
1.Type the path to the file or click the browse button and locate the file
2.Click OK. Access links to the object.
Import a table into Access from Excel
 Excel organizes data into columns and rows. If you have data in Excel that you
want to use in Access, you can import those columns and rows into Access by
using the Excel Speadsheet Wizard.

To import data from Excel

Open the Excel Spreadsheet Wizard
1.Activate the external tab
2.Click the Excel button in the Import Group. The Get External Data - Excel
Spreedsheet Wizard appears.
3.Click the Browse button. The file open window appears
4.Locate the spreadsheet you what to import
5.Click the open button. The path to the file you selected appears in the File Name
field
6.Click OK. Access moves to the next page.

Modify a Table
 After you create a table, you may need to modify it. You can delete columns
insert columns, or more columns

Delete columns
 The delete option permanently deletes columns and all the data contained in them.
you cannot undo a column delete

To delete column
1. Click and drag to select the columns you want to delete
2. Activate the data sheet tab
3. Click delete in the field’s n columns group. Prompt appears
4. Click yes. Access deletes the columns you selected
Or.
1. right-click the column head you want to delete. A menu appears
2. Click delete column
Insert columns
 The insert option inserts c column before the selected column
To insert a column:
1. Click the column head of the column before which you want to insert a column
2. Activate the data sheet tab.
3. Click insert in the fields n column group access insert a new column.
Or
1. Right click the column head before which you want to insert a column. Menu
appears
2. Click insert column

To move a column:
1. Move your mouse pointer over the horizontal line under the column label. Your
mouse pointer turns into a four sided narrow
2. Press your left mouse button
3. Click and drag the field to the new location a dark line appears at the new location
4. Release your left mouse button access moves the column

Move around the table

 Access provides several methods for moving around the table

 Go on the home tab there is a Go to button

 Click it a menu as Option appears.
 You can use the menu to go to the first, last, previous or next in your table
 Click new option to add new record.

Select columns and rows.

 Before you can perform an operation on a column or rows, you must select it.
How to select columns.
1. To select a column, click the column head.
2. To select a several columns, click a column head then drag.

How to select rows.

1. To select a row, click the blank area to the left of the row.
2. To select several rows, click the blank area to the left of a row and then drag.

Delete a record
 If you enter a record by error, you can delete it.

To delete a record:
1. Select the record want to delete.
2. Activate the home tab
3. Click delete in the records group. A prompt appears.
4. Click the yes button

Resize a column or row

1. Place the cursor over the line that separates two columns or two rows. The cursor
turns into a double sided Arrow.
2. Hold down the left mouse button and drag to increase or decrease the width of a
column or the height of all of the rows.

Key combination to move around a table

Tab Moves to the next field to the right

Left Arrow Moves to the next field to the left
Shift Tab Moves to the previous field
Right Arrow Moves to the nxt field
Up arrow Moves up to another record
Down arrow Moves down to another record
Ctrl++ Creates new record