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Adding fields to an Access table



Here is what I sent to Bridgette. I hope it helps others who are not yet
experts in using Access.  What I told her allows you to put your new fields
(columns) exactly where you wnat them, not just at the far right of your
table.


---------------------- Forwarded by Margaret H Monroe/HQ/Caltrans/CAGov on
04/14/2000 11:39 AM ---------------------------


Margaret H Monroe
04/14/2000 10:09 AM

To:   Bkelly@stanhywet.org
cc:
Subject:  Adding fields to an Access table

Hi, Bridgette!

I use Access 97 here at work to catalog our engineering records.

How do you add a record?

1.  Open the table you want to add a field (=column) to

2.  Go to the menu bar at the top of your screen.

3.  Click once on the word "View".

4.  A drop-down box will appear (a "combo box", if you want to use "Access"
terminology.)

5.  Single-click on "Design View".

6.  A rectangle with columns labeled "Field Name", "Data Type", and
"Description" will appear.

7.  Put your cursor on the little gray square to the left of the field that
you want to have at the
     RIGHT of the added field when you are in the Datasheet View.  Your
cursor MUST
     turn into a right-pointing arrow.

8.  RIGHT-click on your mouse.

9.  A drop-down box will appear.

10. Single-click on "Insert Rows"

11. An empty line will appear, in black.

12. Single-click anywhere on that line to turn it white.

13. Now go ahead and name the field, choose the data type, and add
description if you want
     (I do not need to put anything in "Description" for the kind of work I
do.)

14. You can add as many fields (I call them "columns") as you want this
way, and you also
     can delete them whenever you want, by merely right-clicking in that
little gray box
     and clicking "Delete Rows".


I know all this must sound intimidating, but it is not.  Really.  I knew
NOTHING about Access 97 when I got my present job, and had to learn it to
do this job here at Caltrans in Structures Maintenance.  I am organizing &
cataloging engineering records.  I found it is easiest to have a logical,
numbered list of instructions to follow when I am trying to learn how to do
something new on the computer.  The steps above are really NOT all that
hard.  I just wanted to give youi a COMPLETE list.  (I went to one of my
tables in Access 97 and did what I was telling yuo to do, just to nake sure
that I did not leave ANYTHING out.)  I have only been learning about &
using Access 97 for 1 1/2 years.  Before this job, I worked in our Mail
Room, and before THAT, I was a Caltrans Highway Maintenance Worker.  I
never, therefore, had ANY  training in ANY computer programs at work, ever.

Oh, by the way, since you are using Access to do your work, do go look
around at booksotres and libraries, and buy a book or two on Access 97 (or
2000; 97 is FINE).  I used this monster book that has 1,200 pages to get
info about what different icons mean, and how to make dates appear the way
I want them to, etc.  It is in libraries.

Good luck!

Margaret Monroe
Caltrans Office Technician (Typing)
Division of Structures Maintenance & Investigations, Toll Bridges (North)
District 4, Oakland, CA

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