Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Part VII: Appendixes

1254

FIGURE B.1

The Access 2010 interface

As you can see, our old friend Northwind has an entirely new look. The biggest change in the

Access 2007 interface was replacing the traditional nested menus in favor of a more tabular, every-

thing-in-front-of-you system called the ribbon. In Access 2010, Microsoft replaced the round Office

button with a simpler File tab. Selecting the File tab reveals the Backstage area (shown in Figure

B.2).

The Backstage simplifies the ribbon by providing a landing pad for common administrative tasks.

The options you see in the Backstage depend on which tab is selected (the Info tab is selected in

Figure B.2). Notice that the Info tab in Figure B.2 includes administrative tasks such as compacting

and repairing the database, as well as the all-new for 2010 Share Your Database in a Web Browser.

This latter feature is described in the “Publish Access to the Web” section, later in this appendix.

The ribbon is designed to be contextual so that everything you need is there when you need it.

Functions such as Font, Records, and Sort & Filter are grouped together and make the ribbon a

welcome change.

Access 2010 provides a very nice, easy-to-use interface for customizing the Access ribbon (see

Figure B.3). Access 2007 only provided a way to customize the Quick Access Toolbar in the

upper-left corner of the main Access screen. Access 2010 extends this capability by including the

entire Access ribbon as a customizable object.

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