Chapter 6: Working with Datasheet View
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Cross-Reference
Chapters 4 and 5 discuss queries and using operators and expressions.
Focusing on Special Features of Datasheets
Historically, Access datasheets have always borne a close resemblance to Excel worksheets. Not
only do worksheets and datasheets look alike, but in many ways they work alike as well. As you’ve
seen in this chapter, Access datasheets support sorting, searching, freezing columns, and other fea-
tures mirrored in Excel worksheets. But, until recently, there was little else that was common
between Access datasheets and Excel worksheets.
Unlike Excel worksheets, Access datasheets haven’t supported row and column summation and
other types of data aggregation. Beginning with Access 2007, and continued in Access 2010,
Access datasheets support a Totals row at the bottom of datasheets (see Figure 6.22). The Totals
row is opened by clicking on the Totals button in the ribbon’s Records group on the Home tab (the
Totals button is marked with a Greek sigma character, much like the AutoSum button in Excel).
Each column in the totals row can be set to a different aggregate calculation (Sum, Average,
Minimum, Maximum, Count, Standard Deviation, and Variance).
To use the Totals row, open a table or form in Datasheet view and click on the Totals button in the
Records group on the ribbon’s Home tab. Access adds a Totals row at the bottom of the datasheet,
just below the New row.
FIGURE 6.22
The datasheet Totals row
New row
Total options
Total
rows