Part I: Access Building Blocks
26
FIGURE 2.1The opening Access screen provides a number of ways to start working with Access.
The center of the screen is dominated by the Microsoft Office Online templates, which are
described in the next section. The right side of the screen contains a list of recently opened data-
bases, while the left side of the screen contains a number of tabs for revealing other options for
working with Access.The Templates section
When you start Microsoft Access, you see the initial welcome screen (refer to Figure 2.1). For users
with a live Internet connection, the content of the welcome screen changes from time to time as
Microsoft updates the online templates available on the Microsoft Web site.I’ll show you how to create a new database in the “Creating a Database” section of this chapter. In
the meantime, let’s take a look at the purpose of online templates. Microsoft has long been con-
cerned that building Access databases is too difficult for many people. Not everyone takes the time
to understand the rules governing database design, or to learn the intricacies of building tables,
queries, forms, and reports.