Part I: Access Building Blocks
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Tip
The Filter By Group option is really only helpful when you have a fairly large number of objects in your
Access database. If you have an Access database containing several hundred different forms, you’ll find it very
useful to filter by forms that were modified within the last week or so. But when there are only a few objects in
a database, the Filter By Group option has little effect.
l (^) Tables, Queries, Forms, Reports: These are the major types of Access objects. You filter
the objects shown in the Navigation Pane by selecting a single object type. Some Access
databases contain dozens of each type of object, and these options enable you to view only
a single type of object (such as tables) in the Navigation Pane.
l (^) All Access Objects: By default the Navigation Pane shows all objects in the current data-
base. Select All Access Objects when you have been working with one of the filtered view
and want to see every object in the database.
The ribbon
The Access ribbon occupies the top portion of the main Access screen. The ribbon replaces the
menus and toolbars seen in previous versions of Access. The ribbon’s appearance changes depend-
ing on what task you’re working on in the Access environment. Figure 2.9 shows the Home ribbon
tab you see when you’re working with Access tables in Datasheet view. A very different ribbon
appears when working with forms or reports in Design view.
FIGURE 2.9
The Home tab of the Access 2010 ribbon
Groups Controls
The ribbon is divided into a number of groups, each containing any number of controls. The Sort
and Filter group, for example, includes options for sorting a datasheet’s contents in ascending or
descending order, while the Find group contains commands for searching through records within
the datasheet.
The other groups on the ribbon — Views, Clipboard, Records, Window, and Text
Formatting — contain controls that perform other tasks commonly associated with Access data-
sheets. For example, The View control in the Views group changes the Datasheet view of the
table to Design view, making it easy to update the table’s design.