Chapter 2: Creating Access Tables
47
FIGURE 2.17The Property Sheet
Indexes
Indexes are discussed in much more detail in the “Indexing Access Tables” section, later in this
chapter. Clicking the Indexes button opens the Indexes dialog box (shown in Figure 2.28, later in
this chapter), enabling you to specify the details of indexes on the fields in your table.Working with fields
Fields are created by entering a field name and a field data type in the upper entry area of the Table
Design window. The (optional) Description property indicates the field’s purpose. The description
appears in the status bar at the bottom of the screen during data entry and may be useful to people
working with the application. After entering each field’s name and data type, you can further spec-
ify how each field is used by entering properties in the property area.Naming a field
A field name should be descriptive enough to identify the field to you as the developer, to the user
of the system, and to Access. Field names should be long enough to quickly identify the purpose of
the field, but not overly long. (Later, as you enter validation rules or use the field name in a calcu-
lation, you’ll want to save yourself from typing long field names.)