All the methods of exporting data described in this chapter work well, but they aren't the only ways to share information with other programs. Sometimes the quickest and easiest way to get information into or out of a database is to just copy it and paste it where you want it. This technique works particularly well for getting data out of an Access table and into Word or Excel. Information that you paste into a Word document becomes a Word table, complete with a header row containing the field captions as column headings. Information that you paste into an Excel worksheet appears in the normal row-and-column format. Getting data into an Access table by using this technique is a little more complicated. The data you are pasting must meet all the criteria for entering it by hand (input mask, validation rules, field size, and so on), and you must have the correct cells selected when you use the Paste command. If Access encounters a problem when you attempt to paste a group of records, it displays an error message and pastes the problem records into a Paste Errors table. You can then troubleshoot the problem in that table, fix whatever is wrong, and try copying and pasting again. Tip To paste an entire table from one Access database to another, open both databases, copy the table from the source database to the Clipboard, and then paste it in the destination database. You can paste the table data and/or table structure as a new table or append the data to an existing table. In this exercise, you will copy and paste records between an Access database table, an Excel worksheet, and a Word document.
USE the 08_CopyOffice database. This practice file is located in the Chapter04 subfolder under SBS_Access2007. OPEN the 08_CopyOffice database, then open the Customers table in Datasheet view.
CLOSE the Customers table and the 08_CopyOffice database. If you are not continuing directly on to the next chapter, quit Access. |