Objective 1. Rename a Database

Microsoft Office Access 2003 is a database management program. A database is a collection of datafacts about people, events, things, or ideasrelated to a particular topic or purpose. Data that has been organized in a useful manner is referred to as information. Examples of data that could be in a database include the titles and artists of all the CDs in a collection or the names and addresses of all the students in an organization. Databases, like the ones you will work with in Access, include not only the data, but also tools for organizing the data in a way that is useful to you. To begin, you will locate an Access database file, rename it, and then examine the components in the database.

Activity 1.1. Renaming a Database

In other Microsoft Office 2003 applications, when you open a file, your computer loads the application program and the file into random access memory (RAM). When you save and close the file, it is transferred to a permanent storage location such as a removable USB flash drive or to a folder on your hard disk drive.

Because database files are typically very large, the entire file is not loaded to RAM; rather, you work with the file from its permanent storage location. For this reason, Access does not have a Save As command that can be used to save a file with a new name. Thus, before you open an existing file, use My Computer to copy the file to your chapter folder, and then rename the file before opening it. In this activity, you will use My Computer to copy a database file to a new storage location and then rename it.

1.	On the left side of the Windows taskbar, click Start , and then click My Computer. Navigate to the drive where you will be storing your projects for this book, for example, Removable Disk (G:) drive. Be sure the drive name and letter display in the blue title bar.
2.	On the menu bar, click File, point to New, and then click Folder. A new folder is created, the words New Folder display highlighted in the folder's name box, and the insertion point is blinking. Recall that within Windows, highlighted text will be replaced by your typing.
3.	Type Access Chapter 1 and press to rename the folder.
4.	Navigate to the location where the student files that accompany this textbook are located, and then click once to select the file a01A_Academic_Departments.   NoteUsing File Extensions Access databases use a .mdb extension. The computer that you are using may be set to display file extensions. If so, this file name will display as a01A_Academic_Departments.mdb. The .mdb extension indicates that this file is a Microsoft database file.
5.	Point to the selected file name, and then right-click to display a shortcut menu. On the displayed shortcut menu, click Copy.
6.	Navigate to and open the Access Chapter 1 folder you created in Step 3. In an open area, right-click to display a shortcut menu, and then click Paste. The database file is copied to your folder and is selected.
7.	Right-click the selected file name, and then on the displayed shortcut menu, click Rename. As shown in Figure 1.2, and using your own first and last name, type 1A_Academic_Departments_Firstname_Lastname If the file name extensions display on the computer you are using, type .mdb at the end of the file name.   Figure 1.2.
8.	Press to save the new file name.   NoteNaming Files Use underscores instead of spaces. The Microsoft Windows operating system recognizes file names with spaces. However, some Internet file transfer programs do not. To facilitate sending your files over the Internet, in this textbook you will be instructed to save files using an underscore rather than a space. On your keyboard, the underscore key is the shift of the hyphen key, which is to the right of the zero key. Alert!: Does a Confirm File Rename Message Display? Removing the Read-only Property If the file you have copied has a Read-only property applied, a message box will display to alert you when you attempt to rename a file. In the message box, click Yes to rename the file. Then, right-click the file name, and from the shortcut menu click Properties. In the displayed Properties dialog box, under Attributes, click to clear the Read-only check mark. Click OK to accept the change and close the dialog box.
9.	On the title bar, click the Close button to close the My Computer window.

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Objective 2 Start Access, Open an Existing Database, and View Database Objects