Microsoft Access help.....please!

[Squirrel3]

I've got an exam tommorrow and in my mock a couple of questions I didn't know the answer to came up, can anybody help?

I would be so grateful (and you would stop dp from suffering from my exam stress and my PMT, so he would be grateful too).

What were the questions Squirrel?

Thank you nerdgirl,

1. Should you index fields that you often use to search or sort a table?

2)If you print data directly from a table in datasheet view, will it print as a formatted report?

3. To change a field name do you have to be design view?

4. Does a validation rule check that the dates are entered in the correct format?

There are a couple more...

You should definitely index search and sort fields assuming that it makes sense to index them i.e that they are date, numeric, currency or text. Your primary key will already be indexed but having Access create indexes will speed up your searches and sorts.

If you print from datasheet view then you will get the records printed as on the datasheet - no special formatting will be done.

You can rename a field in datasheet view by right-clicking it and selecting 'Rename column'

A validation rule will check whatever you set it to check. If a field is defined as a date datatype then Access will do automatic rudimentary checking .

Thank you, could I trouble you with some more questions please?

Can you edit or enter records in a database using either a table or a form?

Can a forms design and layout be modified in either form or design view?

This question I didn't really understand it was, does the form wizard suggest the fields that you should add to your form? I know the fields that are in the table can be added but I'm not sure if the wizard suggests them.

You are so much more nerdy than me.

nerdgirl please don't go, I hope I didn't offend you.

Hence the name, Squirrel!!

Yes, you can edit and enter records using a Form or the datasheet view of a table.

You would almost always use design view to alter forms but you can do a surprising amount in form view by selecting a control and right-clicking it to access its properties - can't change the name though.

You're right about the wizard. When you pick a table or query, it does display the fields (and I suppose that could be considered suggestion) but it only displays them in the order they were entered into the table (i.e. it doesn't favour indexed fields etc.)

Anything else?

Sorry Squirrel! Posts Crossed! Not called nerdgirl because easily offended - just because I'm such a geek. Had to go and get dinner ready.

You are amazing! Thank you.

Just two more that I think I know the answer to, but I'm not sure.

Is a columar layout a vertical layout?

Last one, In a query you issolate specific records, but do all the fields still display?

A Columnar Layout has each field on a separate line with a label to its left.

A Tabular Layout has the fields in each record on one line, and the labels print once at the top of each page.

In a query you can limit your results to certain records by putting in criteria but you can also limit the fields in the result by only dragging and dropping the ones you want to see. Does that make sense?

Sort of, they are the answers that I would have put but some of the questions that they ask are so general and sometimes they just want a true/false answer and its not always as clear cut as that, is it?

Thank you very much, you are a life saver, oh, and dp thanks you too.

No problem Squirrel - good luck. My advice would be to forget about the mock questions and just play with Access a bit tonight. Set up a database to maintain Mumsnet chat!!

Best of luck for tomorrow Squirrel. As is typical for exams, I think some of your exam questions are pretty daft. Does it really matter if you can rename a column in datasheet view? Cos of all those valuable seconds you'd lose switching to design view to do it that way?! What nonsense

Hope it goes well!

Thank you tribpot,

I passed!! 96%!

Thank you so much for your help nerdgirl, typically they didn't ask me the questions that I had asked you about, but you can bet if I didn't know the answers they would have been there.