Computer Programming 30 - The Bouncing Message Program

Ross Sheppard High School
Computer Programming 30
Student Learning Guide
Creating and Using an Access Database

	When you have finished this project, you will be able to:
	describe what a database is
	create an Access Database
	use an Access Database
	modify an Access Database
	add records to an Access Database

Create a new folder called Database on your personal drive.
A database is a program that is used to keep track of people or things. For example, a mailing list is a database, as is a recipe collection, or a card catalogue in a library. In this project, you will create a database to keep track of your Compact Disk collection.
Each Compact Disk will be called a record in the database. Within each record will be a number of fields: title, artist, publisher label, etc.
Start Microsoft Access by double clicking the icon on your desktop.
The Access Main menu will appear.
Choose Blank Database.
Click the OK button and the Save dialog box will open. Access forces you to save your database when you create it.
Browse to your Access folder on your personal drive and save the database as CDCollection. The extension mdb (Microsoft Database) will automatically be added.
Click the Create button.
The database create window will appear.
There are many tabs available at this point which allow you to do things with the data base - such as finding certain records, or fields within records, or all records containing certain information. For now, you will just create a table.
Make sure the Tables tab is selected, then click the New button. The New Table dialog box will appear.
Choose Datasheet View.
You will see a table view appear that is similar to a spreadhseet.
You need to change the names of the fields from Field1, etc. to the proper names so they can be easily identified.
Right click the column labelled Field1 to bring up the context menu.
Select Rename Column, then change the name of the column to Title. This is the column into which you will enter the titles of each of your CDs.
Change the names of the other columns to match the illustration below.
With the field titles changed, it is a good time to save the database. Click on File in the Menu Bar then select Save. Save the Table as CDCollection.
Now, enter information for at least 10 CDs that you have in your collection. Do this by clicking in the first cell in the first column and typing in the name of your CD.
Press the Tab key to go to the second column and type the name of the artist. Continue entering the information in this manner until you have completed all of the data in each field for at least 10 CDs. Your database should be similar to the one below.
At this point, don't worry if the data you enter is too long for the field - you will learn how to change the size of the field later.
To change the width of the field, place the cursor between the two field names, and double click. This will adjust the field size to accommodate the longest line of text in that field.
Save your database; it should now look similar to the one shown below.
Databases can contain much more information than you have entered at this point. In addition, you can use a database to find and sort data in a variety of ways - you have only worked in a very simplistic way with databases at this point. Later, you will revisit databases and create a much more complex one.
You need to convert the Database into Access for Office 97 so it will work for Visual Basic 5.0 Because the new version of Access will not work.
Open up the Tools window and select Database Utilities and then Convert Database
Convert the Database to Access 97 File format, then save the file in your drive. This file can now be used by Visula Basic to change within Visual basic in your next assignments
Click here to see the marking guide for this project.
When you have finished, send an email to your teacher asking that this project be marked.