Tables are the heart of any database because they
are where the actual information is stored.
And we're going to talk about how to add, edit,
and delete information from a table.
In the Navigation pane, double-click on the table
that you'd like to open.
And tables will be marked with a blue icon next to
the name.
If you've used Excel, or another spreadsheet program,
then you'll probably find tables to be pretty easy to use, and they are very similar.
But there are some different terms that we use
when talking about an Access table.
Each row is called a record.
In this table, every record contains a customer's name, address, and other information.
Each record will have a unique ID number, and this
number cannot be changed.
So Jerrod Smith's number will always be 3, no
matter what.
Each column is called a field.
And each field contains a different type of information.
For example, here we have fields for the Street Address, City, State, and Zip Code.
And just like in Excel, each box is called a cell.
If you want to change the information in a cell,
all you have to do is select it and then type in
the new text.
And let's say that this customer has a new email
address.
After you edit the record, you can save it by
clicking Save on the Home tab.
But whenever you click out of a cell, it's going
to automatically save it for you,
so if you're making a lot of different changes,
you don't have to worry about saving each record.
But it is a good idea to save the last one that
you're working on
just to make sure that you don't lose any changes when you close the database.
If you are editing more than one record,
you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move between records.
Or, if you prefer, you can use the arrows on the
Record Navigation bar.
You can also use the Record Navigation bar to
create a new record.
And then type in the person's information.
If you want to delete a record, click the margin
on the left side of the record,
and then on the Home tab, click the Delete command.
Normally, you should avoid deleting records
because it can negatively impact the database if
other objects refer to the record.
For example, if we deleted a customer's record,
it could cause the information in the Orders Table to be incomplete.
But if you're just deleting a brand new record then it's generally okay.
If you're sure you want to permanently delete it,
then click 'Yes'.
For some edits, you may want to use the Find and
Replace option to make a lot of changes at once.
I'm going to open up the Products Table.
On the Home tab, click the Replace command.
And let's say in some of our seasonal products, we
want to change the word 'Fall' to 'Autumn'.
Type in the word that you're looking for, and the
word that you want it replaced with.
We'll select Current document, so it will search
throughout the entire table.
And we want to look for matches that appear in any
part of the field.
Click Find Next to look for the word.
And it looks like the first instance of 'fall' isn't referring to the season,
so we'll skip this one and find the next one.
When you get to one that you want to change, click
Replace.
Just go through each one and decide whether you
want to replace it.
And generally you don't want to use Replace All
because that doesn't give you the option of skipping any of them.
So you should only use this option if you're absolutely sure
that it won't replace anything you don't want.
As you practice editing tables, keep in mind that
most of your changes are saved automatically,
so to be safe, you may want to create new records to practice with.