{"id":858,"date":"2012-08-13T20:19:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T12:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vm-officeblogs.cloudapp.net\/2012\/08\/13\/data-entry-made-easy\/"},"modified":"2023-12-29T14:02:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T22:02:42","slug":"data-entry-made-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365\/blog\/2012\/08\/13\/data-entry-made-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Data entry made easy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post was written by Erik Kennedy, a Program Manager on the Access team.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Access 2013, there are lots of improvements to help you quickly make a great user interface for your web databases. With this interface, the people who use your app will have easy time entering data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s two ways we’ve gone about doing this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Automatically generating two views based on your data.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Generating special controls for entering related data\u2014the related items control and the autocomplete control.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Automatically Created Views<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The basic unit of an Access app is a table.  When you describe an app by what it tracks\u2014”I want to track appointments” or “I want to track payments and invoices”\u2014you’re talking about tables.  In this case, a table for Appointments, Payments, or Invoices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Access 2013 does something really handy with all of your tables.  Whenever you create a new table (or make certain updates to an existing one), it will automatically create (or update) two views<\/i> for you.  A view is the screen in the browser that you see when you navigate to the app\u2014it’s through views that you interact with your data.  Access 2013 gives you the power to create entirely customized views, but to get you started quickly, it will automatically generate a List view and a Datasheet view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is a List view.  It functions a lot like a fill-out form you may see on any other website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is the Datasheet view. It looks and works like an Excel spreadsheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Both the List view and the Datasheet view allow you to edit the data of your app.  Whether you want to add new data, or edit or delete existing data, there’s a way to do it in the view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You can create different types of views besides these two, and you can even create duplicates of the same view, but with different data sources. For instance, you could have a List called “All Employees” and<\/i> a list of “Current Employees”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The point is that these views are automatically generated for you whenever you create a new table.  And if you update the table in the Table Designer, as long as you haven’t edited the view in the View Designer, your view will be updated automatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For instance, if you want to add a Birthday field to your Customers table to track the birthday of each customer, you can make the change in the Table Designer…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Add<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    …and your View will be updated with the field you added when you click “Refresh” in the browser!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Hotkeys and the Action Bar<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    You’ll notice at the top of the List view is a row of buttons. This is called the Action Bar, and it includes a number of commonly used commands that are useful in interacting with the data in your app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For the List View, these actions are provided automatically:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    • Add item<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Delete item<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Edit item<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Save item<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Cancel item<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      These few functions help get an app off the ground quickly, so you can start using it right away. If your scenario requires advanced customization or business logic, you can focus your time designing for what’s unique about your situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Because these functions are so common, we’ve also assigned some hotkeys. This way you can quickly move around the app without switching back and forth between the keyboard and the mouse. Here are the hotkeys for each of the actions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      • Add:<\/strong> N<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Delete:<\/strong> <Delete> key<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Edit:<\/strong> E<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Save:<\/strong> Ctrl + S<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Cancel:<\/strong> Esc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        You’ll also notice that you can tab between links and controls in your app.  Keyboard shortcuts will help make it easy and fast to interact with the data in your Access 2013 app!<\/p>\n\n\n\n