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Getting to Know Microsoft Access 2003
Opening an Existing Database
The Garden Company’s database, which is called GardenCo, contains information
about its employees, products, suppliers, and customers that is stored in a series of
tables. As you complete the exercises in this book, you will work with these tables
to develop an assortment of queries, forms, reports, data access pages, macros, and
modules that can be used to enter, edit, and manipulate the information in the
tables in many ways.
In this exercise, you will open the GardenCo database, explore some of its objects,
and then close the database. You won’t find a lot of detailed explanation here, because
this is just an overview.
BE SURE TO start your computer, but don’t start Access yet.
USE the GardenCo database in the practice file folder for this topic. This practice file is located in the
My Documents\Microsoft Press\Access 2003 SBS\KnowAccess\Open folder and can also be accessed
by clicking Start/All Programs/Microsoft Press/Access 2003 Step by Step.
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On the taskbar, click the Start button, point to All Programs and then Microsoft
Office, and click Microsoft Office Access 2003.
As with other Office programs, Access has a menu bar and one or more toolbars
across the top of the window. When you click either New or File Search on the
File menu, or click Office Clipboard on the Edit menu, the New File task pane
is displayed at the right side of this window.
Menu bar
Toolbar
New File
task
pane
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