How A Wizard Can Improve
Your Access Efficiency

Contributed by Jay Schroyer

There’s no doubt that the implementation of software wizards in Microsoft® programs has made the modern personal computer very user-friendly. A wizard is a program that walks users step-by-step through software installation to ensure fast and correct program installation. Wizards can also be used to configure programs or utilities on your computer, like your computer’s fax utility or printer setup. Within Microsoft programs, there are also wizards to help you through tasks like sizing and printing your digital photos, building a cover letter and resume, or designing a spreadsheet. By asking you application-specific questions, the wizard can perform just about any task you’re trying to complete. Another helpful function of wizards (especially for beginners) is that you can always go back to the previous window or question if you feel you made a mistake, or you can simply cancel right out of it if you don’t think that the wizard is what you’re looking for. The wizard will also prevent you from making easy mistakes by telling you that you can’t perform the function that you are asking it to do. It’s like having a free PC tutorial right on your computer with you at all times.

Within Microsoft’s Access™ database software, there are wizards that can help you create tables, queries, forms, reports, and even create web pages out of your data. There are even templates that you can use to create entire databases. Some of these tasks would take hours of programming to build the applications that you seek, but with the use of a wizard, Access will build these applications for you from your specified data. And, although sometimes the wizards are not exactly what you’re looking for, they are great to use as a teaching tool or a building block for your own applications. By entering the Design View mode of Access, you can read the actual code that makes up these applications and later use this programming in your own creations if you feel ambitious enough. They can also help you very quickly create a cornerstone off of which you can build by altering and crafting the application to meet your needs, especially if you are just learning how to use Microsoft Access. In the following, we’ll take a look at the five wizards, their purpose, and how you can use them.

Tables
When you begin the wizard by choosing the Create a table using wizard option, a window will open with the Previous, Next, Finish, and Cancel buttons on the bottom. You can use these to move forward and backward through the wizard questions or to cancel out of the operation. Access will allow you to choose what type of table you’d like to create and the fields you would like in your table based on your data under Sample Fields. By highlighting one or more fields, you can then use the arrow button to move them into the Fields In My New Table dialog box. If you’d like to customize your table fields, you can right-click on the field to get a list of commands. Choose Rename and you can then put in any designation for that field that you desire. You can even choose how the data will be entered into the table as you move through the wizard manually or via a form. When you’ve answered all the questions and clicked Finish, Access will display the table that you have created. The Table Wizard is probably the simplest wizard available in Access but can oftentimes take some time to complete. The wizard can help speed up this process.

Queries
Although Access has a separate query function that you can run to sort your data by specific criteria, you can also access this powerful command via a wizard if the query function seems too intimidating. It is accessed just like the Table Wizard, but this time choose the Create query by using wizard option. This wizard will allow you to set certain and/or parameters. For example, from a database you could choose to list all names that contain the prefix Mr., thus separating your male data from your female data. Much like the Table Wizard, the Query Wizard has you select fields from a list of available fields that you want included in your query. You will also select a table for the query to run on, which is basically the data that you want sorted. The wizard will then supply you with the results of your query.

Forms
An Access wizard can also create forms for you. A form is a box that contains fields into which you can enter data. If you’re on a web site and click on a link to request more information, the box that pops up for you to enter your information into is an example of a form. If you access the Forms button and select the Create form by using wizard option, you can again select what table this form will be for and then select which fields you want to appear on the form. An added value feature of the Form Wizard is that it allows you a fair amount of versatility with how your form will appear. There are options in the wizard that allow you to choose your layout and style options so that you can create a consistent feel and appearance to your forms within the Access database.

Reports
What if you wanted to run a report on your data to see just what type of information you have collected? Like in the previous wizards, you can select your fields from the information that you want to show up in the report, then choose your sorting order, which can be ascending or descending based on the chosen field, and then a report will be created. You can access this wizard via the Reports menu. This wizard is a really quick and easy way to sort large quantities of information.

Pages
This final wizard allows you to take the same info that you garnered from the Report Wizard but will then save it as an HTML file, which will allow you to post it to the Web and have it viewed in a user’s web browser. This is especially handy if you have an intranet system set up in your office and need to share info with a lot of people. You can also use it to post sales results or contact lists on an extranet site.

And that’s about all there is to wizards in Access. They are almost as easy to understand as they are to use. Not only can they help you get a jump on your data sorting projects, but if you have the time to learn, you can always view the results in the Design mode of Access to see what makes these wizards tick. If you want to learn more about Access wizards or about Access itself, you can check out online resources like Video Professor that provide training and tutoring in many Microsoft programs.

Microsoft and Access are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, registered in the U.S. and/or other countries. Video Professor is a registered trademark of Video Professor, Inc.

About the Author:
Jay Schroyer has worked in the client and customer service end of business for over five years in retail, advertising, and printing. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English writing and communication.

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