Microsoft Office Microsoft Office is a commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the

Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office containedMicrosoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint. Over the years, Office applications have grown substantially closer with shared features such as a common spell checker, OLE data integration and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications scripting language. Microsoft also positions Office as a development platform for line-of-business software under the Office Business Applications brand. Word Main article: Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor and was previously considered to be the main program in Office. Its proprietary DOC format is considered a de facto standard, although Word 2007 can also use a new XML-based, Microsoft Office-optimized format called .DOCX which has been standardized by Ecma International as Office Open XML and its SP2 update will support ODF and PDF. Word is also available in some editions of Microsoft Works. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms. The first version of Word, released in the autumn of 1983, was for the MS-DOS operating system and had the distinction of introducing the mouse to a broad population. Word 1.0 could be purchased with a bundled mouse, though none was required. Following the precedents of LisaWrite and MacWrite, Word for Macintosh attempted to add closer WYSIWYG features into its package. Word for Mac was released in 1985. Word for Mac was the first graphical version of Microsoft Word. Despite its bugginess, it became one of the most popular Mac applications. Excel Main article: Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program which originally competed with the dominant Lotus 1-2-3, but eventually outsold it. It is available for the Windows and Mac platforms. Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Mac in 1985, and the first Windows version (numbered 2.05 to line up with the Mac

and bundled with a standalone Windows run-time environment) in November 1987. PowerPoint Main article: Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular presentation program for Windows and Mac. It is used to create slideshows, composed of text, graphics, movies and other objects, which can be displayed on-screen and navigated through by the presenter or printed out on transparencies or slides.

INTRODUCTION TO MS-WORD

Microsoft (Office) Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenixsystems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS (1983), the Apple Macintosh (1984), the AT&T UnixPC (1985), Atari ST (1986), SCO UNIX, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows (1989). It is a component of the Microsoft Office software system; it is also sold as a standalone product and included in Microsoft Works Suite. The current versions are Microsoft Office Word 2010 for Windows and Microsoft Office Word 2011 for Mac

Let us consider an office scene. Many letters are typed in the office. The officer dictates a letter. The typist first types a draft copy of the letter. The officer goes through it to check mistakes regarding spelling errors, missing words, etc. and suggests corrections. The typist changes the letter as suggested by the officer. This is a simple example of word processing. There are many software packages to do the job of word processing. Some of them work in DOS environment. Example are WordStar, Word Perfect and Professional Write. But in these days working in WINDOWS is becoming more and more popular.

So let us consider software for word processing which works in WINDOWS. Our choice is MS-WORD because it is the most popular software in these days. MS-WORD is a part of the bigger package called MS OFFICE, which can do much more than word processing. In fact when you open up MS OFFICE you will find four main components in it. They are MS-WORD (for word processing), MS EXCEL (for spreadsheet), MS ACCESS (for database management) and MS POWERPOINT (for presentation purposes). Features

Normal.dot Normal.dot is the master template. WordArt WordArt enables drawing text in a Microsoft Word document such as a title, watermark, or other text, with graphical effects such as skewing, shadowing, rotating, stretching in a variety of shapes and colors and even including threedimensional effects, starting at version 2007, and prevalent in Office 2010. Users can apply formatting effects such as shadow, bevel, glow, and reflection to their document text as easily as applying bold or underline. Users can also spell-check text that uses visual effects, and add text effects to paragraph styles. Macros Like other Microsoft Office documents, Word files can include advanced macros and even embedded programs. The language was originally WordBasic, but changed to Visual Basic for Applicationsas of Word 97. This extensive functionality can also be used to run and propagate viruses in documents. The tendency for people to exchange Word documents via email, USB flash drives, and floppy disks made this an especially attractive vector in 1999. A prominent example was the Melissa virus, but countless others have existed in the wild. Nearly all anti-virus software can detect and clean common macro viruses. These macro viruses were the only known cross-platform threats between Windows and Macintosh computers and they were the only infection vectors to affect any Mac OS X system up until the advent of video codec trojans in

2007. Microsoft released patches for Word X and Word 2004 that effectively eliminated the macro problem on the Mac by 2006. Word's macro security setting, which regulates when macros may execute, can be adjusted by the user, but in the most recent versions of Word, is set to HIGH by default, generally reducing the risk from macro-based viruses, which have become uncommon. Layout issues Before Word 2010 (Word 14) for Windows, the program was unable to handle ligatures defined in TrueType fonts those ligature glyphs with Unicode codepoints may be inserted manually, but are not recognized by Word for what they are, breaking spell checking, while custom ligatures present in the font are not accessible at all. Since Word 2010, the program now has advanced typesettingfeatures which can be enabled:OpenType ligatures, kerning, and hyphenation. Other layout deficiencies of Word include the inability to set crop marks or thin spaces. Various third-party workaround utilities have been developed. Similarly, combining diacritics are handled poorly: Word 2003 has "improved support", but many diacritics are still misplaced, even if a precomposed glyph is present in the font. Additionally, as of Word 2002, Word does automatic font substitution when it finds a character in a document that does not exist in the font specified. It is impossible to deactivate this, making it very difficult to spot when a glyph used is missing from the font in use. If "Mirror margins" or "Different odd and even" are enabled, Word will not allow the user to freshly begin page numbering an even page after a section break (and vice versa). Instead it inserts a mandatory blank page which cannot be removed. In Word 2004 for Macintosh, support of complex scripts was inferior even to Word 97, and Word 2004 does not support Apple Advanced Typography features like ligatures or glyph variants. Bullets and numbering Word has extensive list of bullets and numbering features used for tables, lists, pages, chapters, headers, footnotes, and tables of content. Bullets and numbering can be applied directly or using a button or by applying a style or through use of a template. Some problems with numbering have been found in Word 97-2003. An example is Word's system for restarting numbering. The Bullets and Numbering system has been significantly overhauled for Office 2007, which is intended to reduce the severity of these problems. For example, Office 2007 cannot align tabs for multi-leveled numbered lists. Often, items in a list will be inexplicably separated from their list number by

one to three tabs, rendering outlines unreadable. These problems cannot be resolved even by expert users. Even basic dragging and dropping of words is usually impossible. Bullet and numbering problems in Word include: bullet characters are often changed and altered, indentation is changed within the same list, bullet point or number sequence can belong to an entirely different nest within the same sequence. Creating tables Users can also create tables in MS Word. Depending on the version, Word can perform simple calculations. Formulas are supported as well. AutoSummarize AutoSummarize highlights passages or phrases that it considers valuable. The amount of text to be retained can be specified by the user as a percentage of the current amount of text. According to Ron Fein of the Word 97 team, AutoSummarize cuts wordy copy to the bone by counting words and ranking sentences. First, AutoSummarize identifies the most common words in the document (barring "a" and "the" and the like) and assigns a "score" to each wordthe more frequently a word is used, the higher the score. Then, it "averages" each sentence by adding the scores of its words and dividing the sum by the number of words in the sentencethe higher the average, the higher the rank of the sentence. "It's like the ratio of wheat to chaff," explains Fein. AutoSummarize was removed from Microsoft Word for Mac 2011, although it was present in Word for Mac 2008. AutoSummarize was also removed from the Office 2010 release version (14) as well.

The Formatting toolbar

This entire toolbar could become a floating window by double-clicking on the control bar at the far left end of this toolbar. That gives the following window, which can be placed anywhere on the screen:

This toolbar can be restored to its original position by clicking in the gray bar at the top and dragging it back to the top of the screen. Push the top of the window up to the bottom of the menu bar.

Function of commonly used buttons Select the style to apply to paragraphs Changes the size of selected text and numbers Makes selected text and numbers italic Aligns to the left with a ragged right margin Aligns to the right with a ragged left margin Makes a numbered list or reverts back to normal Decreases the indent to the previous tab stop Adds or removes a border around selected Changes the font of the selected text Makes selected text and numbers bold Underlines selected text and numbers Centers the selected text Aligns the selected text to both the left and right margins Add, or remove, bullets in a selected paragraph Indents the selected paragraph to the next tab stop Marks text so that it is highlighted and stands

text or objects Formats the selected text with the color you click

out

Carefully review the function of each of the buttons above. When you think that you are familiar with each of the buttons take the short quiz below. (The Formatting toolbar has been included as a reference)

Text Tools In addition to the editing tools covered in the previous section, Word has a number of other tools to assist in working with test documents. There are tools to help you find and correct mistakes in your spelling, tools to fix up common typing errors, tools to automatically insert frequently used words & phrases and of course tools to print your work Spell Check A spell checking utility has long been a standard component of Word Processors. The spell checker in Word has improved in many ways over the years with increased reliability and increased ease of use. It has also been expanded to include a grammar checker and can be configured to check in different languages when required. You can even customise the dictionary Word uses to check your spelling so that it recognises words and abbreviations that may be unique to your organisation.

There are several ways to use the spell checker in Word. You can run the spell check utility to check your whole document or sections of your document for errors. There is also an automatic spell check which identifies errors as you type so you can quickly correct them. AutoCorrect and AutoFormat Microsoft Word includes an AutoCorrect feature which will automatically correct common mistakes as soon as you type them. In addition to common typing and spelling errors, it can also correct mistakes such as. Another similar feature called AutoFormat can change the appearance of certain text you type. Forgetting to write the first letter of a sentence or the name of a day as a capital. aCCIDENTALLY lEAVING tHE cAPS lOCK kEY tURNED oN Holding the shift key too long and ending up with TWo Capital AutoText AutoText is a feature of Word which allows you to automatically insert frequently used text. The amount of text could be anything from a single word to a whole pages worth of text and can even include non-text elements such as pictures. Some common words and phrases such as names of months & days are already built in to Words AutoText feature and you can also add your own. Any new entries you add will be available for use in all documents you create

Previewing and Printing a Document Since the majority of documents created by a word processor are intended to be printed, it is important for the process to be as quick and easy as possible. Assuming your computer has at least one working printer available, it is simple to print copies of a document whenever you need to. You can also preview how a document will look when its printed. That may seem unnecessary in a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) program, but the print preview makes it easier to see how the document will look on full pages without spell-check underlines, rulers and the other editing aids that normally display on the Word screen. Shortcuts Covered in This Section Alt F3 Create a new AutoText entry from the selected text. Ctrl F1 Display / hide the Task Pane. Ctrl P Display the printing options / Print a document. Ctrl Y Repeat the last change. Ctrl Z Undo the last change. F3 Complete an AutoText entry. F7 Spelling and Grammar Check.

PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is included in the standard Office suite along with Microsoft Word and Excel. The software allows users to create anything from basic slide shows to complex presentations. PowerPoint is often used to create business presentations, but can also be used for educational or informal purposes. The presentations are comprised of slides, which may contain text, images, and other media, such as audio clips and movies. Sound effects and animated transitions can also be included to add extra appeal to the presentation. However, overusing sound effects and transitions will probably do more to annoy your audience than draw their attention. (Yes, we have all heard the car screeching noise enough times for one lifetime.) Most PowerPoint presentations are created from a template, which includes a background color or image, a standard font, and a choice of several slide layouts. Changes to the template can be saved to a "master slide," which stores the main slide theme used in the presentation. When changes are made to the master slide, such as choosing a new background image, the changes are propagated to all the other slides. This keeps a uniform look among all the slides in the presentation. When presenting a PowerPoint presentation, the presenter may choose to have the slides change at preset intervals or may decide to control the flow manually. This can be done using the mouse,keyboard, or a remote control. The flow of the presentation can be further customized by having slides load completely or one bullet at a time. For example, if the presenter has several bullet points on a page, he might have individual points appear when he clicks the mouse. This allows more interactivity with the audience and brings greater focus to each point. PowerPoint presentations can be created and viewed using Microsoft PowerPoint. They can also be imported and exported with Apple Keynote, Apple's presentation program for the Macintosh platform. Since most people prefer not to watch presentations on a laptop, PowerPoint presentations are often displayed using a projector. Therefore, if you are preparing a PowerPoint presentation for a room full of people, just make sure you have the correct video adapter.

werPoint Views
By default, when PowerPoint is first launched, it runs in its Normal view, indicated at the bottom left of the screen by the depressed first button in the small views toolbar. The normal view provides a what-yousee-is-what-you-get mode for working with your slides. As the default view, its operations are discussed at some length in these pages. But it is useful to consider the useful alternatives offered by PowerPoint's other view options.

Outline View
One of the most practical views is the Outline view, which can be activated by clicking on the second option in the views toolbar.

In the Outline view, the screen is predominantly occupied by a list of the slide titles and the bulleted items that are a part of those slides. (Images, tables, and charts are not part of this list, though they are visible in a preview window situated in the upper right corner of the screen.) Along the left edge of the screen you should see the Outlining toolbar: if it is not visible, you can bring it to the screen by selecting View|Toolbars|Outlining .

The outlining view provides a mechanism that allows you to focus on the content and arrangement of the points you'll be addressing in your presentation, without the rest of PowerPoint 's layout elements interfering with your concentration. In the outline view, everything you type falls within a hierarchical list, with slide titles represented flush left (with a little slide icon), and bulleted list items appearing at various levels of indentation. Every time the Enter key is pressed, a new item is created at the previous level of indentation. Then pressing Tab or Shift+Tab demotes or promotes the item to the status of a bulleted item, a sub-item, or a new slide, depending upon what the current level is. In addition, the buttons on the outline toolbar can be brought into play: Promote item--this increases the significance of the item on the slide: a sub-item moves one step up in the hierarchy; an item can be made to be a slide of its own Demote item--this decreases the significance of the item on the slide: a slide can be made a bullet; a bulleted item can be made a sub-item) Move an item up--this lets you nudge bulleted items up in and between slides, and, if the outline is collapsed [see below] it will even let you shift the position of a slide upwards in the presentation Move an item down--this lets you nudge bulleted items down in and between slides, and, if the outline is collapsed [see below] it will even let you shift the position of a slide downwards in the presentation Collapse--this collapses all sub-headings and bulleted items on the currently selected slide Expand--this expands all sub-headings and bulleted items on the currently selected slide Collapse All--this collapses all sub-headings and bulleted items on all slides Expand All--this expands all subheadings and bulleted items on all slides The Outline view and toolbar together provide a powerful means of arranging and ordering your information and ensuring that the presentation flows in a clear, logical fashion.

Slide View

The Slide View is represented by the third button on the Views toolbar in the lower left corner of thePowerPoint screen. The Slide View is so much like the Normal view that it won't be discussed much here: it provides a larger view of the slide (which is great if you need a more detailed view), but it does so at the expense of reducing the outline to a set of slide numbers and eliminating the notes view altogether. Working in this view is not recommended.

Slide Sorter View

The Slide Sorter View can be genuinely useful: it presents thumbnail images of all of the slides in the presentation and allows, through a simple dragging and dropping operation, a slide to be moved from one place in the presentation to another.

Double-clicking on any given thumbnail in the Slide Sorter View has the effect of opening that slide in the last view that had been used. To move a slide from one location in the presentation to another, click on the slide you would like to move, and drag it to the destination you would like it to appear in. Then release the mouse button to drop the slide into place, and your new slide sequence will be set.

Slide Show View

The Slide Show View is activated by clicking on the fifth button on the views toolbar. The Slide Show Viewlaunches the presentation at the point of the currently selected slide, with the effect of hiding PowerPoint'sediting interface. It is useful for previewing your work as you are creating it--details on navigating slides are available in the Giving a Presentation document on this web site. Note : It is not very elegant to present the final slide show by first launching the presentation in PowerPoint and then clicking on theSlide Show View icon--there's no reason why your audience should have to see PowerPoint's editing interface at all. By saving your final presentation as a PowerPoint Show, you can launch directly into the Slide Show View . See the Giving a Presentation document for details.

The Normal View The Normal View is PowerPoint's default view. It displays each slide in the Tri-Pane area for easy selection. Once selected, slides can be moved, edited or deleted.

How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation

1. Start with a template (background) on which your text, pictures, graphs or videos will be shown. This is done by selecting the Office button New. Then, select Installed Templates, select your template and Create.

Start with a template (background) on which your text, pictures, graphs or videos will be shown.

2. 2
Choose the format of your slide, for instance, If you want to have a single slide with text on the right and a picture on the left. Choose the text or content layout. (INSERT NEW SLIDE)

Choose the format of your slide, for instance, If you want to have a single slide with text on the right and a picture on the left.

3. 3
If you want to type text, choose a "slide layout" with a text box as shown in the sample template picture. Same process for a picture, movie or sound file.

o o

Use short, concise words to guide your audience, and let yourself do the detailed explaining. Keywords show that you know your subject when you go more in-depth during your powerpoint. For example, use "Fire Kiln" as a keyword in a Powerpoint, but explain the process during the actual presentation. Think bullet points. Don't use full sentences in your Powerpoint presentations unless it's absolutely necessary. Don't be afraid to spread information across multiple slides. It's better than overcrowding a Powerpoint!

Don't be afraid to spread information across multiple slides.

4. 4
To insert anything (text, charts, etc), simply click on the designated box to activate it and start inserting away.

o o

Inserting pictures and graphs is a good idea to make your presentation more visually engaging. Break up your text! Use color effectively in your Powerpoint. Have a theme of colors and be consistent when using them to highlight key points. This makes your presentation look more professional.

Use color effectively in your Powerpoint.

5. 5
To play the presentation go to: VIEW SLIDE SHOW or press "F5".

To play the presentation go to: VIEW SLIDE SHOW or press "F5"

Introduction to Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access is a computer application used to create and manage computer-based databases on desktop computers and/or on connected computers (a network). Microsoft Access can be used for personal information management (PIM), in a small business to organize and manage data, or in an enterprise to communicate with servers. Like any other computer application, in order to use Microsoft Access, you must first install it. After installing Microsoft Access, then you can open it. There are various ways you can open Microsoft Access. It gets launched like the usual products you have probably been using. As such, to start this program, you could click Start -> (All) Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office Access 2010. From now on, that is, for the rest of the lessons, the expression "Microsoft Access" means Microsoft Office Access 2010. If you have a Microsoft Access database such as an E-Mail attachment, a file on a floppy disk, on the network, or in any other means, once you see its icon, you can double-click it. Not only will this action launch Microsoft Access, but also it will open the file. You can also launch Microsoft Access from a shortcut. If you happen to use the software on a regular basis, you can create a shortcut on your desktop or on the Quick Launch area. If you are working on a network of related computers, your database may be located in another computer. In this case the network or database administrator would create a link or shortcut to the drive that is hosting the database. You can then click or double-click this link or shortcut to open the database and, as a result, launch Microsoft Access.

Features
Users can create tables, queries, forms and reports, and connect them together with macros. Advanced users can use VBA to write rich solutions with advanced data manipulation and user control. The original concept of Access was for end users to be able to "access" data from any source. Other uses include: the import and export of data to many formats including Excel, Outlook, ASCII,dBase, Paradox, FoxPro, SQL Server, Oracle, ODBC, etc. It also has the ability to link to data in its existing location and use it for viewing, querying, editing, and reporting. This allows the existing data to change while ensuring that Access uses the latest data. It can perform heterogeneous joins between data sets stored across different platforms. Access is often used by people downloading data from enterprise level databases for manipulation, analysis, and reporting locally. There is also the Jet Database format (MDB or ACCDB in Access 2007) which can contain the application and data in one file. This makes it very convenient to distribute the entire application to another user, who can run it in disconnected environments.

One of the benefits of Access from a programmer's perspective is its relative compatibility with SQL (structured query language) queries can be viewed graphically or edited as SQL statements, and SQL statements can be used directly in Macros and VBA Modules to manipulate Access tables. Users can mix and use both VBA and "Macros" for programming forms and logic and offers objectoriented possibilities. VBA can also be included in queries. Microsoft Access offers parameterized queries. These queries and Access tables can be referenced from other programs like VB6 and .NET through DAO or ADO. From Microsoft Access, VBA can reference parameterized stored procedures via ADO. The desktop editions of Microsoft SQL Server can be used with Access as an alternative to the Jet Database Engine. This support started with MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine), a scaled down version of Microsoft SQL Server 2000, and continues with the SQL Server Express versions of SQL Server 2005 and 2008. Microsoft Access is a file server-based database. Unlike clientserver relational database management systems (RDBMS), Microsoft Access does not implement database triggers, stored procedures, or transaction logging. Access 2010 includes table-level triggers and stored procedures built into the ACE data engine. Thus a Client-server database system is not a requirement for using stored procedures or table triggers with Access 2010. Tables, queries, Forms, reports and Macros can now be developed specifically for web base application in Access 2010. Integration with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is also highly improved.

table relationships
After you have created a table for each subject in your database, you must provide Office Access 2007 with the means by which to bring that information back together again when needed. You do this by placing common fields in tables that are related, and by defining relationships between your tables. You can then create queries, forms, and reports that display information from several tables at once. For example, the form shown here includes information drawn from several tables:

Information in this form comes from the Customers table... ...the Orders table... ...the Products table... ...and the Order Details table.

The customer name in the Bill To box is retrieved from the Customers table, the Order ID and the Order Date values come from the Orders table, the Product name comes from the Products table, and the Unit Price and Quantity values come from the Order Details table. These tables are linked to each other in a variety of ways to bring information from each into the form. In the preceding example, the fields in the tables must be coordinated so that they show information about the same order. This coordination is accomplished by using table relationships. A table relationship works by matching data in key fields often a field with the same name in both tables. In most cases, these matching fields are the primary key from one table, which provides a unique identifier for each record, and a foreign key in the other table. For example, employees can be associated with orders for which they are responsible by creating a table relationship between the EmployeeID fields in the Employees and the Orders tables.

EmployeeID appears in both tables as a primary key ... ... and as a foreign key.
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Types of table relationships

There are three types of table relationships.

A one-to-many relationship Consider an order tracking database that includes a Customers table and an Orders table. A customer can place any number of orders. It follows that for any customer represented in the Customers table, there can be many orders represented in the Orders table. The relationship between the Customers table and the Orders table is, therefore, a one-to-many relationship. To represent a one-to-many relationship in your database design, take the primary key on the "one" side of the relationship and add it as an additional field or fields to the table on the "many" side of the relationship. In this case, for example, you add a new field the ID field from the Customers table to the Orders table and name it Customer ID. Access can then use the Customer ID number in the Orders table to locate the correct customer for each order.

A many-to-many relationship Consider the relationship between a Products table and an Orders table. A single order can include more than one product. On the other hand, a single product can appear on many orders. Therefore, for each record in the Orders table, there can be many records in the Products table. In addition, for each record in the Products table, there can be

many records in the Orders table. This type of relationship is called a many-to-many relationship because, for any product, there can be many orders and, for any order, there can be many products. Note that to detect existing manyto-many relationships between your tables, it is important that you consider both sides of the relationship. To represent a many-to-many relationship, you must create a third table, often called a junction table, that breaks down the many-to-many relationship into two one-to-many relationships. You insert the primary key from each of the two tables into the third table. As a result, the third table records each occurrence, or instance, of the relationship. For example, the Orders table and the Products table have a many-to-many relationship that is defined by creating two one-to-many relationships to the Order Details table. One order can have many products, and each product can appear on many orders.

A one-to-one relationship
In a one-to-one relationship, each record in the first table can have only one matching record in the second table, and each record in the second table can have only one matching record in the first table. This type of relationship is not common because, most often, the information related in this way is stored in the same table. You might use a one-toone relationship to divide a table with many fields, to isolate part of a table for security reasons, or to store information that applies only to a subset of the main table. When you do identify such a relationship, both tables must share a common field.

What is a database?
A database is a tool for collecting and organizing information. Databases can store information about people, products, orders, or anything else. Many databases start as a list in a word-processing program or spreadsheet. As the list grows bigger, redundancies and inconsistencies begin to appear in the data. The data becomes hard to understand in list form, and there are limited ways of searching or pulling subsets of data out for review. Once these problems start to appear, it's a good idea to transfer the data to a database created by a database management system (DBMS), such as Office Access 2007. A computerized database is a container of objects. One database can contain more than one table. For example, an inventory tracking system that uses three tables is not three databases, but one database that contains three tables. Unless it has been specifically designed to use data or code from another source, an Access database stores its tables in a single file, along with other objects, such as forms, reports, macros, and modules. Databases created in the Access 2007 format have the file extension .accdb, and databases created in earlier Access formats have the file extension .mdb. You can use Access 2007 to create files in earlier file formats (for example, Access 2000 and Access 2002-2003). Using Access, you can:

Add new data to a database, such as a new item in an inventory Edit existing data in the database, such as changing the current location of an item Delete information, perhaps if an item is sold or discarded Organize and view the data in different ways Share the data with others via reports, e-mail messages, an intranet , or the Internet

The parts of an Access database

The following sections are short descriptions of the parts of a typical Access database. To learn more about each part, follow the links in the See Also section of this article.

TABLES
A database table is similar in appearance to a spreadsheet, in that data is stored in rows and columns. As a result, it is usually quite easy to import a spreadsheet into a database table. The main difference between storing your data in a spreadsheet and storing it in a database is in how the data is organized. To get the most flexibility out of a database, the data needs to be organized into tables so that redundancies don't occur. For example, if you're storing information about employees, each employee should only need to be entered once in a table that is set up just to hold employee data. Data about products will be stored in its own table, and data about branch offices will be stored in another table. This process is called normalization. Each row in a table is referred to as a record. Records are where the individual pieces of information are stored. Each record consists of one or more fields. Fields correspond to the columns in the table. For example, you might have a table named "Employees" where each record (row) contains information about a different employee, and each field (column) contains a different type of information, such as first name, last name, address, and so on. Fields must be designated as a certain data type, whether it's text, date or time, number, or some other type. Another way to describe records and fields is to visualize a library's old-style card catalog. Each card in the cabinet corresponds to a record in the database. Each piece of information on an individual card (author, title, and so on) corresponds to a field in the database.

Tables Forms Reports Queries Macros Modules

FORMS
Forms are sometimes referred to as "data entry screens." They are the interfaces you use to work with your data, and they often contain command buttons that perform various commands. You can create a database without using forms by simply editing your data in the table datasheets. However, most database users prefer to use forms for viewing, entering, and editing data in the tables. Forms provide an easy-to-use format for working with the data, and you can also add functional elements, such as command buttons, to them. You can program the buttons to determine which data appears on the form, open other forms or reports, or perform a variety of other tasks. For example, you might have a form named "Customer Form" in which you work with customer data. The customer form might have a button which opens an order form where you can enter a new order for that customer. Forms also allow you to control how other users interact with the data in the database. For example, you can create a form that shows only certain fields and allows only certain operations to be performed. This helps protect data and to ensure that the data is entered properly.

REPORTS
Reports are what you use to summarize and present data in the tables. A report usually answers a specific question, such as "How much money did we receive from each customer this year?" or "What cities are our customers located in?" Each report can be formatted to present the information in the most readable way possible. A report can be run at any time, and will always reflect the current data in the database. Reports are generally formatted to be printed out, but they can also be viewed on the screen, exported to another program, or sent as email message.

QUERIES
Queries are the real workhorses in a database, and can perform many different functions. Their most common function is to retrieve specific data from the tables. The data you want to see is usually spread across several tables, and queries allow you to view it in a single datasheet. Also, since you usually don't want to see all the records at once, queries let you add criteria to "filter" the data down to just the records you want. Queries often serve as the record source for forms and reports. Certain queries are "updateable," meaning you can edit the data in the underlying tables via the query datasheet. If you are working in an updateable query, remember that your changes are actually being made in the tables, not just in the query datasheet. Queries come in two basic varieties: select queries and action queries. A select query simply retrieves the data and makes it available for use. You can view the results of the query on the screen, print it out, or copy it to the clipboard. Or, you can use the output of the query as the record source for a form or report. An action query, as the name implies, performs a task with the data. Action queries can be used to create new tables, add data to existing tables, update data, or delete data.

MACROS
Macros in Access can be thought of as a simplified programming language which you can use to add functionality to your database. For example, you can attach a macro to a command button on a form so that the macro runs whenever the button is clicked. Macros contain actions that perform tasks, such as opening a report, running a query, or closing the database. Most database operations that you do manually can be automated by using macros, so they can be great time-saving devices.

MODULES
Modules, like macros, are objects you can use to add functionality to your database. Whereas you create macros in Access by choosing from a list of macro actions, you write modules in the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language. A module is a collection of declarations, statements, and procedures that are stored together as a unit. A module can be either a class module or a standard module. Class modules are attached to forms or reports, and usually contain procedures that are specific to the form or report they're attached to. Standard modules contain general procedures that aren't associated with any other object. Standard modules are listed under Modules in the Navigation Pane, whereas class modules are not.

Microsoft Excel Fundamentals

Accounting is one of the most popular and dynamic areas of of interest in our society. Accounting is used to know, understand, and analyze the numbers. It helps to handle financial transactions for regular people, businesses, government agencies, and international monetary relationships. Accounting can be resumed as the system used to identify, record, and document the monetary transactions of any kind. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application used to create and manage business transactions that deal with accounting. To make this possible, it can assist you with creating lists of transactions, then using those list to create charts and other analysis tools.

excel formulas
A forumla is nothing more than an equation that you write up. In Excel a typical formula might contain cells, constants, and even functions. Here is an example Excel formula that we have labeled for your understanding. =B3 * 5 / SUM(B4:B7) cell(s): B3 and the range of cells from B4:B7 constant(s): 5 function(s): SUM()

excel formulas: creating your first formula

This first formula will be as simple as they come and will teach you the basic form of an Excel formula. Create a new spreadsheet and then follow these steps: 1. Select cell A1 2. Type the following basic arithmetic formula into cell A1: =1+1

3. Press Enter and notice how cell A1 changes from your formula to the result!

This may seem simple, but there are a some very important things you should get out of this example. When you start off a cell entry with the equal sign "=" you are telling Excel that you want it to evaluate the following formula.

In our case we had a simple "1+1" we wanted Excel to solve for us. You can do this for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and any other operation you can think of. Remember, if you do not start your entry with the equal sign, then Excel will not evaluate the cell!

using cells to create dynamic formulas

The most powerful aspect of Excel is not the simple calculator abilities we describes in our first formula example, but rather the ability to take values from cells to be used in your formulas. Let's set up a basic sales spreadsheet to help explain this topic. 1. In cells A1-D4 enter the following information:

Notice: that cell D2 and D3 are blank, but should contain the amount of money from selling 150 candy items and 3 vegetables. By referencing the Quantity and Price cells we will be able to do this! Let's begin with Candy. 2. Note:It is very important to follow these steps exactly without interruptions! Select cell D2, candy's "revenue", and type the equal sign "=" to begin your formula. 3. Left-click on cell B2, Candy's Quantity and notice your formula is now "=B2"

4. We want to multiply Quanity(B2) by Price(B3) so enter an asterisk (*)

5. Now left-click on Candy's Price (C2)to complete your formula!

6. If your formula looks like ours then press Enter, otherwise you can manually enter the formula "=B2*C2". However, we really think it is easier and preferred to click on cells to reference them, instead of entering that information manually. 7. After you pressed Enter your Candy Revenue cell should be functioning properly and contain the value 75.

8. Using your newly gained knowledge please complete Vegetable's Revenue by repeating steps 27 for Vegetable 9. Your spreadsheet should now look like this:

10. Cheatsheet: If you are having trouble creating the formula for Vegetable's Revenue it is "=B3*C3"

advanced excel formulas: using formulas in formulas

Now that we have created separate revenues for both Candy and Vegetable it would be nice to somehow combine these two values to get the Total Revenue. Although both Vegetable Revenue and Candy Revenue contain formulas, we can still use these cells as we have been doing and add them together to get our total. 1. 2. 3. 4. Select cell D5 (directly below "Total") Type the equal sign "=" Left-click cell D2 Type the plus sign "+"

5. Left-click cell D3. Cell D5 should now contain this formula "=D2+D3":

6. Press Enter to complete your Total Revenue!