Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Creating databases from templates
Access 2013 comes with templates for several databases typically used in business and
education, and when you are connected to the Internet, many more are available from the
Microsoft Office website. By using predefined templates, you can create a database in far
less time than it used to take to design one, because someone has already done the design
work for you.
SEE ALSO
For information about the basic concepts of database design, see the sidebar
“Database design” later in this chapter.
By using templates, you can create two types of database applications:
▪
Desktop databases
These databases are stored on your computer or a network
server. After using a desktop database template to create the database, you can
view and modify it by using Access 2013 on your local computer.
▪
Web apps
These database applications are hosted in a Microsoft SharePoint 2013
environment. They are designed to provide an online interface through which people
can view and enter data from a web browser. Web apps make it possible for people
to access company information from wherever they are and from any computer,
whether or not it has Access installed. Several of the templates that come with Access
and many of the templates available from the Office website are for web apps. For
more information, see the sidebar “Getting started with Access web apps” later in this
chapter.
Although using an Access template might not produce exactly the database you want,
it can quickly create something you can customize to meet your needs. However, you
can customize a database only if you know how to manipulate its basic building blocks:
tables, forms, queries, and reports. Due to the complexity of these templates, you prob-
ably shouldn't try to modify them until you're comfortable working with database objects
in Design view and Layout view. By the time you inish this topic, you will know enough to
be able to confidently work with the sophisticated pre-packaged database templates that
come with Access.
In this exercise, you'll explore the templates that come with Access, and you'll create a desk-
top database based on the Desktop Task Management template.
