WELCOME TO THE ONLINE VERSION OF

Building Applications with Microsoft Access 97

Building Applications with Microsoft® Access 97 is the developer's guide to creating, managing, and distributing database solutions. Whether you are new to Microsoft Access, or an experienced application developer, you can use this book to build powerful, robust database solutions. This is the online version of the printed book you get with Microsoft Access 97 or Microsoft Office 97, Developer Edition; with very few exceptions, the content is the same. You can read this book directly from the CD-ROM, copy it onto a local machine, or share it over an intranet.

Important   To view this book, you need a Web browser that supports frames and style sheets, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0. You can get Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 from the ValuPack folder on the Office 97 or Microsoft Access 97 CD-ROM, or on the network you installed Office or Microsoft Access from. To install Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 from the ValuPack folder, you can double-click the shortcut that was added to your desktop when you installed Office 97 or Microsoft Access 97. Alternatively, if you have access to the World Wide Web, you can download Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 from the Internet. In Microsoft Access, point to Microsoft on the Web (Help menu), and then click Free Stuff.

Moving Through This Book

The chapters in this book are separated into sections; each section is one online page. Use the table of contents in the left frame to move through the online pages of this book in the right frame. There are two navigation systems available: the default table of contents and an Explorer-view table of contents.

 Using the Default Table of Contents   To use the default table of contents to move through this book, click a chapter title or section heading in the left frame to display the page that contains that section in the right frame. If you click a chapter title, the right frame displays the first page of that chapter. To see all the chapters in the table of contents, scroll down the left frame by clicking the scroll bar.

 Using the Explorer-View Table of Contents   If you want to be able to see most of the table of contents at once in the left frame, you can install a control that displays the contents in an Explorer-type view. In this view, you can see the contents of a chapter by clicking the plus sign (+) to the left of the chapter title. Then you can double-click the heading of the section you want to read. If you double-click a chapter title, the first page of the chapter opens in the right frame. To collapse a chapter's table of contents, click the minus sign (-) to the left of the chapter title.

See Also   For more information on the advantages of using the Explorer-view table of contents, see the following section "Finding Information."

Important   If you use this view, the control automatically installs 1.5 MB of files on your hard drive.

To use this view of the table of contents, click:
Microsoft Visual C++: The Tool Without Limits!

Note   The control used to create this view of the table of contents was developed in Microsoft Visual C++, "The Tool Without Limits." For more information about this and other ActiveX controls, see the Microsoft Visual C++ Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/visualc/.

You can also move through the book without using the table of contents by clicking the Previous Page and Next Page buttons at the top and bottom of each online page. You can return to this opening page at any time by clicking the Refresh button on the toolbar.

Click the red underlined text to jump to another section of the book that contains relevant information. Once you use a jump, the text changes from red to green. You can click the Back button on the toolbar to return to the original page you were reading.

Note   Jumps that begin with http: go to sites on the World Wide Web. To use these jumps, you must have a connection to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) over either a network or a modem. Jumps that require an Internet connection are designated by this icon .

Finding Information

Another advantage of using the Explorer-view table of contents is that you can use the index and bookmarks to find information in this book.

Using the Index

The Explorer-view table of contents provides an index so that you can quickly locate the information you need.

   To find information with the index

1   Right-click in the table of contents and then click Index on the shortcut menu.

2   In the Search For box, type the topic you are looking for.

3   In the Titles box, double-click the heading of the section you want to read.

The page that contains the information you are looking for opens in the right frame. You may need to scroll down the page to find the information you need.

Using Bookmarks

If you want to mark a specific page in this book so that you can quickly return to it later, you can create bookmarks in the Explorer-view table of contents.

   To create a bookmark in the Explorer-view table of contents

1   In the table of contents, right-click the section that you want to create a bookmark for, and then click Add/Remove Bookmarks on the shortcut menu.

2   If you want the name of your bookmark to be something different from the name of the section, change it in the Bookmark Name box.

3   Click Add.

Note   You can also use the Add/Remove Bookmarks command to delete a bookmark.

   To return to a bookmark in the Explorer-view table of contents

 Right-click in the table of contents, point to Bookmark on the shortcut menu, and click the bookmark you want on the submenu.

The section heading is selected in the table of contents and the page is displayed in the right frame.

Printing Pages of This Book

The printed version of Building Applications with Microsoft Access 97 is included with Microsoft Access 97 and Microsoft Office 97, Developer Edition. Microsoft Office 97, Professional Edition provides a coupon you can redeem to get a printed copy of the book. If you do not have a printed copy of Building Applications with Microsoft Access 97, you may want to print sections of this book. You can print each online page.

   To print a page of this book

1   Use the table of contents to go to the page you want to print.

2   Click in the right frame to move the focus to the chapter text.

3   On the toolbar, click Print.

Copying Code to a Microsoft Access Module

To try out a code example or to add the code to your database, you can copy Visual Basic® code examples from this book to the Module window in Microsoft Access.

   To copy code from this book to a Microsoft Access module

1   Select the code example you want to copy.

2   In your Web browser, click Copy on the Edit menu.

3   Switch to Microsoft Access.

4   Open the module and click in the Module window where you want to paste the code.

5   On the Edit menu, click Paste.

Note   In some cases, code snippets are provided to illustrate a point. You can incorporate these snippets into your own procedures, but they will not run independently.

© 1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


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