Microsoft Access Tutorial – Beginner’s Guide to Databases, Forms & Queries

Learn Microsoft Access with step-by-step tutorials for creating databases, tables, queries, forms, and reports. Includes practical examples, templates, and best practices for data design, relationships, normalization, and automation with macros. Perfect for students and professionals learning Access for data management.

📅 MS Access Weekly Lesson Plan (Beginner Level – 6 Weeks)

Duration: 6 Weeks Classes per Week: 2–3 Class Duration: 60–90 minutes

🟢 Week 1: Introduction & Basics

Lesson 1

• What is Data and Database?
• What is MS Access?
• Uses of MS Access (real-world examples)
• Difference between Excel and Access

Activity: Identify daily-life databases (school records, library, hospital)

Lesson 2

• MS Access Interface
• Creating a New Database
• Saving and Closing Database
• Understanding Database Objects

Practice: Create a blank database named StudentDB

🟢 Week 2: Tables & Data Types

Lesson 3

• What is a Table?
• Fields and Records
• Data Types (Short Text, Number, Date, Yes/No)

Practice: Create a table Students using Datasheet View

Lesson 4

• Design View
• Primary Key
• Field Properties (Required, Field Size)

Practice: Modify Students table using Design View

🟢 Week 3: Data Entry & Relationships

Lesson 5

• Entering Records
• Editing and Deleting Data
• Sorting and Filtering Records

Practice: Add at least 10 student records

Lesson 6

• What are Relationships?
• One-to-Many Relationship
• Primary Key vs Foreign Key

Practice: Create Classes table and relate it with Students

🟢 Week 4: Queries (Searching Data)

Lesson 7

• What is a Query?
• Select Query
• Criteria and Sorting

Practice: Query students from a specific class

Lesson 8

• Calculated Fields
• Parameter Queries (basic)
• Saving Queries

Practice: Create a query asking for Class Name as input

🟢 Week 5: Forms & Reports

Lesson 9

• What is a Form?
• Creating Forms using Wizard
• Data Entry through Forms

Practice: Create a student entry form

Lesson 10

• What is a Report?
• Report Wizard
• Grouping and Sorting

Practice: Generate a printable student report

🟢 Week 6: Import/Export & Mini Project

Lesson 11

• Importing Data from Excel
• Exporting Reports to PDF/Excel
• Backup of Database

Practice: Import student data from Excel

Lesson 12

Mini Project

Choose one:

• Student Management System
• Employee Database
• Library Records System

Requirements: ✔ 2–3 Tables ✔ Relationships ✔ Queries ✔ Forms ✔ Reports

Presentation & Review

📝 Assessment Plan

• Weekly Practical Tasks
• Final Project Evaluation
• Short Quiz / MCQs (Optional)

🎯 Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to: ✔ Create databases ✔ Design tables properly ✔ Use queries for data analysis ✔ Build forms for data entry ✔ Generate reports

MS Access Practice Task

📦 What’s included

• Students.csv – student records
• Classes.csv – class information
• Teachers.csv – teacher details
• README.txt – step-by-step instructions + practice tasks

👉 Download MS Access Practice Files (ZIP)

🧑‍🏫 How to Use These Files (for Students)

1. Open Microsoft Access
2. Click Blank Database
3. Name it: SchoolDB.accdb
4. Go to External Data → New Data Source → From File → Text File

5. Import:

   • Students.csv
   • Classes.csv
   • Teachers.csv

6. Set Primary Keys:

   • Students → StudentID
   • Classes → ClassID
   • Teachers → TeacherID

7. Create Relationship:

   • Classes.ClassID → Students.ClassID

📝 Practice Tasks (Beginner Friendly)

✅ Tables

• Modify field data types
• Add new records

✅ Queries

• Show students of Class 6th A
• Sort students by name
• Filter students by gender

✅ Forms

• Create a Student Entry Form
• Use Form Wizard

✅ Reports

• Create a Student List Report
• Export report as PDF

🎯 Suitable For

✔ School students ✔ College beginners ✔ Short IT courses ✔ Teachers (ready classroom material)

1 An Introduction to Databases 1.1. List the advantages of computerizing data. 1.2. Identify the need for a DBMS 1.3. Explain the evolution of databases. 1.4. Discuss the various database models in brief. (A data model can be described as a ‘description’ of the data container and a methodology for storing and retrieving the data.)
1.5. Define as RDBMS 1.6. Explain the concepts of Tables 1.7. List the features of an RDBMS 1.7.1. Control Data Redundancy. 1.7.2. Data Abstraction. 1.7.3. Support for Multiple users. 1.7.4. Multiple ways of interfacing to the systems. 1.7.5. Restricting Unauthorized Access. 1.7.6. Enforcing Integrity Constraints. 1.7.7. Backup and Recovery. 1.8. Identify the users of an RDBMS 1.8.1. Database Designers. 1.8.2. Database Administrator 1.8.3. Application Developer 1.8.4. End User. 1.9. Explain the Concept of a ‘Front End’ and ‘Back End’ 2 E-R Model. Designing of Model begins with the database designer and the end user discussing and deciding on the data that is to be stored in the database. The ‘Entity Relationship Model’ views the entire system as being composed of entities, which are related to one another. 2.1. Entities (Entity can be used to denote a person, place, thing, object, event or even a concept, which can be distinctly identified. eg: Student 2.2. Attributes (Each entity has a set of properties or characteristics that define an entities: Rollno, Name, Address 2.3. Relationship (A Relationship can be defined as an association among entities. 3 The Entity Relationship Diagram (To develop a database model base on the ‘E-R technique’ involves identifying the entities, their attributes as well as the relationships between the entities.) The symbols used in the ERD are listed below:

Denotes as Entity

Attributes

Relationship between entities.

4 DBMS (A database management system is software that takes care of maintaining the database. 5 Relations, Tuples, Attributes A ‘relation’ is synonymous with a ‘table’. A table consists of columns and rows, which are referred to as fields and records in DBMS terms, and attributes and tuples in RDBMS.

4 Insert and Delete Fields in a table 5 Working with Fields Properties 5.1. Format 5.2. Input Mask 5.3. Field Validation 5.4. Record-level Validation 5.5. ‘Default’ Constraint 5.6. Required 6 Deleting Records 7 Copying, Renaming and Deleting Tables 8 Keys 8.1. Primary Key 8.2. Composite Key 8.3. Foreign Key 8.4. Candidate Key/Alternate Key 8.5. Secondary Key 9 Introduction to SQL  Based on IBM’s SEQUEL  New 4GL – SQL  Access uses variant of SQL called Access-SQL  ORACLE introduced the first commercially available RDBMS Introduction to SQL  Industry standard  SQL is categorized into
 DDL (Data Definition Language)  DML (Data Manipulation Language)  DCL (Data Control Language)  TCL (Transaction Control language)

Data Definition Language  It is used to create databases objects like  Tables  Views or Queries  Other objects Data Manipulation Language  It is used to Manipulate Database objects like tables  Select, Insert, Update,Delete . Data Control Language  It is used to define control access objects like tables

 Statements include : Alter user ,grant ,revoke

10 Joins 10.1. Inner Join 10.2. Outer Join 10.2.1. Left Outer Join 10.2.2. Right Outer Join 10.3. Self Join 11 Creating the ‘Relationships’ between the tables. 11.1. Join Type 11.2. Enforce Referential Integrity 11.3. Cascade Update Related Record 11.4. Cascade Delete Related Record 12 Working With Queries 12.1. The Simple Query Wizard 12.2. Creating a Query in Design View 12.3. Queries Using Aggregate Functions 12.4. Subqueries using SQL 13 Create Table Statement 13.1. Create Table student(CCode Integer,Name text(50)) 13.2. 14 Insert Statement 14.1. INSERT INTO student (Ccode , Name) Values(1,’Adnan’) 14.2. INSERT INTO student Values(10,’Akbar’) 14.3. INSERT INTO student(CCode) Values(15) 15 Delete Statement 15.1. Delete * from Student where CCode=10; 16 Update Statement 16.1. UPDATE Student SET Name=’waqas’ WHERE CCode =5 17 Parameter Queries 17.1. SELECT * FROM student WHERE CCode=[Enter Student Roll No:] 18 Crosstab Queries