Understanding Access 2013 Databases

Configuring Access options

In addition to the context-sensitive ribbon used to interact with Access, above the ribbon in the upper-left corner is the Quick Access Toolbar. The Quick Access Toolbar can be customized to display icons that help you work more efficiently with Access.

Figure 37.34

Although both the main ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar can be customized, it is more common to customize the Quick Access Toolbar by adding features.

In this exercise, you’ll add features to customize the Quick Access Toolbar.

1. Right-click the Quick Access Toolbar and select Customize Quick Access Toolbar. Make sure your pointer is positioned to the right of the main Access icon in the very top-left corner. This will then display the Access Options screen.



Figure 37.35

2. Use the Choose commands from drop-down list to select Commands Not in the Ribbon.



Figure 37.36

Important

To display the effect of cascading windows, you need to have changed the current database option to display overlapping windows as described in a previous section.

3. Click Cascade Windows, then click Add. Click OK to save your changes.

4. Open both the Companies and Customers datasheets by double-clicking each table in the Navigation pane.

5. Click the new Cascade Windows icon on the Quick Access Toolbar to cascade the windows.



Figure 37.37

TIP

Both for the main ribbon and for the Quick Access Toolbar, there is an option to unpin the ribbon with a right-click. If you chose this option, it will minimize the ribbon (providing more area in the desktop) and then you can extend the ribbon to show choices that float on top of your desktop when you point to the ribbon. This option applies more obviously to the main ribbon than to the Quick Access Toolbar.