Displaying Records in Datasheets

Learning Outcomes

  • Display records in datasheets

There are many ways to display data—and change the way data is displayed—in Access to be more productive. Among these are changing the order in which columns are displayed.

Here is a database table displaying a list of purchase order records.

A list of records with the column heading "Submitted By" selected.

To better visualize the information, we may wish to see the submitter adjacent to the record number. To move a column, first highlight it by selecting the column heading.

A list of records with the column "Submitted By" selected and ready to move, indicated by a blue shading with orange outline on the entire column "Submitted By".

Then, left-click on the column header until you see a black line appear along the left side of the column indicating that it is ready to be moved. Then drag column to the desired location in the table view.

A list of records with the column "Submitted By" selected and moved to the left, to the right of the record numbers column.

Another display function of Access is the ability to change font size, row (record) height, and column (field) width.

Toolbar shown with button "Home" selected. Font type, size, color, and positioning tools are located on the far right of the toolbar.

The easiest way to make basic changes to font size, color, positioning, etc. is to highlight the record to be changed and use the tool bar in the example above. Adjusting row height or column width involves a bit more. In the example below, the Job Title field is slightly too small for one of the titles.

Spreadsheet "Supplier List" with column "Last Name" and record 12 selected.

To accommodate the longer title in that field, right-click the column header to open the dialog box in the example below.

"Supplier List" spreadsheet open and Job Title column selected. The user has right clicked the column header and opened the dialogue box which appears at the right of the selected column.

Select “Field Width” and set the value to the desired width to accommodate the longer title as shown in the example below.

"Supplier List" spreadsheet with Job Title column width adjusted so that the full job titles can be seen.

Practice Question

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