Create Access Database

The first step in creating an Access database, is to create a blank database file. This is done from the launch access screen when Access is opened. The file is saved onto one of your PCs folders (which you specify). The procedure for doing this is outlined below.

1. Launch Access by clicking the Access icon on your desktop, or via the windows start button. This brings up the Access Launch Screen where you can open an existing database or create a new one. We are going to create a blank Access database.
   
   Access Launch Screen
   
   
2. Click the Blank Database template from the template icons in the main section of the screen. This opens the create blank database dialog form.
   
   Blank Access Database Template
   
   
3. Now we shall enter the name that we are going to call our database (eg “Tutorial.accdb”).
4. Select a location to save the file by clicking the folder icon to the right of the FILE NAME text box.
   
   Create Database Dialog Form
   
   
5. Click the CREATE icon below.

Once you have done this, our new blank database will open. As you can see from the screen shot below, Access has started to create our first database table automatically. You can see the table in the NAVIGATION PANE on the left (“Table1”), and the table datasheet in the main access window.

However, we are going to create a new database table from scratch in the next tutorial lesson. Therefore I would advise you to close the new table at this stage. You can do this by right-clicking the “Table1” tab title at the top of the datasheet, and selecting CLOSE from the context menu that drops down.

Start Lesson 2 - Create Access Table