MOS 2013 Study Guide for Microsoft Access

68 Chapter 2 Build tables
2.2 Format tables
This section covers various aspects of how you can format a table. Here, format doesn’t
mean applying fonts, styles, and other text effects to alter the appearance of the data.
Access does provide formatting tools, but you most often use this type of formatting in
forms and reports. Instead, formatting a table involves activities such as hiding or freezing
ields to make a large datasheet easier to view, and adding a Total row to display
summary values for ields (a count of how many orders are recorded, for example, or the
total sum or average amount of payments you’ve received). This section also explores
options for data formats, such as using a short date or a long date in a ield.
Hiding ields in tables
When a table includes more than 10 or so ields, you might not be able to easily view
all the ields with the table open in Datasheet view. To avoid the need to scroll to view a
ield, you can hide ields you don’t need to refer to. You can also freeze ields so that a
speciic ield (or ields) remains in view as you scroll.
To hide a ield, right-click the column heading for that ield, and then click Hide Fields.
Drag through two or more column headings to hide multiple ields, or hold down the
Shift key and click column headings to select more than one adjacent ield.
To show hidden ields, right-click a column heading, and then click Unhide Fields. In the
Unhide Columns dialog box, select the check box for each ield you want to show.