The Access environment includes a number of other important features. In the far-right lower corner are two buttons that enable you to quickly change the selected objects in the middle of the screen from Design view to the object’s Normal view. For instance, in the case of an Access table, the Normal view is to display the table as a datasheet, while a report’s Normal view is to display the report in Print Preview.

Figure 34-10 illustrates one of the more interesting changes for Access 2007. A common complaint among some developers with earlier versions of Access was the fact that, when multiple objects were simultaneously opened in the Access environment, the objects would often overlap and obscure each other, making it more difficult to navigate between the objects. For instance, in Access 2000 you might have a form open in Design view and a table open in Datasheet view at the same time. Invariably, one of these objects would overlap the other and, depending on how large the object was, might completely obscure the other object.

FIGURE 34-10
The tabbed interface is a welcome addition to Access 2007.

Microsoft has added a tabbed user interface to Access, preventing objects from obscuring other objects that are open at the same time. In Figure 34-10, the contacts (tblContacts) table is currently in use. Two other database objects (frmIndexTest and tblZipCodesIndexed) are also opened in the Access work area. Clicking on a tab associated with an object, such as frmIndexTest, instantly brings that object to the top.

When an object such as tblContacts is put into Design view (by clicking to the last word, right-clicking the tab, and selecting Design View) the data sheet is replaced with the Table Designer (see Figure 34-11). The Access 2007 environment is highly adaptable to whichever tasks you are currently performing in your database.

FIGURE 34-11
The Access environment adapts to your workflow.

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