Add and remove fields in an Access 2007 table

After you create a Access2007 table, you sometimes need to modify the table design to add or remove fields from the table. In Access2007, you can add or remove fields in Design view and datasheet.

Add or remove a field from the Design view

The steps for adding or removing fields in Design view are as follows:

(1) in the "Teaching management" database, open the students table and switch to Design view. Add a "date of birth" field and select the line for the "line" field.

(2) Automatically open the Design tab. In the tool group, select the Insert Row command.

(3) A blank field appears, in which the field name "date of birth" is entered, and the data type of the field is set to date/time, and the description of the field is entered in the Description column.

(4) To delete one or more fields, you first need to select those fields. In the tool group, select the Delete Row command.

Add or remove fields in Datasheet view

Adding or removing fields in Datasheet view is an enhanced feature of Access2007. You can do this by using the Insert menu and the Edit menu. Action steps are as follows:

(1) Open the table in Datasheet view.

(2) Right-click the column that inserts the new column to the left, and in the shortcut menu that pops up, click the Insert Column menu command.

(3) Double-click the title of the new column, enter a name for the column when the name becomes black (white), and open Design view to set it up if you need to further design the field's properties.

(4) If you want to delete a column field, right-click the column field that you want to delete, and then click the Delete Column menu command.

Add fields using field templates

A field template is a set of predefined features and properties that describe a field. field template definitions include the field name, data type, field Format property settings, and a large number of other field property settings. They are grouped together to form a model that can be used as a basis for creating new fields.

Sometimes it is easier to choose from a predefined field list than to create a field manually. Users can select from a predefined field list by using the Field Templates task pane. ACCESS2007 provides a set of built-in field templates that allow users to save a lot of time when creating fields.

Example 1 adds a home phone field to the teachers table using the field template.

Action steps are as follows:

(1) Open the "Teaching management" database, open the "Teachers" table.

(2) On the Datasheet tab, in the Fields and Columns group, click the New Field button. Open the Field Templates pane on the right side of the teachers table, as shown in Figure 1.

(3) First define the cursor on the Add New Field column in the Teachers table, and then double-click the Home Phone field in the Contacts table, the field is added to the teachers table, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1 Field Template pane

Figure 2 The result of adding a field

After you create a field using a field template, you might also want to set or modify the field properties.