Database (activities from S.R. Miles)

Many thanks to Scott Miles for originally posting these free resources on his site, DatabaseMentor.com. 
2020 Update - DatabaseMentor.com site no longer exists, but the videos are still on YouTube, under their author, Stuart Roger Miles (YouTube channels one and two).  Thankfully, the text from this free online resource was stored in Archive.org's "Wayback Machine", so ​we've been able to replicate and store this great resource here.
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Your Choice:  This all-in-one page... or each series on it's own page with descriptions

Introduction to Databases (and MS Access)
Here's Mr. Miles' full list of MS Access Database videos
  • WEBSITE Database (Beginner 4)
         I started designing this database this week and its something that will be on going for at least the next few weeks. I have around 3 new websites that am designing and once they are up and working I need to do some marketing for them. This database will keep track of my video marketing, article marketing and social book marking.
         In the first video we create the website table and a tasks table which will list the tasks that I have to do for each website.

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Introduction to Databases (and MS Access)
Introduction to Databases (and MS Access)
  • Video - Intro to MS Access Part 1 - ​​Linking Tables in Access 2007​
    From Scott R. Miles

These videos are an introduction to what a database can be used for and how it works. Look at following videos for step by step instructions and lots of examples.

In this video we use an example to show you what kind of data a database table usually holds and how we can link the tables of data together.

​I am using a school database as an example as we are all familiar with the topic. A school has students, classes, teachers, classrooms etc and these are the tables.

Introduction to Databases (and MS Access)
  • ​Video - Intro to MS Access Part 2 - Access Database Relationship Advantages​
    ​From Scott R. Miles

This video describes the advantages of a relational database program such as Microsoft Access:

  1. Each piece of information is only held once so, for example, if a student gets married and changes her name then we just change the last name field in the student table and all report and queries will show the new name automatically.
  2. Queries and Reports automatically show any new data as the report and query design is seperate to the data.
  3. To insert data in a table we can look it up in another table. This stops spelling errors.
  4. Using a primary key index stops us entering duplicate data by mistake.
  5. We can design the database to suit our needs and change it or add to it. We cannot do that if we buy “off the shelf” programs.
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Introduction to Databases (and MS Access)
  • ​Video - Intro to MS Access Part 3 - Database Table Examples

Here I explain that a database can keep on expanding such as adding a bookshop to the school database.

I also show some other examples of database:

1. A DJ database which shows which songs are good for each type of party and which CD the track is on.

2. An expenses database for entering and reporting on money spent.

3. A tasks database or ‘to do’ list with categories, priorities and due dates.
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Introduction to Databases (and MS Access)
  • Video - Intro to MS Access Part 4 - Access 2002 Intro

I’m using Access 2007 for my videos but Access 2002 is very similar. It is mostly just the layout of the buttons that is different – With Access 2002 you don’t get tabs.

When you open a table, query or form in 2002 it is opened in a new window and you don’t see the window where you can open new queries etc. With Access 2007 this is still available on the left hand side.

In this video we see how to create a new database, you see where the most common tools are and we see how to open tables queries forms and reports.
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Introduction to Databases (and MS Access)
  • Video - Intro to MS Access Part 5 - Access 2007 Intro​

This introduction to Microsoft Access 2007 shows us how to create a new database. It then takes us on a tour around the functions and tools available in Access 2007 such as creating tables, queries, forms and reports and looking at the relationships window which shows us the relationship between tables in a database.
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