Tips and Tricks : Access 2000

Quickly View Related Data in Access

In Access 2000, you can use a subdatasheet to view the relationships between multiple tables and views and edit their contents.

Access automatically creates a subdatasheet in a table that is in a one-to-one relationship, or is on the "one" side of a one-to-many relationship, when the SubdatasheetName property of the table is set to Auto.

To manually insert a subdatasheet:

1. Open a table or query in the Datasheet view.
2. On the Insert menu, click Subdatasheet .
3. Click the Tables , Queries , or Both tab, depending on which kind of object you want to insert as a subdatasheet.
4. Click a table or query in the list, and then click OK .

This is also helpful when trying to understand the one-to-many relationship database concept.

Hide Tables in Access 2000

If, for security reasons, you don't want your Access tables to appear by default in the Database window, there is an easy way to hide them. To do this, rename the table you wish to hide with the prefix usys . This converts the table into a system object, which cannot be viewed in the Database window.

If you need to see or access the table again, you can choose to show system objects in the Database window. To do this:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options .
2. Click the View tab.
3. Under Show , select the System Objects check box.
4. Click OK .

Hide Multiple Columns in an Access Table

If you want to hide multiple, noncontiguous columns on an Access table without having to use the Hide Columns command repeatedly, here's how you do it:

1. In Datasheet view, open the table that contains the columns you want to hide.
2. On the Format menu, click Unhide Columns .
3. In the Unhide Columns dialog box, clear the check box next to the name of each column you want to hide.
4. Click Close .

Editor's Note: You can also use this procedure to show or hide columns in a query, form, or stored procedure.