The following keystrokes are useful when editing or working with information in the database. The best way to be sure of their function is to try them out with the test data. These are standard keystrokes and work with most MS Access applications.
| Pencil - editing | If you type new information into the database, or change existing information, a small pencil graphic will appear on screen, towards the left of the form. This pencil signifies that you are 'editing' or changing the information the database stores. |
| Pencil - cancel edit | If the pencil shows up, you can cancel your changes by pressing the esc (escape) key at the top left of the keyboard. The pencil will disappear. |
| Pencil - save changes | If the pencil shows up, you can save your changes by holding down the shift key and pressing the enter key. The pencil will disappear. |
| Move from field to field | Press the tab key to move from one field to the next. This is a convenient way to move around the various fields of a form. You can also use the cursor keys (arrow keys) to move between the fields. |
| Move backwards from field to field | Press shift + tab to move in the reverse direction from one field to the next. This is handy if you are using the tab as described above and go one field to far. You can also use the cursor keys (arrow keys) to move between the fields. |
| Move from sub-form to main form | Some of the more complex forms you will use have embedded forms called sub-forms. You can use ctrl + tab or ctrl + shift + tab to move in and out of these subforms |
| Stepping through records | In any form or subform, you can step forward or backwards through the list of records in that form using the page up and page down keys. The arrow keys which can be used to step from field to field will also move you to the next record, once you reach the last field. |
| Jumping from first to last record | In a long list of records, use control + up arrow or control + down arrow to flick between the last and first record in the list. |
| Check Boxes | To change a check box (or sometimes called a tick box) from ticked to unticked or vice-versa, press the spacebar. |
| Backspace | The backspace key will delete the text on the left of the cursor |
| Delete | The delete key will delete the text on the right of the cursor |
| Copy, Cut and Paste | Having selected some text (use shift + cursor key to make text go blue), you can copy it to the clipboard by pressing ctrl + c, cut it to the clipboard by pressing ctrl + x. Once you have cut or copied some text, you can move to a new location and press ctrl + v to paste the copied text into the new location. |
| Inserting same information in field as in previous record | If you wish to re-use information from the previous record, press shift + ' (i.e shift + single quote key - single quote key is two keys to the right of the l key). This can be handy if, for example, two trainees share an address. Type in the first record as usual, but in the second record, just press shift + ' in the fields which are the same. |
| Inserting a new record | Press ctrl + plus (ctrl and the plus key) to insert a new record. You can press escape to cancel the new record |
| Deleting a record | Press alt + e followed by alt + l to select the record. Then press alt + e followed by alt + r to delete the record. (The letter e refers to the edit menu, l to 'select record' and r to 'delete record'. These letters are the underlined letters in the menu - any menu can be accessed with the alt key in this way). Read the message box which appears! If you click yes the deletion is irreversible. Note that related records will be deleted elsewhere. What does this mean? For example, if you delete a trainee named Bert Smith, all of the training records for Bert will be removed from the database. This is one good reason for you to take regular backups of the data in your database. |
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