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Lesson 4The Simple Query Wizard
ObjectiveCreate a query with the Simple Query Wizard.

MS Access Simple Query Wizard

The easiest way to create a query may be to use the Simple Query Wizard (although you may find the Query Design view easy to use also). The Simple Query Wizard makes it easy to select fields from multiple tables, and is, by far, the easiest way to create summary calculations. On the other hand, the Simple Query wizard does not give you the chance to apply criteria to your query (although you can add criteria later using the Query Design view).
This Simulation takes you through the creation of a query with the Simple Query Wizard. The query it creates will calculate how many hours have been worked on each project.

Simple Query Wizard

Edit Query in Design View

Once the wizard has finished, you cannot use it to make further changes in the query. You can either run the wizard again from the beginning to create a new query, or you can edit the query the wizard created using Design view. The wizard is a good way to get started with a query, especially if you want to group and summarize data.
You will be introduced to the Query Design window.

Using Queries

Queries allow you to ask questions of your data. The answer is called a dynaset. This is nothing more than a term to describe the set of records that the query returns in response to the question asked of the data. Without queries data would be useless, because they allow the distillation of a large quantity of data into easy to understand statements. A query of student test scores would show the students that correctly answered questions 2 and 10. Another might display the number of students with perfect attendance. Just remember, the most important thing you get from queries are dynasets or as most individuals call them, solutions.

Creating a Simple Query

  1. Click on Queries under Objects and click New from the database container toolbar.
  2. Select Simple Query Wizard and click OK.
    Simple Query Wizard
    Simple Query Wizard
  3. Select the fields you wish to be included in the query and click the > button.
  4. Click Next to move to the next screen and click Next a second time to produce a detail query.
  5. Click Finish to display the completed query.

Simple Query Wizard - Exercise

Now try creating a query in the Consulting database.
Simple Query Wizard - Exercise