Getting to Know MS Access 2003 - Using Help
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Access 2003 provides two major help features that will be invaluable to you as you learn Access: the Microsoft Access Help task pane and the Ask a Question box.
Ask a Question
The Ask a Question box is always available to you and is located in the upper-right corner of the program window. The words ‘Type a question for help’ are displayed in the box. Place your cursor in the box and click to begin typing your question.
The Ask a Question box works best when you use a single word or select phrase. Type your word or phrase in the box and then press Enter to see a list of results. You’ll generally get a list of possible answers to your word or phrase, so scroll down the list and select the one you feel most accurately answers your question. Sometimes an answer will include subtopics, marked with an expand arrow, and you can click this arrow to see the subtopics. Click the Show All link in the top-right corner of the help window to see all the subtopics as well as the main topic. One especially useful feature of the Help window is the Auto Tile button in the upper-left corner. This will vertically tile the Help window with the Search Result task pane so you can select another topic without having to close the Help window.
Microsoft Access Help
Press F1 to open the Microsoft Access Help task pane. The search box works like the Ask a Question box; type in your word or query in the search box and search by pressing the arrow. You may also use the Table of Contents link to browse through the entire list of topics at once. This can be especially useful if you don’t know the exact terminology of what you’re looking for.
Finally you can enable the Office Assistant, a ‘cute’ character that helps you find what you are looking for in Access. Activate the Office Assistant by choosing the Help | Show Office Assistant. To hide the Office Assistant choose Help | Hide Office Assistant.
You don’t even have to open the Help window to get help. Access automatically provides hints to help you while you work. The status bar gives you information about whatever you are currently doing in Access. Many of the windows and dialog boxes also give you hints about design elements, or even give you samples that show you what you can do.
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