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Knowledge base article 77

Quick Database tutorial

This is a step-by-step guide to creating an address book type database for those new to Ability's Database.

  1. Start Database. Select Start/Programs/Ability Office/Ability Database
  2. Create a new database file to hold your data (if you've already created a database, just open it instead). Select File/New Database and enter a name (e.g. AddressBook).
  3. Create a new table. Select File/New/Table. For the purposes of this exercise (understanding Database better) skip the create table wizard and select the Blank Table option.
  4. Design the table. For each item of information you want to store, add a field. Start of with an "ID" field that stores a unique number for each record you add (this is good practice). Type the names of the fields in the "Name" column and set the type in the "type" column. The table design window should look something like this:


  5. Save the table. Select OK and give the table a name.
  6. Add data. Double-click on the new table and a blank "grid view" of your new table will be displayed. You can add your data now - each row is a new record. You can also view the data in "form view" by selecting View/Form and toggle back with View/Grid (there are toolbar buttons that let you do this).
  7. Next steps:
  • Create a report with View/Report
  • Create mailing labels using File/New/Report and selecting Labels in the wizard
  • Search for data (use the Find button)
  • Sort and filter the data (use the right-click menu).