How to Use the Query Designer in Microsoft Access on Windows 11

Posted on 21st June 2023

The Query Designer in Microsoft Access is a powerful tool that allows you to create custom queries to extract the data you need from your database. In this article, we will show you how to use the Query Designer to create a query that returns all the records from your database.

To open the Query Designer, select the Queries tab in the Navigation Pane, and then double-click Create query in Design view.

The first thing you need to do is select the tables that you want to include in your query. To do this, click the Add Tables button in the toolbar.

In the Add Tables dialog box, select the tables that you want to include in your query, and then click OK.

After you have added the tables, you need to select the fields that you want to include in your query. To do this, double-click the field names in the Tables and Queries pane.

The selected fields will be added to the design grid. You can also add fields by dragging them from the Tables and Queries pane to the design grid.

After you have added the fields, you need to specify the criteria for your query. To do this, click in the Criteria cell for the field, and then type the criteria.

You can also add operators to your criteria. To do this, click the Operator column for the field, and then select the operator from the list.

Once you have specified the criteria for your query, you are ready to run it. To do this, click the Run button in the toolbar.

The results of your query will be displayed in the Results pane.

The following instructions assume that you have already opened the Access database that you would like to use the Query Designer on.

1. Click the “Create” tab on the Access ribbon.

2. In the “Other” group, click “Query Design”.

3. The “Show Table” dialog box will appear. Select the tables that you would like to use in your query and click “Add”.

4. Once you have added all of the necessary tables, click “Close”.

5. The tables will appear in the “Query Designer” window, each with their own listing of fields.

6. To select the fields that you would like to use in your query, double-click on the field name or drag it from the table listing into the “Field” box in the query designer.

7. Once you have selected all of the fields that you would like to use, click the “Run” button on the Access ribbon to run your query.

8. The results of your query will appear in a new window.

In the query designer, you can add fields by double-clicking them or by dragging them from the field list pane into the design grid. You can also add fields by using the query designer’s menu commands.

To add fields using the menu commands:

1.Click the Add Tables or Query command on the query designer’s toolbar. The Show Table dialog box appears.
2.Select the check box next to the table or tables that contain the fields that you want to add, and then click OK.
3.In the field list pane, double-click the field or fields that you want to add, or drag the field or fields into the design grid.

You can also add fields by using the query designer’s toolbar buttons.

To add fields using the toolbar buttons:

1.Click the Add Fields command on the query designer’s toolbar. The Add Fields dialog box appears.
2.In the Available Fields list, double-click the field or fields that you want to add, or click the field or fields, and then click the > button.
3.Click OK.

After you add fields, you can sort and filter the data by using the query designer’s Sort and Filter buttons.

To sort data:

1.In the design grid, click the column that you want to sort.
2.Click the Sort command on the query designer’s toolbar. The Sort box appears.
3.Click Ascending or Descending.
4.Click OK.

To filter data:

1.In the design grid, click the column that you want to filter.
2.Click the Filter command on the query designer’s toolbar. The Filter box appears.
3.In the Filter box, type the criteria that you want to use to filter the data, and then click OK.

You can also preview and print the data by using the query designer’s Preview and Print buttons.

To preview the data:

1.Click the Preview command on the query designer’s toolbar. The data appears in Print Preview.
2.To close Print Preview, click the Close command on the Print Preview toolbar.

To print the data:

1.Click the Print command on the query designer’s toolbar. The Print dialog box appears.
2.In the Print dialog box, select the options that you want, and then click OK.

2) In the “Field” row of the grid, click the drop-down arrow and select the field on which you want to base your query. For this example, we will use the “LastName” field.

3) In the “Criteria” row of the grid, type the value or values that you want to find in the field. For this example, we will type “Smith”.

4) In the “Or” row of the grid, type the value or values that you want to find in the field. For this example, we will type “Jones”.

5) In the “Output” row of the grid, type the value or values that you want to find in the field. For this example, we will type “LastName”.

Now that you have selected the fields and criteria for your query, you can run the query by clicking the “Run” button on the toolbar. The results of the query will be displayed in a new window.

You can also save the query so that you can run it again in the future. To do this, click the “Save” button on the toolbar. Enter a name for the query and click “OK”.

2. Create a New Query

To create a new query, open the “Create” tab on the ribbon and click “Query Design”.

In the “Show Table” dialog box, double-click the tables or queries that you want to use.

3. Add Fields

To add fields, double-click the field name or drag the field name from the field list to the design grid.

4. Run the Query

To run the query, click “Run” on the “Design” tab.