Microsoft Access allows you to include attachments including photos, graphics, documents and other files in your Access database. Access 2007 allows much greater flexibility than earlier versions with advantages including:
- Storing files in their native format, bypassing the bitmap images used by OLE DB
- Attaching multiple files to the same record without violating normalization principles
- Compressing files to optimize use of storage
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 15 minutes
Here's How:
- Open the Microsoft Access database using Access 2007.
- Open the table where you would like to add attachments in Design view.
- Type a name for the attachment field into the Field Name column of a new row.
- Select "Attachment" from the Data Type drop-down box.
- Save the table by clicking the disk icon in the upper left corner of the screen.
- Switch to Datasheet view to see the contents of your table.
- Double-click on the paperclip icon that appears in the new field you created for the row where you would like to attach a file. Note that the number in parentheses next to this icon indicates the number of files attached to that particular record.
- Click the Add button in the Attachments window to add a new attachment.
- Navigate to the file you would like to attach and click the Open button
- Click OK to close the Attachments window
- Notice that the document count for your record has now changed to reflect the new attachments.
Tips:
- The attachment feature described in this article first became available in Microsoft Access 2007. It is not available in earlier versions of Access.
- Each file must be less than 256MB in size. You may attach a maximum of 2GB of data.
What You Need
- Microsoft Access 2007
