Guides To Create Mailing Labels And Various Types Of Charts & Graphs In Ms Access

MS Access allows you to create and format mailing labels through the Label Wizard which reduces your typing stress and facilitates your work and also create various types of chart and graphs through the charts wizard and include them in a report for easier data analysis. You can also format your reports and mailing labels which are part of reports. The most efficient way to build mailing labels is to create it using the Label wizard in Microsoft Access. In this tutorial part, I will explicitly explain and give you a step by step guide on how to create mailing labels and how to create charts of different types especially in MS Access version 2010, 2013 2016 and later versions which you may be finding difficult to create.

This is part 2 of chapter 7 of the Free Online Access Tutorial Series at Microsoft Tutorial website. In this part, I will explicitly explain how you can create a mailing label through the access label wizard and how to different kinds of charts for any version of MS Office Access you have on your pc.

In the previous part (Part 1), I explained how to design reports using different methods in MS Access in detail. Also see the full tutorial course content of this Microsoft Access Tutorial Series.

CREATING MAILING LABEL IN MS ACCESS

Mailing label is one of the special operations that can be achieved using Microsoft Access. This operation is used to extract or retrieve some information or fields that are needed in hard copy format from an existing database table. It is mainly used by organization’s secretaries to lessen the volume of characters to type when sending bulk SMS and also saves the user or the secretary the troubles of retyping the information. The Labels feature or icon is located in the Reports group in Microsoft Access Create tab and is very similar to Reports but with minor difference as you will see shortly.

For example, assuming you are the secretary, the Manager of your company may tell you to send a memo for a meeting to all the staff in the company, instead of starting afresh to type the name and address of all the staff, you can use the mailing label in MS Access to extract the needed information from a database already containing workers bio data like the workers payroll system table, etc.

To Create a Mailing Label in MS Access:

1. First highlight the table or query you wish to use as the data source for the label from the Navigation pane. Referring to the above example, I will select the workers payroll system table.

2. Click Labels located in the Reports group under the Create tab. This prompts the report wizard dialogue box.

3. Specify the orientation of the label by choosing a suiting dimension for your label as shown below. The default setting is ok for use but you can also create a customized dimension for your label by clicking the Customize tab. Click Next.

4. Specify the font type, font style, font size, font weight, text colour, etc. (the default selections are ok). Then click Next.

5. Select the fields needed in the mailing label. For example, first name, etc. use the > button to transfer the selected fields from the available fields: box to the prototype label: and then click Next.

6. Specify the sorting field for the mailing label and again use the > button to transfer it to the Sort by: box and then click Next.

7. Lastly, type a unique name for your mailing label, specify whether to see how the labels will look when printed or to further modify your label in the design view and click Finish.

8. MS Access extracts all the record in the selected fields and displays them based on your specified settings.

HOW TO CREATE A CHART OR GRAPH FOR YOUR DATASHEET DATA OR INFORMATION

A chart or graph is a graphical representation of information. Charts are normally used to summarize the relationship among data and to summarize all financial analysis. Some professionals like Data Analysts and Managers prefer graphical representation of data using chart to tabular representation for a more efficient comparison of information.

For example, you might want to chart the data from your sales report table, workers’ payroll system table, etc. You can create a chart and include it in your reports using data from a previously created table or query as your data source.

There has been a rumor that charts are no longer supported in MS Access 2013 and later versions, and that you have to first create it Excel or export your data to Excel. No you can still create your charts directly in MS Access 2013 and later versions but with limited features. If you want a more control to your charts, then create it in MS Excel, a perfect application for creating charts

To Create a Chart for your Data in MS Access 2013 and later Versions:

1. Click the Blank Report located in the Reports group under the Create tab.

2. Switch over to Design view. Now select the chart icon located under the Design tab from the Report Design tools as shown below.

3. Click in the Design area of your report and drag your mouse to define the width and height of your chart. This prompts the Chart Wizard dialogue box. Choose the data source table or query name and click Next as shown below.

4. Choose the fields that hold the data needed for the chart. Use the > button to transfer the selected fields to the Fields for Charts box and click Next.

5. Select any chart type of your choice. There are many available types of charts. Some of them are: column charts, bar charts, area charts and pie charts. Note that that the type of chart you will select depends on the type of data you have in your data source. Check the available charts and determine the one that best suits your need. Then click Next as shown below.

6. MS Access now displays the preview of your chart. If you don’t like the chart preview, click the Back button and change your specifications. If you like the preview, click Next.

7. Next, type in your chart title and specify whether to include the legend for your chart or not. Then click Finish.

8. MS Access now displays your chart in the specified area. To edit your chart data sheet, right click anywhere inside the chart and select Datasheet to call up the Datasheet form. Then from there, you can completely edit your chart data to your taste. You can also change the legend label from there as shown below.

9. Save your chart with a unique file name. You can also print it out if you wish by pressing Ctrl + P on your keyboard.

NOTE:

You can also create chart easily in MS Excel. Go to chapter 2 of the Excel tutorial to see how to create easily chart in Microsoft Excel.

This is the end of part 2 of chapter 7 of this FREE online MS Access tutorial training series.

Recommended MS Access Textbook

Get this book (Kindle format): Designing Professional Database Management Systems Using Microsoft Access 2013 and 2016 and MySQL.

Click Here to know more about the book.

In the next part (part 3), I will give you the step by step guide on how to print, preview and export a report in MS Access.

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