This module explores another use of the database and links that tool with a form letter you might wish to send to a large number of individuals.

Transcription

1 Focus: Suppose a year has passed since the end of this program. You are gainfully employed in a workplace. It is a learning organization. You are acquiring new skills and facing new challenges every day. Your supervisor comes to you and asks if you know anyone else who would like an entry- level position. Who are you going to contact? This module explores another use of the database and links that tool with a form letter you might wish to send to a large number of individuals. Think About It: What kind of work do you hope to be doing within a year? What skills have you acquired that will be useful to you in the work you want to do? What do you want to learn more about? Session Activities/Outcomes: During this two-hour session you will: 1. Set up a database to serve as an address book. Enter names and address of your HFCC MODULE 11-1

2 classmates in this address book. 2. Write a form letter that can be read by a mass audience. 3. Use mail merge to link that letter to your database address book. 4. Print the letter. Activity 1: Set up your database address book by following these instructions: 1. Open Microsoft Access. 2. Select Blank database. 3. Save the file to your disk, naming the file Address book. Be sure the file is saved to your floppy disk. To create the database, click the Create button at this dialog box. 4. At the next dialog box, select Create a Table in Design View. 5. Set up the fields you will need for your address book (data type will be text). last name first name street address city state zip phone HFCC MODULE 11-2

3 6. Pull down the Save menu. Name the table Address Book. When asked to create Primary Key, click No. 7. Pull down the Window menu and select Address Book database. 8. Select Form from the Objects list. 9. Click the New icon. 10. For your data source, which will be either a query or table, pull down the menu in this dialog box and select the Address Book table you just created. 11. When the new form appears on screen, pull down fields and arrange them on the form. Practice moving them around on the form and sizing them. 12. Save the form, calling it Address Book. 13. Enter names and address in the form. Move and re-size the fields as needed. Activity 2 Compose your form letter. Your letter should include the following information: 1. Greeting. 2. A brief description of the job you are doing, what skills it involves, what you like about it. 3. A brief description of what has happened HFCC MODULE 11-3

4 in your personal life. 4. An invitation for the reader to send a resume to your place of employment to take advantage of hiring opportunities. Activity 3 Use mail merge to link this letter to your address book database. 1. In Microsoft Word, pull down the Tools menu and select Mail Merge. 2. Select Create, Form letter, Active Window. 3. Select Get Data, then Open Data Source. 4. At the next dialog box, open the Address Book database file. Note: you will have to pull down the Type of File menu and tell Word to look for an Access file. 5. Click OK when you see your Address Book table. 6. Click Edit main document. 7. Position the cursor near the beginning of the letter where the name and address fields should be inserted. In Word, pull down the Insert Merge Fields menu and click on fields from your address book. Arrange them properly on the page. 8. When the fields are arranged, pull down the Tools menu, select Mail Merge, and click on Merge. HFCC MODULE 11-4

5 Activity 4 Print the letter HFCC MODULE 11-5