How to: Open Table Designer

The Table Designer is a visual tool that allows you to design and visualize database tables to which you are connected. You can use Table Designer to create, edit, or delete tables, columns, keys, indexes, relationships, and constraints.

You can open Table Designer by opening a new or existing table.

Note

Your computer might show different names or locations for some of the Visual Studio user interface elements in the following instructions. The Visual Studio edition that you have and the settings that you use determine these elements. For more information, see Visual Studio Settings.

Open a new table

  1. Right-click the Tables node of your connection in Server Explorer.

  2. From the drop-down menu, click Add New Table.

  3. In the Add Table dialog box, choose tables to work with.

    Note

    If you choose Close without adding tables, you can go back and add tables later.

  4. The Table Designer menu will be added to the main menu and the designer panes will open.

Open an existing table

  1. Right-click the table under the Tables node of your connection in Server Explorer.

  2. From the drop-down menu, click Open Table Definition.

  3. The Table Designer menu will be added to the main menu and the table will open in the designer panes.

See Also

Other Resources

Understanding Visual Database Tools

Designing Tables