How to create a new Group in the Navigation Pane?

[JohnEMitchell]

In Office 365 and Access 2013, when I right click on the top of the Navigation Pane and choose the Navigation Options I get a screen with NO Categories and NO Groups. I see the "Add" buttons on the bottom but they are grayed out.



Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?

[Dal Jeanis]

Quick method - right-click the top bar on the nav pane. Select Navigation options. Click the "show hidden objects" box.
If that worked then fiddle with the navigation options, add or remove categories and groups all you want and skip the rest of this post.

2010 version , the long way
First, make sure you are actually in a database. If not, go to the file tab and create one.

Second, go to File, Options, current Database,
Under the Navigation section , click Navigation Options
In that screen, check the boxes all the various types of object so they will be visible. Even check the system objects, just in case.
Click "Show Search Bar" while you're there.
Close that box and go back to the Home screen
Open the nav pane. If it isn't showing any objects, not even the greyed out system objects, then I have no idea what's going on. If it is showing options, then you can now use the quick method at the top of the post.

[JohnEMitchell]

There are NO "Categories" or "Groups" in the Navigation Options, and I, ALSO, have no idea what's going on.

[June7]

Want to provide db for analysis? Follow instructions at bottom of my post.

[Dal Jeanis]

John - since I'm not standing over your shoulder, I can't see what you did and at what point in my instructions the database went off-script.

Was it the third step, where I said to check boxes, and the boxes weren't there?

Or was it the sixth step, where you were back to the navigation panel, and it still wasn't showing any objects, hidden or otherwise?

Are you able to right-click the top bar on the nav pane and open the navigation options panel?

Can you see the search bar?

Are you able to create a new table, and if so, does it show up in the pane or not?

[JohnEMitchell]

I have a bunch of Access databases that were developed in much earlier versions of Access and updated to Access 2003 and then to Access 2007 and then to Access 2013 if that makes any difference.

No matter what I do, I cannot see ANY Categories or Groups when I right click on top of Navigation Pane and then choose Navigation Options and the Group Options which is near the top of the Navigation Options dialog box.

[JohnEMitchell]

I can provide a DB but all of my DB's are performing the same. NO categories or groups in the Navigation Options

I am going to create a new DB iin Access 2013 and see if that is different

[ItsMe]

You can import groups from other files of a previous version. While using the import wizard, select options. It is available in the window where you select the objects to be imported.

From there, you can tick the option to import groups

[JohnEMitchell]

I just created a new DB in Access 2013 and the Categories and Groups are in the Navigation Pane/Navigation Options

So now the question is when aren't they in the other DB''s

Incidentally, I opened the old DB's and ran the Macros "LockNavigationPane" setting the Lock to No
AND I ran the Macro SetDisplayedCategoires setting Show to Yes

And this did nothing to make the Categories or Groups visible in the Navigation Options on the old DB's

[JohnEMitchell]

My DB's have a lot of VB code on the forms. I do not recall ever importing anything. I just bought the later versions of Access and Access converted them.... as far as I know. The Categories and Groups are in the Navigation Pane but they are NOT in the Navigation Options panel. And all the "Add" buttons are grayed out

Maybe I should create a blank data base in Access 2013 and then Import all the the tables, queries, forms, macros into it and see what happens. I am afraid that some of the code will not work but I can try that I guess.

Thank you everyone for trying to help me. I know my name has "Novice" under it but I have been working with Access DB's since Microsoft stopped FoxPro way back in the 80's and I would not call myself a Novice.... nor would I say I am stupid..... but you all can make up your own minds on these.

[ItsMe]

Its a macro thing. You do not need to import more than one object. Just insure the groups thingy is ticked.

Use the wizard to look directly at the original mdb file. This is where the macro is.

[JohnEMitchell]

Well, I just created a new database in Access 2013 and IMPORTED everything in one of my simpler databases and NOW I can see the Categories and Groups and create new ones. So I will work with this new .accdb database for a while and see how it goes and then I will get back to you all.

For the time being I seem to be all set..... although, some day, I would like to know why the Categories and Groups were not in the Navigation Options panel.

[Dal Jeanis]

Sounds like a bug.

And, no, we don't think you're stupid. Anyone who's worked with this product for a while has seen very strange and/or mysterious behaviors occasionally. You just have to attempt one test at a time until something shakes loose.

Sounds like you skipped 2010. I wonder if the 2007 to 2013 migration path is buggy? The nav pane in the 2007 version was presumably visible, so that's where I'd bet.

[JohnEMitchell]

Yes, you are right. I went directly from Access 2007 to Access 2013. However, all of my old DB's still have a .mdb extension. Of course, the new one that works fine, that I created and imported ALL objects into, has a .accdb extension. Thank you for your concern..... John

[June7]

mdb extension is pre-2007. Files were never converted to accdb format to begin with. That might have made a difference.