What is Microsoft Access?

Microsoft Access is a member of the Microsoft 365 family of apps and a powerful productivity tool for business users.

Like Microsoft Excel, Access allows you to view and edit data. But Access is more powerful than Excel and can handle more data at once.

Here’s everything you need to know about Microsoft Access.

What is Microsoft Access?

Microsoft Access is a database management system provided by Microsoft. It uses the Microsoft Jet Database Engine and is part of the Microsoft Office suite of applications.

Microsoft Access provides database functionality and programmability to create screens (forms) that are easy to navigate. It helps you analyze large amounts of information and manage data efficiently.

How is Microsoft Access different from Excel?

Both Microsoft Excel and Access can be used to store data, so many people think they can be quite similar. But in reality, they are completely different.

Excel is a spreadsheet program that is mainly used for individual projects and to do brief calculations. Most Excel users only work with a few dozen to a few hundred cells at a time. And Excel is a great choice for graphing and charting those calculations and data points.

On the other hand, Microsoft Access was created to store and manage large amounts of data in a form that is easy to retrieve and use in different applications. While Excel users type directly into their spreadsheets, Access databases are manipulated with pre-made forms and queries. Most businesses also connect Access to other apps, so when those other apps generate data, it’s automatically transferred to Access.

How to use Microsoft Access

Here’s an overview of the key elements of Access and how they’re used.

Board

Access stores its data in tables. You can build a single database that includes all data for the entire project – this database is often referred to as a “flat” database.

Relational database

However, it is almost always easier to create multiple tables, each containing elements of data that need to be tracked for a project (for example, a business might maintain separate tables for product data). products, orders, customers and shipping information). Each table can be related and connected to each other – this is called a relational database, which allows developers to create multiple databases relatively simply and relate them to each other.

Form

Database developers often create forms that allow users to enter information into the database without using spreadsheets. By avoiding having to enter data in a spreadsheet-like table, there is much less chance of errors when entering data.

Query

Query is another common element in Access databases. The program supports complex queries to find information in the database, which can be important when the database contains thousands of entries.

Report

Access allows users to quickly and easily create custom reports. The Report Wizard makes it easy to organize, group, and label data for easy printing and sharing.

Together, these components enable businesses and organizations to manage and understand the vast amount of data they need to store.

For example, a business can use Access to track its inventory and sales, while a school can use Access to track students, personal information, grades, performance their performance, assignments and teacher data. Access can be used for specific projects, such as to manage team members, tasks, achievements, deadlines, and follow-up activities.