How is access used

Microsoft Access helps you analyze large amounts of information, and manage related data more efficiently than Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet applications. This article shows you when to use Access, and how it can help make you more effective. Bookmark this page Send to a Friend. How do I access Microsoft Access? What if I don't have time to learn Access Database design? The value any database can provide is to store related information in one place, and then let you connect various different things together sometimes called "entities" in database speak.

You store one version of the truth for any given thing, like a client, a DVD, or an order. Some of the major benefits to using a database are: Fewer errors and inconsistencies. Maintaining one version of the truth for the things you need to track minimizes the potential for duplication, errors, and inconsistent values. A table can include many fields to separate the data. A field in a table can be set up for different data types and to allow or prevent users from entering certain information.

A Microsoft Access database can contain multiple tables and you can relate the tables by a key field. You can import data from Excel into Microsoft Access or from another external database. In Access, you can also link to external databases rather than importing data. You will still be able to create queries and reports when using linked tables. You can create Access forms to act as a front-end to enter or edit data in your tables.

An Access database can contain multiple forms, displaying different fields. Forms can display one record at a time or multiple records. You can customize the appearance of forms and include navigation buttons. In Access you can create queries to display data matching specific criteria.

Access reports are quite different from Excel reports. They can include multiple fields from one or more tables and include grouping, subtotals and grand totals. Access reports can include a company logo, lines to separate records and even subreports.

Access is the only Microsoft Office program that offers two methods to design and run macros. Newer versions of Access use SQL in the backend. Microsoft Access may be included with your other Microsoft programs, depending on license for example, a Microsoft Business licence may include Access.

It can also be purchased as a standalone program at a low price point compared to alternative databases. Author: Morgan Landry. Access, the Next Step from Excel A spreadsheet program like Microsoft Exce l is a terrific tool for maintaining and calculating small sets of information.

Seven Key Benefits of a Microsoft Access Database Cost of Development One of the reasons why Microsoft Access is consistently the database of choice is that it is a less expensive alternative to larger database systems, such as Oracle or SQL Server , which require a tremendous amount of set up and maintenance costs.

Software Integration Since Access is a Microsoft Office product, it has been designed to integrate well with other products in the Microsoft Office Suite, Access is such a widely used database system that other software manufacturers are more likely to provide the ability to interface directly to Access than any other desktop database system.

Legacy Data Access has the ability to easily import many data formats so that your existing data is not lost. Distribution One of the benefits of using Microsoft Access is its Jet Database format , which contains not only the application but also the data in one file.

Scalability If your company is growing, one of the benefits of Microsoft Access is that it has upgrade capabilities. Unique Identifier Each piece of information is assigned a unique identifier. Categories: Microsoft Office. Contact author. The bugs in the system eventually made it a security risk and the free alternative to Office withered.

OpenOffice still exists today, though, as an open-source project, its code was available and a lot of people made their own versions. The OpenOffice equivalent of Access is called Base. Base has its own file format —. There are still versions of OpenOffice available for free.

The original OpenOffice got foisted off on the Apache Foundation. Since IBM withdrew, the project has shriveled. Base is still a component of Apache OpenOffice and it is completely free to use. LibreOffice is a clone of OpenOffice and ended up being more successful. The suite includes Base, which is a good free alternative to Microsoft Access.

OxygenOffice Professional is another free, open-source clone of OpenOffice. It includes Base and it can be installed on Windows and Linux. Google G -Suite is a powerful rival to Office The free version is just called Google Docs even though it contains more than the eponymous word processor.

Google Forms is part of the suite. You can use Google Forms to create data entry and data query screens and use Google Sheets a spreadsheet as the back-end database. The interface of Google Forms is very easy to use and anyone can create a small database application without any technical knowledge. Check out this YouTube video on how to create a database with Google tools. KDE produces Calligra Office, an open-source project that is free to use.

The database system in Calligra Office is called Kexi. It uses the OpenDocument format,. Zoho Creator is an online database management system. It is incredibly easy to use and has a very attractive dashboard. The app is hosted and includes storage space for the data that you gather through your new screens. The service is charged for on a subscription and is available in four plan levels. The system is available to try risk-free on a day free trial. This is a codeless website development tool with the ability to create data forms for data entry and query.

The company offers a hosting service as well. You can design a site or a page and host it on the Bubble servers, setting up new databases or linking back to your existing databases. This is a paid service but there is a free version. If you were depressed about the decline of Microsoft Access, then hopefully, this review of the status of the package and alternatives to it has given you some cheer.

The way forward out of your Access depression is to try out some other database systems. One problem you will face is migrating your data out of the. Therefore, Access users will need to look at alternative systems to run their desktop databases, such as LibreOffice Base, Zoho Creator, or Bubble. Since the creation of SQL in the early s, several proprietary adaptations have been formulated.

Microsoft Access uses a version of SQL that is very close to the original, definitive language. Visual Basic went through a transformation in when it was integrated into the. NET framework. For a while, it was called Visual Basic. NET or VB. NET but now has gone back to the Visual Basic name.

Visual Basic is still supported by Microsoft and is still being developed. The latest version is Visual Basic , which is also referred to as VB This is sold as part of the Visual Studio package. This is not included in G-Suite. The current status is that Microsoft is fully committed to continuing development and support of Microsoft Access. It is imperative that MS Access is supported for Microsoft NET6 on VS, as the demand for such developers is growing day by day and we will be able to use Access skill for next 10 years.

The article completely ignores the online support angle. The level of crowd-sourced support is just astounding. You Google the problem and get nothing. Oh, and the fact that Access has changed so little over the years? It means that the subroutine you find online from will work today. Same with the instructional videos. Makes you realise in the end these new features are just not worth spending the time learning.

Show me any other product out there where you can develop complex DB application from analysis to deployment in less 15 minutes. I do hate it, but will miss it if Microsoft nix it. I am sometimes amazed that some of these databases even work when I see how badly the tables are designed, and the associated VBA, queries etc. Access is unique, because it is a database that comes with a full set of tools to build a functional application. Or you could call it an application builder, that comes with a database!

There are many of these legacy applications running well under current versions of Windows and many clients who would be lost without them. They have a very large customer base that depends on it. One thing about Access that many developers love: it has a small footprint and is highly efficient. New highly specialized applications can be developed quickly and relatively cheaply. The downside with Access is security, but when it is deployed on a network, network security takes over and these applications run securely.

Access rocks. The ribbon sucks. At work I use Access desktop version to store and combine data from different sources f. To me, storing data in Excel is like summoning the evil one. MS query in Excel is painfully slow and data integrity… number stored as text, oh my! Access does all that, the query builder is terrific, and you can build and automate reports in no time. You have no idea how much time I save with reporting only. Btw, try sharing data with an external company via Sharepoint, Teams, Onedrive if your global sysadmin acts like Mordac, the preventor of information services.

Mail an Access report or exported query and everybody is happy. Hello there! One thing Assess in not that good is a security. And this is not discussed in length or not even mentioned.