This page hopes to explain to you 'What is Microsoft Access' in simple terms.
Microsoft Access has been around for some time, yet people often still ask me what is Microsoft Access and what does it do? Microsoft Access is a part of the Microsoft Office Suite. It does not come with all versions of Microsoft Office, so if you specifically want Microsoft Access make sure the office suite you are purchasing has it.
Microsoft Access has the look and feel of other Microsoft Office products, including its layout and navigational aspects. That is where the similarity ends. Microsoft® Access is a database and, more specifically, a relational database. This will be explained in more detail later.
Access has an .mdb extension by default, whereas Microsoft® Word has the .doc extension. Although this has changed in Access 2007 where the extension is now an accdb extension. Early versions of Access cannot read accdb extensions but Microsoft Access 2007 can read and change earlier versions of Access. The above is a bried overview of what is Microsoft Access. Now lets look at it in a bit more detail.
The Microsoft® Access Database is made up of 7 major components:
Tables;
Relationships;
Queries;
Forms;
Reports;
Macros;
Modules.
The following gives a quick overview of each component.
Tables
The tables are the backbone and the storage container of the data entered into the database. If the tables are not set up correctly, with the correct relationships, then the database may be slow, give you the wrong results or not react the way you expect. So, take a bit of time when setting up your tables.
Queries, forms, etc. are usually based on a table.
The tables that contain data look a bit like a table in Microsoft® Word or a Microsoft® Excel Spreadsheet, when opened. They have columns and rows as does a table in Microsoft® Word and an Excel worksheet. Each of the columns will have a field name at the top and each of the rows will represent a record.