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There are conflicting ideas about how hard it is to make use of Microsoft Access.
One school of thought suggests that it’s difficult, complex, and beyond normal folk.
The other is that it’s just as easy to use as Excel.
I’m here to tell you the truth.
And it sits somewhere between the two.
you might start right here.
A Microsoft Access Tutorial: Starting at the beginning
First up, a little boring theory.
I’ll make it as fast as I can, and hopefully it won’t hurt too much.
Microsoft Access is an RDBMS (Relational Database Management System).
It’s often called a database, that that term actually refers to the information you keep in it.
It’s like the difference between a particular spreadsheet and Excel itself.
As an RDBMS goes, Access is decidedly at the smaller end of the scale.
Firstly, data and display are separate in Access.
That is, you don’t format the data to look nice, or to be easy to input.
Secondly, you don’t (generally) store calculations.
You store raw data, and perform calculations when you need them.
Third and last for now.
It’s very easy in Excel to deal with an exception.
you could’t do that in any sensibly designed Access database, so planning is more important.
To get your head around this, some brief summaries of the various parts of Access.
It doesn’t all need to make sense the first time through.
I’ll cover each of these in depth with separate posts soon.
You’ll thank me later.
We’ve written some helpfulExcel articlesbefore, so feel free to take a wander through them.
We can help you withcalendars,budgets,chartsandprinting.
I even wrote a short piece on using thefill handleto save time.
Mostly, with Excel, you’re dealing with a single spreadsheet.
In Access, you generally involve a number of tables.
Sometimes a significant number.
That’s where the " R' in RDBMS comes from, and that’s the power behind Access.
Queries
This is the way you ask questions of Access.
you’re free to design them on the fly, and save them for later use.
In a general sense, the answers are not saved.
Just the queries that will provide the answers.
Forms
These are the visual components that make inputting and viewing data on-screen easy.
Forms are the answer.
Reports
Sometimes you don’t want to see things on-screen.
you want to print them, or email them to your boss.
You might want to pass information to someone who cannot use Access themselves.
you’re able to easily design and build suitable reports for most situations.
Macros and modules
This is where things get a little more complex.
Both have their uses, and we will come back to them later.
Summary
Access is complex, but it’s not difficult.
From an Excel perspective, Access tables are like spreadsheets, but more structured.
Everything else is about manipulating those tables to question, view, report and automate.
The complexity is worth it, because of the power Access gives you to achieve more.
I’ll be back soon with a post all about tables.
In the meantime, find a spreadsheet you might like to replace with a database.
Take a look at the sheets, and see if you’re free to find any inconsistencies.
you’re gonna wanna tidy those up to use the data in Access.
