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Microsoft Access is a member of the Microsoft 365 family of applications, and is a powerful productivity tool made for business and enterprise users.
Much like Microsoft Excel, Access lets you view and edit data. But Access is more powerful than Excel, and can handle much more data at once.
Here’s all you need to know about Microsoft Access.
Both Microsoft Excel and Access can be used to store data, so they might seem like similar. But in reality, they’re quite different.
Excel is a spreadsheet program that’s primarily used for individual projects and to perform brief calculations. Most Excel users only work with a few dozen to a few hundred data cells at once. And Excel is great for graphing and charting those calculations and data points.
Microsoft Access, on the other hand, is made to store and manage vast quantities of data in a form that makes it 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 applications, so when those other apps generate data, it’s automatically ported over to Access.
Here’s an overview of the major elements of Access and how they’re used.
Taken together, these components allow businesses and organizations to manage and understand the large amounts of data they need to store.
For example, a business might use Access to track its inventory and sales, while a school can use Access to track its students, their personal information, grades, performance, coursework, and teacher data. Access can be used on specific projects, such as to manage co-workers, tasks, accomplishments, deadlines, and follow-up activities.
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