subject: What Is Ms Access? [print this page] MS Access is a tool designed for effective data management. It's used by millions all over the world and is also a superb replacement for Excel whenever the amount of data gets too large to look after effectively.
It consists of several components including:
Queries
Tables
Forms
Macros
Reports
Modules
What is MS Access used for?
MS Access is primarily utilized to store large volumes of information and make it readily accessible with sorting, filtering and totalling using queries. The information can then be presented to the user by the use of forms (for modification) and reports (for viewing and printing).
How sophisticated is MS Access?
Access has often been touted as being the database system for departmental solutions.The nature of Access would mean that it is quick and easy to store, organise and retrieve data and consequently suitable for a departmental environment. However, on account of the changes made in Access 2007 and 2010, Access is now beginning to punch its weight as a serious database solution with increased storage and seamless ODBC connectivity.
Where does VBA fit in?
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language that underpins Access. It's been created for the whole Microsoft Office suite but is most commonplace in Access and Excel. It used for automation within an Access application but doesnt actually have to be learnt to create high quality projects.
Versions of Access
The first version of Access was released in 1992. It was called Access 1.0. since then multiple versions of Access have been released. Here are the most notable ones:
Access 97
Access 2000
Access 2003
Access 2007
Access 2010
The original Access file was in the .mdb format. It was changed to the Accdb format in Access 2007 to ensure more complex data could be handled. Access 2007 was also the very first time that the ribbon was introduced into Access and tables could be stored in Sharepoint.
In 2010 Access acquired the ability to operate as a web application by way of being stored as a project in Sharepoint. This idea is recognized as Access Services and signifies that one database can actually support a client based file and a web based file.
Connectivity
Using ODBC Access can seamlessly connect with a multitude of documents from Excel files all the way through to basic text files. Access could also connect to other Access tables and databases thus ensuring the magnitude of an Access database could be increased by using an archiving system.
To summarise
Access is a great departmental solution with increasing data handling capabilities. It is easy to learn and also at the forefront of these modern web-application times we live in.
