What is Microsoft Access ? . . .
The first version of Access was added to the Office suite of packages in 1992 and since then it has become the most widely used database system there is.

Although programs like Excel can hold and manipulate large amounts of data, Access is optimised for storing large amounts of record-based data in a structured and organised fashion. Access keeps its data in hierarchical 'slices' comprising of fields, records and tables. Most importantly, tables can be linked by relationships that impose rules on the users of the data and ensure that the integrity of the information stays intact.

For example, an order processing system may have an Order Details table storing each line of an order (quantity, product, price etc.), and this would be linked to an Order Header table (customer, delivery date etc.). The link would be formed by storing the Order Number in both tables and, by making this a formal relationship, the developer can ensure that every detail line must have a valid associated order header record. In addition, the system would automatically prevent any order header record from being deleted while associated detail records still existed.

Other database systems exist which achieve these goals; a few are more complex and powerful, and some are more basic and therefore slightly simpler to use, but none match Access for its ability to operate at so many different levels. From a simple 'flat-file' end-user database for storing names and addresses, through to complex multi-user client-server applications development, Access does the job, and because of its numerous productivity features development timescales and therefore costs are kept to a minimum.

There are versions of Access to run on any version of Windows and it is fully compatible with all the major networks, such as Microsoft Server.

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