What is Microsoft Access? Here's how the database management system works, and how it differs from E

Publish date: 2024-07-31
2021-02-17T19:37:57Z

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.

How Microsoft Access is different than Excel 

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.

How Microsoft Access is used

Here's an overview of the major elements of Access and how they're used.

Access databases can be shared and edited from multiple computers. Yagi Studio/Getty Images

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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spanDave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider./span Dave Johnson Freelance Writer Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider. Read more Read less

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