Who Needs Access?
Yesterday, I stated that most home users would have no need for Microsoft Access and should save the cost of the upgrade. Today, I will explain a little more about Access which, I hope, will make clear why most users don’t need this software.
Access is a relatively easy to use database creation program. It allows you to store information about pretty much anything and relate, or link, that information to other information you have stored. This feature is the main advantage over Excel. Excel can easy store lists of information, but linking one list to another is not really feasible. For example, let’s say you had a phone directory and one of the fields was the person’s spouse. In Access, you could click on the spouse’s name and quickly open their record.
The other main advantage of Access is the ability to create forms and reports. While this is possible in Excel, there is a far greatly ability to customize, and therefore get exactly what you want in Access.
The main disadvantage in Access is that a certain degree of programming ability is required to create a good database. It is true that you could create an entire database using forms and reports through the provided wizards, but most people would find this very frustrating since simple changes could easily require the user to enter the programming interface. For this reason, I recommend using Excel for lists and collections of data. While it may not be the best tool, it is much easier for most people to understand and provides the same data manipulation tools.
For existing users, it is also important to note that the file format has completely changed for Access 2007 making it impossible to open Access 2007 databases in older versions of the program. Access 2007 is however able to open older files.
What do you think? Are there compelling reasons for the average user to buy Access? Are you currently using Access? What do you think of the program? I look forward to your comments.