THE PROS AND CONS OF MS ACCESS

Microsoft MS Access is a powerful and functional database that can be used to track just about anything. For instance, Access is often used within companies for tracking employees, memberships, core teams, contact information, and more. However, MS Access can also be used within the home for tracking friends and family, church functions, social events, music collections, wine collections, book collections, and the lists go on.

As you are about to learn, the pros of using MS Access do outweigh the cons but before you purchase this software, you want to know what you are getting yourself into. On the positive side, MS Access is versatile, meaning anything you want to track you can. To get started, we highly recommend you work with the wizard, which will walk you through the process of setting up and maintaining a database. Simply read the questions, answer them, and you will be guided to the next steps.

The thing with Access is to remember the program bases databases on tables. Therefore, you would begin by creating a table of information on which the forms could be created, along with the queries. For instance, if you wanted to keep track of family members and friends, you would determine what information you want and then create columns. In this case, you would have a column for name, perhaps email address, street address, city, state, zip code, phone number, cell phone, and then you could even track birthdays.

Once the table is complete, forms and reports are relatively easy to produce, which would be based on the data maintained in the table. If you want to create tables, then you can use a special feature in Access known as a membership ID. The goal here is to use this ID as the primary key in the tables. That way, when you are ready to run a report, you would choose the fields wanted and with the click of a few buttons, Access would gather the appropriate information, followed by initiating the report

No doubt, MS Access is a powerful database program. Just as there are a number of pros associated with this Microsoft program, you will also need to understand the negative aspects. When first getting started with Access, expect to become frustrated. Learning this program takes time, often months. Although Access has so much power and overwhelming capability, it is not considered a user-friendly program, at first. However, as you spend time creating tables, forms, and reports, as well as running inquiries, you will begin to see the positive side of the application.