With Microsoft Access, the average user can work with databases without being highly skilled in the

field. Microsoft made it easy for just about anyone to learn how to work with databases by replacing some of the complicated work with easy-to-use templates. While using Access can be somewhat of a challenge just because of the extensive options it offers, it's user-friendly enough to have a database up and running before you know it. Read more: Advantages of Microsoft Access | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4760017_advantages-microsoft-access.html#ixzz1sBKHYIeL

Function:-

Microsoft Access is a database software program that makes manipulating data manageable for users of many skill levels. You can input data and sort, filter or group information according to your needs. It's particularly useful when there are thousands of records and sorting through them individually would take hours. Access allows you to obtain the information quicker by providing a few commands to tell the program what is being sought. Reports can be created, too, that pull information out of the database according to the project parameters. For example, information on a customer's age, sex, marital status, address, email address, phone number and cell phone number may be listed in your database. However, demographics about the client may be the only thing necessary to complete a given project. You can then build a report that will extract customers by age, sex and marital status. Read more: Advantages of Microsoft Access | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4760017_advantages-microsoft-access.html#ixzz1sBKNf2i1
Benefit: -

Flexibility is the key with Access. Knowing that not everyone is skilled at making databases, Microsoft created basic templates that a user can go and use immediately. However, a database can be built from scratch or the templates can be tweaked as needed to fit your needs. Rather than inputting each record every time a project is started, Access holds thousands of records for you to revisit whenever needed, making it a time-saver, too. This is great because not only is the information there, but it can be used alongside other Microsoft programs such as Word. Simply create a mail merge with thousands of letters and join it together with the Access database. All contacts will be pulled from Access and dumped into each letter separately. Interaction between MS Outlook is possible too: Import contacts from your MS Outlook contact book into Access or export contact information in Access and save it as a contact in Outlook. Read more: Advantages of Microsoft Access | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4760017_advantages-microsoft-access.html#ixzz1sBKV4sgn

Considerations

Access makes it quick to share and manipulate information through collaboration on the Web. Using Windows Sharepoint Services, several users can move their Access files to Windows Sharepoint Services so coworkers can update, edit or work with those files, provided they have been granted permissions by the person who uploaded the files to Windows Sharepoint Services.

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Access Glossary Terms

Access uses many terms that may be new to you, but are necessary to understand in order to complete the work. A "database" is a way to organize and store information about people, places and things. Access is a database management system which houses those various databases and makes it quick to access them. "Queries" are functions that allow a user to obtain certain data from the table. Using a query helps answer specific questions that would be difficult to answer by just looking at the table itself. They can help filter, summarize and perform calculations with your data. A "table" consists of rows and columns, while "records" are the rows that combine information about something, and "fields" are the columns that contain a single item of information.

Database Design Process

A little bit of planning will go a long way for the best use of an Access database. First, figure out how the database will be used. Next, gather all information to be input into the database and organize the information into categories, each of which will become a table. Input the data into the tables, which will become columns and create relationships between the tables if there are more than one. Finally, apply normalization rules to make sure the tables are structured correctly.

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4. Create tables quickly without worrying about database complexity. With automatic data type detection, table creation in Office Access 2007 is as easy as working with a Microsoft Office Excel table. Type your information and Office Access 2007 will recognize whether it is a date, currency, or another common data type. You can even paste an entire Excel table into Office Access 2007 to begin tracking the information with the power of a database.

6. Collect and update your information directly from the source. With Office Access 2007, you can create forms using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 or HTML to gather information for your database. You can then send this form to your teammates via email and use their responses to populate and update your Access table to eliminate the need to retype any information. 7. Share your information with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. Share your Access information with the rest of your team using Windows SharePoint Services and Office Access 2007. With the power of both applications, your teammates can access and edit the data and view real-time reports directly through a Web interface. 8. Track Windows SharePoint Services lists with the rich client capabilities of Office Access 2007. Use Office Access 2007 as your rich client interface to analyze and create reports from Windows SharePoint Services lists. You can even take the list offline, and then synchronize any changes when you reconnect to the network, making it easy for you to work with your data at any time. 9. Move data to Windows SharePoint Services for better manageability. Make your data more transparent by moving it to Windows SharePoint Services. This way, you can routinely back up the data on the server, recover deleted data from the recycle bin, track revision history, and set access permissions, so you can better manage your information. 10. Access and use information from multiple sources. With Office Access 2007, you can link tables to your database from other Access databases, Excel spreadsheets, Windows SharePoint Services sites, ODBC data sources, Microsoft SQL Server databases, and other data sources. You can then use these linked tables to easily create reports so you can base your decisions on a more comprehensive set of information.

For more information visit Microsoft If you are interested in a bespoke software solution from Software Matters then you can contact us any time for a no hassle, jargon-free chat to quickly determine whether or not we can help you. And if we feel we can't help you we will point you to somebody who can!

User Friendly

Access is user friendly and features the familiar Windows look and feel which is appealing to most users.
Concurrent Users

Access was initially designed to operate on a network. Even though the latest version of Access will support up to 255 concurrent users, it is more practical to select Access when there will be approximately 15 to 20 users.
Unique Identifier

Each piece of information is assigned a unique identifier. This is extremely important since it controls that each piece of information is only entered once and eliminates human and duplication errors.
Custom Design

Customized forms can be created that will make it easy for you to enter your information.
Selection Criteria

Information can be easily retrieved based on selection criteria that you specify.
Reporting

You can quickly create custom reports to that contain useful data that can help streamline your business processes.

Normalizing the Table Design

Purpose

Normalization is defined as the process of efficiently organizing data in a database. There are ultimately two goals of the normalization process. The first is to eliminate redundant data. Redundant data is defined as storing the same data in more than one table. The second is to ensure that data dependencies make sense by having only related data stored in the same table. Both of these goals are important since they reduce the amount of space a database consumes and ensures that data is logically stored.
The Normal Forms

Formal guidelines have been established by the database community to ensure that databases are normalized. These guidelines are referred to as normal forms and are numbered from one (First Normal Form (1NF) or the lowest form of normalization, through five (Fifth Normal Form (5NF) which is the highest form of normalization. In many applications, you'll often see 1NF, 2NF, and 3NF along with an occasional 4NF. Fifth Normal Form is seen very rarely and therefore will not be further discussed. It is extremely important to mention that these are only guidelines and there are always exceptions to the rule. Occasionally, it may become necessary to stray from the guidelines in order to meet practical business requirements. However, when variations take place, it's extremely important to evaluate any possible effect they could have on your system and account for possible data inconsistencies. First Normal Form (1NF) First Normal Form (1NF) sets the very basic rules for an organized database as follows:

Eliminate duplicate columns from the same table. Create separate tables for each group of related data and identify each row by using a unique column or set of columns (i.e., primary key).

Second Normal Form (2NF) Second Normal Form (2NF) further addresses the concept of removing duplicate data as follows:

Meet all the requirements of the First Normal Form. Remove subsets of data that apply to multiple rows of a table and place them in separate tables. Create relationships between these new tables and their predecessors through the use of foreign keys

Third Normal Form (3NF) Third normal form (3NF) goes one step further as follows:

Meet all the requirements of the Second Normal Form. Remove columns that are not dependent upon the primary key.