Getting Started with Access
Learn what a database does that a spreadsheet cannot, and find your way around the Access window.
By the end of this lesson you can
- Explain when a database is the right tool and when a spreadsheet is
- Identify the Navigation Pane, Ribbon, and object tabs
- Describe the four Access object types and what each is for
- Create a blank database and save it in the correct format
Lesson Notes
Read through the key concepts before you try the challenge.
Why Access exists
You maintain records at Lakeside Medical Associates.
The patient contact list is a spreadsheet with one row per appointment. A patient who has visited eleven times appears in eleven rows, with her address typed eleven times. She moves. Someone updates four rows. The practice now holds two addresses for one patient and no way to tell which is current.
Your task: Understand the problem Access solves, so you know when reaching for it is worth the extra effort.
Excel stores a grid of values. Access stores related tables, each describing one kind of thing, linked so that every fact is recorded exactly once. That difference sounds academic until data changes — and data always changes.
In the scenario above, Access would hold one Patients table with one row per patient and one Appointments table with one row per appointment, linked by a patient ID. The address exists in one place. Changing it changes it everywhere, because everywhere is one row.
| Situation | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A budget or one-off calculation | Excel | Fast to build; relationships do not matter |
| Data about several related things | Access | Each fact stored once, linked by keys |
| Records many people update over years | Access | Validation and integrity rules prevent contradictions |
| Ad-hoc analysis and charting | Excel | Far better analysis tooling |
| The same value typed repeatedly | Access | Repeated typing is the signal a second table is needed |
| More rows than Excel handles comfortably | Access | Designed for larger record counts |
Key terms
- Database
- A structured collection of related data, organized so each fact is stored once and can be linked to others.
- Object
- One of the four building blocks of an Access database: table, query, form, or report.
- Navigation Pane
- The list down the left showing every object in the database, grouped by type.
- Datasheet view
- Shows an object's data in a grid, like a spreadsheet.
- Design view
- Shows an object's structure — its fields, types, and properties — rather than its contents.
- .accdb
- The Access database file format. One file holds every table, query, form, and report.
Four object types, four jobs
| Object | Job | Think of it as |
|---|---|---|
| Table | Stores the data | The filing cabinet — the only place data actually lives |
| Query | Asks a question of the data | A saved question, re-answered against current data |
| Form | Interface for entering and viewing records | The data entry screen staff use |
| Report | Formats data for printing | The printed output |
Only tables store data. Queries, forms, and reports all display data that lives in tables. Delete a query and you lose the question, not the data. Delete a table and the data is genuinely gone.
You delete a query from an Access database. What happens to the data it displayed?
Challenge
Apply what you've learned in this lesson.
Explore a database before building one. Access ships with templates under File > New.
- Create a database from any built-in template. In the Navigation Pane, list every object and label each as a table, query, form, or report.
- Open one table in Datasheet view, then in Design view. Write two sentences on what each view lets you change.
- Open a form and a report built on the same table. Describe what each is optimized for.
- Without changing anything, write what would happen if you deleted the form, and what would happen if you deleted the table.
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