Microsoft® Office Access™ 2007 Plain & Simple

Importing Data from an Excel File

On the surface, Excel and Access look a lot alike. Both programs handle data lists effectively. In fact, some small-business owners maintain all of their data lists in Excel and use that program’s summary functions, sorting, and filtering capabilities as if Excel were a database program. That’s fine if you have a single data table you want to analyze, but there’s no easy way to create relationships between tables, define queries using filters, or generate reports. Fortunately, there’s a straightforward process you can follow to bring an Excel data list into Access. Once your Excel data is in a database, you can create reports and queries that are possible, but very hard, to create in Excel.

Import Excel Data

1. Click ...