Microsoft® Access® 2010 Inside Out

Deciding to Move to Database Software

When you use a word processing document or a spreadsheet to solve a problem, you define both the data and the calculations or functions you need at the same time. For simple problems with a limited set of data, this is an ideal solution. But when you start collecting lots of data, it becomes difficult to manage in many separate document or spreadsheet files. Adding one more transaction (another contact or a new investment in your portfolio) might push you over the limit of manageability.

If you need to change a formula or the way certain data is formatted, you might find that you have to make the same change in many places. When you want to define new calculations on existing data, you might have to copy and ...