Office 2010: The Missing Manual

Chapter 25. Creating Your First Database

Although Microsoft won’t admit it, Access can be intimidating—intimidating enough to trigger a cold sweat in the most confident office worker. Even though the company has spent millions of dollars making Access easier to use, most people still see it as the most complicated Office program on the block. They’re probably right.

Access seems more daunting than any other Office program because of the way databases work. Quite simply, databases need strict rules. Other programs aren’t as obsessive. For example, you can fire up Word, and start typing a letter straightaway. Or you can start Excel, and launch right into a financial report. But Access isn’t nearly as freewheeling. Before you can enter a stitch of information into an Access database, you need to create that database’s structure. And even after you’ve defined that structure, you’ll probably want to spend more time creating other useful tools, like handy search routines and friendly forms that you can use to simplify data lookup and data entry. All of this setup takes effort and a good understanding of how databases work.

In this chapter, you’ll conquer any Access resistance you have, and learn to create a simple but functional database. Along the way, you’ll get acquainted with the slick Access user interface, and learn exactly what you can store in a database. You’ll then be ready to tackle the fine art of database design, which is covered in the next chapter.

Note

Access is by far the ...