Office 2013 Digital Classroom

Access Lesson 1: Microsoft Access 2013 Jumpstart

In this lesson, you will get a general introduction to Access 2013. You will learn some terminology and basics of database design, the user interface, and some of the software’s critical features. Finally, you will learn how to use the Help application.

Starting up

You will work with files from the Access01lessons folder. Make sure that you have loaded the OfficeLessons folder onto your hard drive from www.digitalclassroombooks.com/Office2013. If you need further instructions, see “Loading lesson files” in the Starting up section of this book.

What is Access?

Access is a database program that allows you to store and organize your data in useful ways through reports, forms, and webpages. It is available in certain editions of Microsoft Office, but you can also purchase it separately.

Access is a relational database program that uses related tables to store, organize, and retrieve data. You can use Access locally on your computer or through the Internet. Access is used by small and large companies throughout the world to store their data and make it accessible in useful ways.

Ways to use Access

You can use Access to create, modify, and manage databases through any of the following tasks:

• • Creating a new database from scratch or based on a template.
• • Establishing relationships between types of information.
• • Adding data to a database ...