Datasheet

12
Part I: Basic Training
of high-tech vocabulary or anything scary like that. The goal here (and in the
next two chapters) with regard to terms is to introduce you to some basic
words and concepts to help you make better use of Access in general — as
well as better understand later chapters in this book, if you choose to follow
us all the way to its stunning conclusion.
What Is Access Good For, Anyway?
What is Access good for? That’s a good question. Well, the list of what you
can do with it is a lot longer than the list of what you can’t do with it — of
course, only if you leave things like “paint your car” and “do the dishes” off
the “can’t do” list. When it comes to data organization, storage, and retrieval,
Access is at the head of the class.
Building big databases
Okay, what do I mean by big database? Any database with a lot of records —
and by a lot, I mean hundreds. At least. And certainly if you have thousands
of records, you need a tool like Access to manage them. Although you can
use Microsoft Excel to store lists of records, it limits how many you can store
(no more than the number of rows in a single worksheet). In addition, you
can’t use Excel to set up anything beyond a simple list that can be sorted and
filtered. So anything with a lot of records and complex data is best done in
Access.
Some reasons why Access handles big databases well:
✓ Typically a big database has big data-entry needs. Access offers not
only forms, but also features that can create a quick form through which
someone can enter all those records. This can make data entry easier
and faster, and can reduce the margin of error significantly. (Check out
Chapter 7 for more about building forms.)
✓ When you have lots and lots of records, you also have lots of opportuni-
ties for errors to creep — duplicate records, records with misspellings,
records with missing information — and that’s just for openers. So you
need an application such as Access to ferret out those errors and fix
them. (Chapter 9 lays out how you can use Access to find and replace
errors and search for duplicate entries.)
✓ Big databases mean big needs for accurate, insightful reporting. Access
has powerful reporting tools you can use to create printed and on-
screen reports — and those can include as few or as many pieces of
your data as you need, drawn from more than one table if need be. You
can tailor your reports to your audience, from what’s shown on the
reports pages to the colors and fonts used.
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