Use Your First Microsoft Access Database

Topic at a glance

Most businesses maintain vital information in databases. Customer lists, product inventories, and payroll schedules, for example, are often stored in database applications.

With Microsoft Access, you keep all your data about a subject in one place where it’s easy to find what you need. When you use the data, you can summarize and present information about one or more related subjects in many ways. Updating information is easy—change the data once and Microsoft Access updates it wherever it appears.

Try it out   This topic uses the Northwind database included with Microsoft Access. However, you can also use the procedures described in this topic on your own database. If the Northwind database isn’t already installed, rerun Setup to install it.

To complete the steps in this topic   you need to have either Microsoft Office, Professional Edition or an individual copy of Microsoft Access installed.