Running Microsoft Access

This tutorial and reference begins with a discussion of database principles, and proceeds to acquaint the reader with the basic features and functionality of Access, including NWIND, a small example database that ships with the product. The book then covers the main areas that a user will need to master to live a data-rich life: designing the database; working with the data (finding, sorting, querying); designing, building and using forms; and building and presenting reports. The last third of the book enters more advanced territory, teaching how to create a simple application, discussing network-related issues, and introducing Access' programming language. Throughout, the book not only covers Access' features, but also teaches the principles of managing data, and provides common-sense explanations of how a relational database works. This approach reaches its culmination in an appendix that shows several basic "database schemas" - that is, blueprints for the fundamental ways in which different types of data relate, and thus blueprints for designing one's databases.