Access for Beginners

Access for Beginners is a practical introduction to Microsoft Access, aimed at people who already work comfortably in Microsoft Excel and have hit its limits. Access handles jobs Excel struggles with, such as bringing together several separate sets of data and producing summary reports, and it copes far better with long blocks of text that do not display well in a spreadsheet.

The book takes a step-by-step approach to the fundamentals of the program. Its main focus is building data tables and writing basic queries, so readers finish with a working foundation rather than a tour of every feature. It suits anyone who has long wanted to try Access but was unsure where to begin.

The text was written using Access 2013, though its lessons should also apply to Access 2007 and later versions.