Pete,
Access is a data management, access and development facility
You can easily use it as a single-user facility - especially for learning
about it - but do install the security features
The data is held in tables (the equivalent of files - or worksheets in
excel, but with every usable column with a name)
and those tables hold rows of data ( records, or similar to rows in excel
worksheet)
and those rows are made up of fields ( cells in excel)
Manipulation of that data is by extracting the data using structured query
language (SQL)
You have to provide a formatted 'container' for that data presentation
( an excel workbook, a flat format file, a report, or another table within
Access )
You can alter the access controls Access generates on the things you create
within Access
( tables, SQL queries ( data manipulation scripts) reports forms etc., and
even hide things from specific users)
( assign each user an access level, and not only not let a user know the
level assigned, but don't even let them know there is a level code, or admit
to any data existing that they are not allowed to see )
You can tell Access to lock data at table, or record level
You can create indexes to speed access to required data
You should define a 'Primary, and hopefully unique key for every table you
define
So - 'access' to the database facility implies control of the data, it's
security and the ability to define reports .
Internet access is not quite what it is for, peer to peer LAN is it's
environment, but you can stick it on a server, or set an access facility to
work over the internet
For access control, you can use the Access internal facility, and NTFS/user
access control within most/all windows versions that support NTFS
R/W access to data is far less than access to the database
if they only need to update data within an existing table - then that's all
the access they need to be given
Creating reports is another function you can permit them to use.
To use Access you need to have a basic idea of data normalisation, VBA, SQL,
access/security control, Forms and reports
A broad spectrum of background knowledge but well worth learning, and Access
is a fairly simple startpoint
>From there you can go on to DB2, ORACLE, SQL server, Java et-al
Additionally, there was a short thread about using Access database table
facilities via VBA from within Excel, and that was without having to install
Access.
Sorry to have to say this - but go get an intro book on Access, then one on
Data Analysis, then one on SQL
JimB
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