Once your data is in Access, you can take advantage of the marvelous array of report creation and customization tools.
It's usually a good idea to have only one location for updating the data. After you import the data, you can decide whether to delete the data from Excel. Once the data is imported, it is now native to Access, and you can use datasheets and forms to add, edit, and delete the data. When you complete the operation, you can save the steps that you used and even create an Outlook task to remind you when to do the import operation on a regular basis. You can either make the changes in the Excel workbook and re-import the data, or make the changes in the new Access table.
For example, there may be an alphanumeric postal code buried deep down in a column you thought was all numeric, or a duplicate ID was detected for a primary key field. If you encounter errors when importing the data, Access alerts you and saves the errors in a table so that you can quickly find and correct them. The Import Wizard walks you through the import steps and helps you make important decisions about whether to change data types and add headers. In Access, you can import any or all of the worksheets in an Excel workbook in one operation. When you import data, Access stores the data in a new or existing table without altering the data in Excel. In Access, when you import, you bring data into Access once, but without a permanent data connection. In Excel, when you import (or connect), you make a permanent connection to data that can be refreshed. Note that the word import has two different meanings between Excel and Access. If you decide to cut the data cord, you can move the data to Excel by importing the data into Access. With your data linked to Excel, you can create reports, queries, and read-only forms in Access.įor more information, see Import or link to data in an Excel workbook. However, you cannot edit the contents of the table in Access. If you want to add, edit, or delete data, you make the changes in Excel, and refresh (or re-query) the data in the Access table. When you link to an Excel worksheet or a named range, Access creates a new table that is linked to the Excel data.
The Linked Table Manager Wizard helps you track, locate, and update the Excel worksheet or other data source if it moves and the link breaks. Data in linked tables appear and behave in many ways just like native tables.
Users can create new native tables to store the data in an Access database, or they can create links to existing data outside the Access database. You link data from Access, and not from Excel.Īccess supports two fundamentally different ways of creating database tables. Use an Access link when you plan to keep the data in Excel, but also regularly leverage some of the many Access features, such as reporting and querying. One of the easiest ways to derive the benefits of both Excel and Access is to link an Excel worksheet to an Access table. Developers can work with modules and develop VBA code to create custom database solutions and deploy runtime applications. Power users have macros, the property pane, expressions, and database design tools to delve deeper and do more.ĥ. Occasional users have wizards, property builders, the Office Fluent user-interface, and Excel-like features to quickly get a job done.Ĥ. Tables, queries, forms, and reports build upon each other and make up the heart of a database application.ģ. Use Access in three ways: as an occasional user, a power user, or a developer.Ģ. Access is designed for all kinds of users, and you can take it only as far as you need to go.ġ. But you don't have to be an expert to use Access. Unlike Excel's simple spreadsheet layout, Access is organized differently with several interrelated objects that might seem daunting at first. Once your data is in Access, you can add more tables and join them, create queries (or views of your data), structure the data and define data types to help ensure data integrity, share and update data among many users, and create powerful reports and forms. Access has always been a great "data landing pad" for gathering and consolidating disparate data throughout the enterprise, much of which lives inside Excel workbooks. When simple tables need to evolve into multiple tables of related data, Access is the first choice for information workers to quickly create a database application. However, Excel is a flat file database, not a relational database. Even though Excel is not a database, it is widely used to store data, and it is often used to solve simple database problems.