What is Microsoft Access
Microsoft Access or MS access is a database management system (DBMS) with a nice graphical user interface (GUI). It can store data in various forms i.e. text, images, numbers, dates etc.
Version 1.0 of Ms Access was released on 13 November 1992. In the old days when FoxPro was dominating the database software, Microsoft decided to buy FoxPro. MS Access started embedding features of FoxPro into MS Access. In 1992 MS Access become popular due to its higher speed and a lot of features that we will discuss later in this article.
5 uses of Microsoft Access
Some places where MS Access is used are:-
- In education institutes like schools, colleges and universities
- Used in small to medium range of organizations
- Programmers also use this software to record their activities
- Businesses also use this software i.e. shops, restaurants, hotels etc.
- Also used in offices to store daily plans and make reports from office data
Advantages of Microsoft Access
Some benefits of MS Access are:-
- You can store a large amount of data in this software
- It has a low cost if you compare this with other software like SQL server and Oracle
- You can import/export data from different types of resources like MS Excel, Text File, XML File, or other database software also like SQL Server etc.
- This software has easy to use interface which is helpful for both beginner and advanced users
- MS Access is widely used software and you can get helpful resources on the internet easily
- It is easy to create queries in the software and those queries use SQL statements. SQL is a widely used language so anybody can understand it
- Macros are an inbuilt feature in this software by which you can automate different tasks
- The installation of this software takes a few minutes and you are ready to use
- You can share the data of this software with your colleagues, and business partners without any problem. The new version of the software can enable you to also share data in the web browser Integration of this software with other software like MS Excel, and MS Word is a built-in feature
- You can find and search any data record in this software quickly
- If you want to upgrade from this software then shifting from MS Access to SQL Server is a simple process
- Different types of templates are available in this software that you can use. The templates have predefined queries, macros, tables, forms and reports
Disadvantages of Microsoft Access
Some drawbacks of MS Access are:-
- There is a limit to how many users can work on the same databases at a time. 10 users can concurrently work on one database. The official statement tells us that 255 can work at a time in the same database but it is not true.
- It needs a technical person who can manage the database in this software. New users face difficulty in updating old databases because different formulas are used in the software which is not understood by a new user.
- This software is not suitable for short-term data access. That means if you store small data that you can instantly use then this software not fits into this task. It can be used for longer-time data access.
- MAC users cannot use MS Access because it is only available for Windows users
- If you are using the old version of MS Access and shift to a new version then your data will not look the same due to compatibility issues.
- Writing complex queries is difficult in this software. You have to be a computer programmer to understand and use the queries.
- Sometimes MS Access files get corrupted. In this case, you may face data loss
- There is a limit on file size which is 2GB. You cannot save more data to the file if the file size reaches 2GB
- If you include a couple of multimedia content in your access file then the software becomes slow
- This software has a learning curve i.e. new users feel difficulty in using the software and they need training for using this software in a professional way
- Not ideal for large organizations which have data stored in millions of records