Microsoft Office Access 2003 Upgrade

The popularity of Access is based on several strong features. The interface is clean and uncluttered, and you can open data tables in a familiar spreadsheet-like view. There is a visual query builder, or you can write queries in SQL, the standard database query language. Advanced features let you enforce relational integrity between tables and set validation constraints on fields. There is also an excellent report designer. The Access database engine is not suitable for very large databases, but you can scale up by switching to Microsoft's SQL Server or an ODBC database while still using the same visual tools. New in Office Access 2003 is automatic error-checking in forms, integrated support for transforming data with XSL (an XML standard), and the ability to link to lists in SharePoint Services as a convenient way to share data. A small but welcome detail is control over the font used in the SQL editor, which was fixed at a small size in earlier versions.

This is a capable product and generally a pleasure to use. The main gripe against it is that even Microsoft's wizards do not make relational database applications easy to build. FileMaker is better for non-specialists, but Office Access 2003 wins on Office integration and more comprehensive features. --Tim Anderson

However, a word of warning. Beyond very simple datbases, Access has a VERY steep learning curve and requires considerable skill with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to get the best out of it. The results are worth the time and effort though.


Access for Life!   August 26, 2005
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

Some years ago when I was going through Oracle training, I chose Access as part of my dissertation for developing a database for my University. I was just curious and was not really giving serious thoughts to Access at that time (it was Access 97), especially as compared to Oracle.

I was so wrong, I soon discovered. Access was one of the best software package I ever enjoyed to learn (I was doing it on my own without any help). There are practically millions of Access users around the glob that are very very helpful (thanks folks) and you can find hundreds of excellent books written on Access on a varying level from absolute beginners to advance users. Free code and free training material is available on the web as well.

I personally have used it for everything from simple Employees salary calculator to fully fledged Client-server databases (using SQL Server 2000 as a back-end) complete with web-driven data access pages, data entry forms, and data analysis tools like charts and pivot tables. Not only that but the rapid application development allows for creating/generating quick prototypes of the systems. At the least, I have used it to create Entity-Relationship models for my company clients for a head start in database development.

Invaluable for students to learn and value-for-money for small-to-medium businesses that do not wish or afford Oracle or SQL Server. Still if they do use Oracle etc, the existing databases can be upgraded or upsized.

Access 2003 itself is the best incarnation I have to say. It contains the latest functions (and libraries) and has excellent charting and data access page creation tools that solve almost all of the small-to-medium size business problems. Access 2003 also makes it a lot easier to design queries, forms and reports as compared to the previous older versions, for example by providing you with the smart tag options to design your own tags. A must have as a total office solution.

There are two problems with purchasing Access 2003 though. If you already have Access 2002 then perhaps stay with that. If you have the full MS Office 2002 Professional and you want to upgrade, then upgrading to Office 2003 Professional would be more advisable. Secondly a stand alone Access 2003 is a bit strange to have because most students/businesses would already be using at least MS word and MS Excel. So again in that case upgrade the whole office package instead of buying Access 2003 alone.

Enough Said!!!


access   January 24, 2005
10 out of 72 found this review helpful

access is a good program for making databases but is too boring for words