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COMPUTER SOFTWARE APPLICATION - CITS

Access allows you to control who has access to your database files and what they can do with them. You can
create usernames for multiple users so different people have different levels of access, depending on which
username they use.
This is great if you want some users (e.g. managers) to update data, while others (e.g. MS Access consultants)
are only allowed to view the data and access data when needed.
Excel vs. Access – Data Analysis

Excel allows you to perform basic data analysis by adding formulas and performing certain functions on written
values.
Access has specific tools that are designed for analysing and summarising your data. These include PivotTables,
which allow you to create tables that summarise the data in various ways (e.g., number of sales per region, etc.).
This is great if you want to quickly analyse large amounts of data.

“Because Access is a professional database programme, it has some significant benefits over
Microsoft Excel when building and using databases. Here are five reasons to use Access vs. Excel.”
5 Reasons to Use Microsoft Access vs. Excel
Because Access is a professional database programme, it has some significant benefits over Microsoft Excel
when building and using databases. Here are five reasons to use Access vs. Excel.
1 User Security Model
Access provides all the tools needed to set access permissions on objects such as tables and queries. The
security model allows you to grant or deny certain users (e.g., managers) rights to edit or update data while
restricting other users (e.g., consultants) so they are only allowed to view data in pre-defined ways.
2 Data Storage Capacity
Access is superior to Excel when it comes to the amount of data you can store in a database. This is because
Access is specifically designed for storing large amounts of data, whereas Excel was not.
3 Maintaining Data Integrity
Access allows you to define field types and limits, which enforces appropriate data entry and prevents users from
unintentionally inserting invalid values into fields.
For example, if your database requires a specific data format, Access can enforce this by defining the field as a
Date type and setting an appropriate limit (e.g., only valid dates). The same applies to numerical values, currency
types or text containing specific characters.
4 Data Analysis
Access provides various tools that are specifically designed for performing data analysis on large data sets. Use
Pivot Tables to create tables summarising the data in multiple ways quickly (e.g., number of sales per region).
This way, you don’t have to enter all the data manually to find the information you need.
5 Summarising Data
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) allows you to write code to execute specific tasks regularly. This makes it very
easy to bring your database up-to-date by adding new records or deleting old ones. The VBA capability allows
you access to the tables and fields within your database, which means that you can automate tasks like importing
new records and exporting data to other applications.

“While Access is better suited to being used as a database, Excel can still be helpful too.”
5 Examples Where an Excel Database Is Useful
While Access is better suited to being used as a database, Excel can still be helpful too. Here are three examples
where an Excel database might be a good idea:
1 Phone Book
If you have a small phone book, using Microsoft Excel may be sufficient to store contact details. However, if you
have a larger phone book, you could create a copy of the contacts in Excel and convert this into a database to
make it easier to sort, update and retrieve information. In this case, you can utilise the standard functionality in
Excel to create and manage your contacts.

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CITS : IT&ITES - Computer Software Application - Lesson 63 - 77