Microsoft Access

1. database A relational database running under MicrosoftWindows. Data is stored as a number of "tables",

e.g. "Stock". Each table consists of a number of "records"

(e.g. for different items) and each record contains a number

of "fields", e.g. "Product code", "Supplier", "Quantity in

stock".

Access allows the user to create "forms" and "reports". A

form shows one record in a user-designed format and allows the

user to step through records one at a time. A report shows

selected records in a user-designed format, possibly grouped

into sections with different kinds of total (including sum,

minimum, maximum, average).

There are also facilities to use links ("joins") between

tables which share a common field and to filter records

according to certain criteria or search for particular field

values.

Version: 2 (date?).

Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.databases.ms-access.

2. communications A communications program from Microsoft,

meant to compete with ProComm and other programs. It sucked

and was dropped. Years later they reused the name for their

database.

[Date?]

(1997-07-20)