Access is a database. Excel is a spreadsheet. Both are useful to displaying data systematically, but a database is enormously more flexible. Access is a relational database, which is even more flexible than an ordinary database and permits the data to be manipulated in many ways.
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It's not "instead of" but "both" - using whichever is the better for the given work.
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It does depend on your purposes. Excel is by far the better if you need only a single table, or if you need to embed a lot of mathematical formulae in the spread-sheet - though MS has ruined what had been its nearly-good graph routines. A database table looks like a spread-sheet page, but it lacks the rapid copying functions that are valuable features in Excel.
While you can create them with it, Microsoft Excel's main use is not for creating databases, but for creating spreadsheets. Microsoft Access is the main Microsoft product for creating databases. There are also many other applications that you can create databases with too, like Oracle, Open Office, or MySQL
Microsoft Access is a database application and Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application, so they are two different kinds of application. There are things that both can do, but if you want to create a proper database, then Access is better than Excel. It has far more facilities for working with databases than Excel does. Because of that, it is simpler to do lots of things in Access than in Excel. If you want to create a spreadsheet, then that is what Excel is used for, though you can do a lot of things Excel does in Access. If you already have Excel and want to create databases, then you can, but you won't be able to do the really sophisticated things that Access can do and which a really good database needs, such as queries, reports, relationships etc. If you want a really good database that can do those things, then you need Access.
Each of the Microsoft Office applications are completely different to each other. Microsoft Access is for creating databases. Microsoft Excel can do some databases, but it is not designed to do them, as it is a spreadsheet application. Microsoft Access has many facilities to create databases. Those things are not present in the other applications, which are each designed for their own tasks. Microsoft Access allows you create tables, queries, forms and reports as the main elements of its functionality.
Microsoft Office Access uses a database type known as the Microsoft Jet Database Engine. You can learn more about Microsoft Access online from the Wikipedia.
No, Excel cannot make a database file. However, databases can be imported onto it. The primary software for making a database is Microsoft Access.
Databases and spreadsheets make good data sources for mail merge.
Access is the database applicaton. Excel has some database capability, but it is very limited. Outlook is an e-mail client, but it has a database for keeping details of contacts. Word is a word processor and can create tables, but with little database capability.
I believe the only Microsoft program used to create spreadsheets is Microsoft Excel.
No. Excel is a spreadsheet. Access is the database.
Microsoft access+Microsoft word+Microsoft excel
Company data, such as employee salaries, expenses, etc are usually recorded in Microsoft Word (documents), Excel (spreadsheets), or Access (databases) files.
Microsoft Excel and Access offer the ability to interface with a Oracle database. This is provided through the Office Suite.