What Are Databases Good For?

Strictly speaking, a database is any collection of information. Your local telephone book, for example, is a database, as is your Rolodex file and the card catalog at your local library. With a computerized database in Microsoft Access, you can store information, as with these three examples, but you can also do much more. For instance, if you keep a list of all your business customers in an Access database, you can:

• Print out a list of all customers who haven't bought anything in the last 60 days, along with their phone numbers, so you can call each one.

• Sort the customers by ZIP Code and print out mailing labels in that order. (Some bulk-mailing services require you to presort by ZIP Code to get the cheaper mailing rate.)

• Create a simple onscreen order entry form that even your most technically unskilled employee can use successfully.

These examples only scratch the surface. With Access, you can manipulate your data in almost any way you can dream up.