Terms

Despite the numerous changes to the Access interface, that you will see in following sections, terminology is exactly the same.

There are four terms that you will need to familiarize yourself with before you begin using Access. These are...

• Database : this is the name of the document you will be working with in Access. Essentially all a Database is, is a collection of data with related information.
• Table : A table is a collection of fields and records. There is usually some relating factor between each field within a table. Relationships between two tables in a database can be found if they both contain the same field.
• Field : Fields are the different types of data values included in a table. An example of a field would be name, address, phone-number, or birthday. Fields do not directly contain information, but stipulate what type of information goes into a specific cell.
• Record : Records are the actual data as related to the field they are stipulated by. Using the previous examples from the fields term, records for those fields might be: Bob, 1234 ave, 555-2346, and 2/29.

These terms will be used multiple times throughout the tutorial. Make sure you familiarize yourself with their definitions.