Carmen asked:-

> What is the difference between Microsoft excel and
> Microsoft access?  I
> won't have any numerical formulas in my spreadsheet. Will
> this make a
> difference in which of the two spreadsheet programs I
> pick?

I would describe Access as a database program and Excel as 
a spreadsheet.

The biggest difference is the way in which Access can 
"query" a number of "related" tables (or spreadsheets as 
Carmen uses the term) and produce a consolidated answer on 
a single page or in a single table.

Access comes into its own when using large numbers of 
records (tens of thousands). Pulling information together 
from several different tables and presenting them in a pre-
planned way.

> I am using Microsoft Access for a simple spreadsheet in
> order to catalog
> some items from my hobby collection.  One of the fields in
> my spreadsheet is
> for the image of the item

Will you view the result as a page per item or will you see 
a table containing descriptions and pictures in rows, 
several rows to a screen?

> I am going to have all the images that I am using in this
> spreadsheet in one
> folder. 

I believe Access will need the pictures to stay in a 
particular place and will refer to them when you look at 
your catalogue. (That needs to be confirmed by a regular 
user of Access.)

Excel will store the picture actually in the .xls file. So 
once the pictures are in place the originals can be stored 
elswhere or deleted.

For small jobs I believe Excel is much easier to manage, 
you have all your data accessible by just scrolling up and 
down the sheet. The formatting of this data is easily 
changed and from the Excel menu Data/Filter you have a way 
of querying the data.

Tony
Tony Beckett - Rutland, UK

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