ACCESS 7.0: 
Microsoft Office Professional & Bookshelf 
review by Marie Garcia

First of all, you are going to need a 486 or equivalent multimedia PC (CD-ROM drive and audio board) and Windows 95 or NT Workstation operating system version 3.51 or later. These programs will not run on earlier versions of Windows. If you plan to use Access, you will need a minimun of 12MB RAM; if you like to run two programs at once, one being Access, then you will need even more RAM. If you plan to run Access on Windows NT along with other programs, then plan on 16MB RAM.

 As you may already have read, MS Office Professional & Bookshelf (in CD-ROM) contains six full-featured Win95 programs: MS Word (a word processor), MS Excel (a spreadsheet program), MS PowerPoint (a presentation graphics program), MS Access (a database program) and MS Schedule+ (a time management program). In addition, it includes a reference library called MS Bookshelf.

 In other words, MS Office will gobble a good-sized chunk of your hard disk space. Plan on 40 MB for compact installation or 87 MB for typical installation; you can even use up to 126 MB (maximum) for a custom installation.

 So what’s new? Aside from the new additions, MS Schedule+ and Bookshelf, there are pretty neat add-ons on every application that I find it very interesting and most helpful.
 
 

System Requirements

 After installation, and after restarting your computer: Ta da!, the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar appears on your screen. This feature helps you use shortcuts with your documents and other Office applications. If you don’t like what’s in the bar, don’t dismay, you can change it by clicking the “cube” icon on the left and customize the bar by adding buttons or toolbars for your most frequently usedapplication ¾ or move the bar anywhere on the screen where it will be most useful to you.

 Whenever you create a new document whether it’s a Word or Access document, etc. , it is saved in one sub-directory called documents. So whenever you open a file, you can select “All Files” in the file type box and Office will list all the documents you’ve created. An icon next to the filename identifies the type of document it is. This helps you find your documents quickly.

 You may ask why will I need Access to do a database if I already have Excel to work with. MS Excel is fine to create and maintain simple lists. When a project becomes too large for Microsoft Excel (it has a limit of 16,384 rows in a worksheet), converting to Microsoft Access is a good idea. With Access, you can add more entries and it will be easier for you tto manage your information. Conversion is a snap: open your Excel worksheet, click anywhere in the list, then click Convert to Access (Data menu). The Wizard (new to Access) will walk you through the process of converting your Microsoft Excel data into Microsoft Access.

 Once you have selecting the option to convert from spreadsheet to database, Wizard will create an entire database with its related tables, forms and reports. About 20 database templates are available to choose from. Using the Database Wizard helps you to get started. If you do not see a database that perfectly suits your needs, look for one that comes close and you can easily modify it to get your ideal database.

 Filter by Selection and Filter by Form are two great additions to Access for Windows 95. A filter is a tool that looks through your information, picking the parts that meet one or more conditions you have set in order to be displayed. For example, in a “customer balances” database, you may want a list of customers whose balances are equal to $10,000.00. Under the "Balance " field click $10,000.00 (you have just set the filter criteria). Then click on the Filter by Selection button. The filter button is represented by a funnel-like icon. The record counter will show you the number of records that meet the criteria and it will remind you that you are looking at a filtered view of the table. Then as you move from record to record, only those that meets the filter condition will appear.

One final note, you can open Access version 1.x or 2.0 database in Access 7.0 without converting it, but you can't change the design of objects in that database, nor can you take advantage of many of the new features in Access 7.0 until you convert your database. Be aware, however, once you've converted a database to Access 7.0, you can't open that database in Access version 1.x or 2.0 or convert it back again.

 Overall, I highly recommend MS Office Professional & Bookshelf for use in the office (highrise or home-office) in school or at home. Why? This may be the only integrated application you’ll need in order to have full-featured, integrated office tools right on your desktop. As pointed out earlier, understand you will need beaucoup space on your drive to fit all of the program.

Cheers to the people who wrote Getting Results with Microsoft Office for Windows 95. It is brief, but gives you what you need to know to get started and explore the program by yourself. Of course, don’t forget where to find the Wizard, just in case. He’s very helpful!