Is Access the right program for me?

[Stacey]

Hello everyone,
I am new to Access and am trying to find out if Access
will do what I need?
Scenario:
I need to create a database for an elementary school to
house student data for each grade level (ex 1st, 2nd,etc.)
I have been very successful setting up the database to
house the data, but am unsure if Access will allow me to
create graphical representations of the information in
specific field with in the tables. For example, I might
want to create a report/graph? to show the reading level
of students in Ms. Smith's class at the beginning of the
year compared to the reading level of the same students at
the end of the year. The Reading Level beginning of year
is a separate field than the Reading Level end of year.
Both field use a combo list drop down that limits the data
input to 7 data choices. The main reason for creating the
database is so that we can pull reports/graphs to make
meaning of the data.

Should I house the data in Access and then export it to
another program? Or am I missing some part of Access that
could do this for me? Thanks a million for any feedback
you can provide.

 

[Arvin Meyer]

Access can do graphs nicely, but not as nicely as Excel. The good news is
that you can easily export data to specific Excel workbooks and create the
graphs there, dynamically if you wish. You can also export those graphs to
PowerPoint Presentations.

So the answer would be yes, use Access to store the data. That's what it's
built for. Then if the graphs are relatively simple, Access reports with
graphing should be just fine. If you need more sophistication, go to Excel
for the graphs.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access