With its improved interface and interactive design capabilities that do not
require deep database knowledge, Microsoft Office Access 2007
helps you track and report information with ease. Get started quickly with
prebuilt applications that you can modify or adapt to changing business needs.
Collect information through forms in e-mail or import data from external
applications. Create and edit detailed reports that display sorted, filtered,
and grouped information in a way that helps you make sense of the data for
informed decision-making. Share information by moving your Office Access 2007
files to a Windows SharePoint Services Web site, where you can audit revision
history, recover deleted information, set data access permissions, and back up
your information at regular intervals.

Quickly get started tracking information
Start working
immediately with the results-oriented features in Office Access 2007:

• Prebuilt solutions. The new Getting Started
  screen includes a variety of prebuilt database solutions. Use these
  applications right out of the box to track contacts, events, issues, assets,
  tasks, and more -- or treat them like templates, and enhance and refine them
  to accommodate the kind of information you want to track or the way in which
  you want to track it. As other application templates become available from
  Microsoft Office Online, they will be advertised in the Getting Started
  screen.


• Results-oriented user interface. Office Access
  2007 has been updated with a fresh look that makes it easier to create,
  modify, and work with tracking applications (Access database solutions). The
  new results-oriented user interface (UI) is context-sensitive and optimized
  for efficiency and discoverability. From the nearly 1,000 available
  commands, the new UI displays only those relevant to the task you are
  performing at any given moment. In addition, the tabbed windows view and a
  new status bar, scroll bars, and title bar give applications built on Office
  Access 2007 a very modern look.


• Improved navigation. The new Navigation Pane
  provides a comprehensive view of tables, forms, queries, and reports. You
  can even create custom groups to organize and see all the forms and reports
  related to a single table.


• Quickly create tables. Office Access 2007
  makes it easier to work directly within a datasheet to create and customize
  tables. Enter information into a data cell -- just as you do in Microsoft
  Office Excel. When you enter a new value, Office Access 2007 automatically
  adds a new field and detects the data type (for example, date, number, or
  text). You can even paste Excel tables into a new datasheet, and Office
  Access 2007 will build all the fields and recognize the data types
  automatically.


• Import contact records from Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.
  Office Access 2007 makes it easy to exchange an individual Access contact
  record with Office Outlook 2007. You can import an Outlook contact record
  into Office Access 2007; you can also export a contact record from Office
  Access 2007 and save it as a contact in Office Outlook 2007.


• Filter and sort data. Office Access 2007 makes
  it easier to filter data, bringing clarity to business questions. Different
  filter options are available for text, numbers, and date data types. For
  example, new filtering options make it easy to filter a date column for all
  records in Today, Yesterday, Last Week, Next Month, Future, Past, and so on.
  The filtering experience is consistent between Office Excel 2007 and Office
  Access 2007 so that you don't need to learn a new way to find the
  information they need.


• Work with multivalue fields. Office Access
  2007 supports complex data types, so you can create columns that accept more
  than one value in a cell. For example, if you assign a task to more than one
  person, you can include both names in the cell. Windows SharePoint Services
  technology is compatible with these complex data types to help ensure data
  symmetry between the local and Web-based data stores.


• Attach documents and files to your database.
  Your applications can hold information that is more interesting and helpful
  than ever before. You can attach multiple files -- such as photos,
  documents, or spreadsheets -- to individual records within the data store
  for easy reference. If the file isn't a compressed format, Office Access
  2007 automatically compresses it for you, saving hard disk space.


• Interactive forms design. Office Access 2007
  features a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) forms design interface.
  You can design and modify the form layout in real time on the screen -- and
  preview your form as you build it. With the WYSIWYG design interface, you
  can build forms very quickly, spending more time doing the work and less
  time on design and formatting issues.


• Rich text. Bold text? Italics? No problem.
  Office Access 2007 provides rich text support for data stored in tables.

Create and adapt meaningful reports
Use Office Access 2007
to make sense of complexity by consolidating information into meaningful reports
that facilitate informed decision-making.

• Interactive report design mode editing. With
  new functionality in Office Access 2007, you can see how data will appear in
  a report while you are creating it. Using the new WYSIWYG interface, you can
  manipulate the report layout directly while browsing the data in the report
  designer, so you don't need to run the report to see how it looks on the
  page. This makes it easier to create a great-looking report and saves you
  time.


• Interactive report browse. The new report
  browse mode makes user reports more accessible. Use CTRL+F to find records,
  copy the data into other applications, and get to detailed records to edit
  the data. With the new filtering functionality, you can get clearer
  information on which to base decisions.


• Group information in reports. The improved
  Grouping Pane provides a clear display of data groupings so that you can
  preview changes as you are applying them to reports. You can easily add
  totals, subtotals, counts, and other elements that help you analyze the
  data. You can also group the information in one or more layers and add
  subtotals.

Share tracked information with others
Office Access 2007
enables you to gather information easily and make it available to others with
more security and flexibility.

• Collect data using Office Outlook 2007. Office
  Access 2007 simplifies the process of collecting information from others. It
  builds the data collection form automatically in Microsoft Office InfoPath
  2007 or HTML in the body of the e-mail message. You can send that form to
  recipients, using e-mail addresses from your Outlook contacts or from Access
  itself. Office Outlook 2007 processes the incoming forms and saves the data
  in your Office Access 2007 data store -- effectively updating the data in
  your tracking application immediately, without retyping.


• Web collaboration with Windows SharePoint Services.
  Web sites based on Windows SharePoint Services provide a place where your
  team can communicate, share documents, and work together on a project. With
  Office Access 2007, you can publish your Access files to libraries or move
  the application to Windows SharePoint Services, moving the data and
  front-end database to the server so that your team can interact with it
  easily through the browser. Forms and reports can be viewed, updated, or
  deleted directly on the Windows SharePoint Services site according to the
  established permission settings.


• Track Windows SharePoint Services lists with Office Access
  2007. For a richer experience, you can track information on
  Windows SharePoint Services lists using the Office Access 2007 client on
  your computer.


• Work offline with Windows SharePoint Services lists.
  Using Office Access 2007, you can work with Windows SharePoint Services
  offline. If you are travelling, for example, you can maintain a local copy of
  a SharePoint list on your portable computer, where you can edit and query
  the list as though it were any other table in Office Access 2007. Forms and
  reports that use the SharePoint list are fully interactive -- and Office
  Access 2007 can later synchronize the local list with the online list when
  you bring your portable computer back online.


• Integration with Windows SharePoint Services workflow.
  Office Access 2007 authors can use business logic created with the workflow
  support in Windows SharePoint Services to build collaborative workgroup
  applications. Use workflow to automatically assign tasks to other users,
  report on project status, and help ensure that tasks are completed on time.
  All Windows SharePoint Services tasks can be viewed inside Office Access
  2007 or Office Outlook 2007 depending upon your work style.


• E-mail and RSS notifications. Users can
  subscribe to e-mail notifications when records are added, deleted, or
  changed. Additionally, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) subscriptions users
  can subscribe to list feeds in Office Outlook 2007.


• Mobile connectivity. Windows SharePoint
  Services lists can also be accessed through mobile phones, so remote users
  can stay current on changing business information.


• PDF and XPS support. With Office Access 2007,
  you can save a report as a Portable Document Format file (PDF) or in XML
  Paper Specification (XPS) format for printing, posting, and e-mail
  distribution. By saving your report as a PDF or XPS file, you capture report
  information in an easily distributed form that retains all your formatting
  characteristics yet does not require others to have Office Access 2007 to
  print or review your report.*

* You can save as a PDF or XPS file from a
2007 Microsoft Office system program only after you install an add-in.

Manage and audit sensitive information
Office Access 2007
makes it easier for you to meet your information management needs with improved
data transparency in a manageable environment.

• Improved security. To make Office Access 2007
  even safer and more consistent with other 2007 Office system programs,
  Office Access 2007 includes improved as well as new security features.
  Unified trust decisions are integrated with Office Trust Center. Trusted
  locations make it easy to trust all databases in security-enhanced folders.
  Conversely, you can load an Access application with code or macros disabled
  to help provide a safe experience.


• Data auditing. Without requiring IT support,
  you can easily migrate data from your local database file to a server with
  Windows SharePoint Services -- which your organization's IT professionals
  can manage, help secure, and back up according to your organization's
  policies.


• Revision history. New functionality enables
  you to track records and see who created, edited, and deleted records. You
  can also view when the information was modified and roll back data edits if
  necessary.


• Permission setting. Using Windows SharePoint
  Services, you can manage which users have access to your data and assign
  limited reading permissions or full editing rights.


• Recycle bin. You can recover data mistakenly
  deleted using the recycle bin feature in Windows SharePoint Services.