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This tutorial is intended for computer science students who need a quick introduction to Microsoft Access, but it will be useful to anyone needing such an introduction. To get the full benefit of this tutorial, you will need a computer running one of Microsoft Windows 95 or higher, Microsoft NT 4.0 or higher, or Microsoft Windows 2000/XP. You will also need to have a copy of Microsoft Access 2003 installed. 2 First, a few words about what Microsoft Access 2003 is and isn’t. People who don’t really understand what a relational database system is, and some people who don’t actually understand what Access 2003 is, will tell you that Microsoft Access is not a fully relationaldatabase system. In the database world, not being fully relational is very bad. Don’t worry, the people who tell you that are like the people who try to tell you that linux is not a 32 bit operating system. Access 2003, and its predecessors Access 95, 97 and 02, are excellent fully relationaldatabase systems. But Access 2003 does have a few shortcomings. The principle shortcoming is that it is almost impossible to enforce reasonable security restrictions with Access 2003. So if you want a variety of users to interact with adatabase, you should move up to Microsoft’s SQL Server, an Oracle database above the level of Oracle Personal Edition, or the wonderful, and FREE, MySql. (And let us not forget to mention the higher levels of FileMaker Pro as good possibilities.) As a certified Microsoft hater, I would naturally prefer that you move up to Oracle, MySql, or FileMaker Pro, but I have to be fair. Microsoft’s database products are extremely good, easy to develop for, readily accepted by the outside world, and always good choices.