Working with Access and Word

Much of an office's day-to-day business involves keeping track of data. Take an overdue invoice notice, for example. Although the letter you send to your debtor is typically a word processing document, the key data incorporated in it may well be stored in a database: the business name and address, invoice numbers, amount due, and so forth. Word's tight integration with Microsoft Access enables you to draw on the same data source to produce any report, mailing, or other document. For example, you may want to

• Incorporate specific, filtered elements of a database in a document you're creating, such as a discussion of new customers or sales opportunities

• Create a report based entirely (or largely) on Access data but utilize Word's more sophisticated formatting capabilities