Why didn't Acess come with my Microsoft office programs when I bought my computer?

You always paid for it, it just happened to be part of the deal you got when buying previous computers.

If you need something like office right now and don’t feel like paying for it, just download Open Office . It’s an open source version of office and can do pretty much everything MS office can(word processor, powerpoint, spreadsheets etc)

Well, I have Excel, Powerpoint and Word. Just not Access. Is Open Office truly as good because I’m going to try a create my own business around it, and the rest.

@Dutchess_III I don’t know, I use it for all of my school/lab work and have never had a problem. Play around with it a bit and figure out if it works for you or not. All of the files are compatible in both. So if say you decide “ya know what, open office blows I’m getting MS Office” you won’t lose anything.

I’m going to be sending the files to customers to access and modify. Any idea what year OS they are?
You’re right. It sure won’t hurt to try. It’s free.

@Dutchess_III All files in Open Office can be saved as .docx .doc .xls .ppt or whatever you need so other people opening it shouldn’t present any issues.

With Microsoft Access all users computers need to have the SAME Access on their computer. Access 2010 is not compatible with Access 2007, also you’ll need to to upgrade your Inter-Web speed if you are uploading and download an Access database to customers.

@Tropical_Willie That’s what I thought. I don’t know if it would be best to use a newer version, which could give people with older versions problems, or an older version that the newer versions can access.

Hmmmm it appears I totally misunderstood this question. I didn’t realize Access was a program, I read it more as why don’t you have access to ms office stuff >_<

I have a feeling that’s why it wasn’t included. People rarely, rarely use it….but I need it now!!

If you buy it now it will be Access 2010 for Microsoft Windows 7 or Windows 8.
Access 2007 will run on Microsoft Windows Vista / XP.

OOPPSIE There is now Access 2013. That will teach me to use an Macintosh Apple.

So what would you suggest I use?

@Dutchess_III
I don’t know, that’s one of the reasons I switched to Apple.

I think you would have to make a database in the “Cloud”.

I haven’t found that to be the case with compatibility, @Tropical_Willie. I use Access 2010 at home, and create databases there that I can open at work with Access 2003. I also have Access 2000 databases that I created in earlier versions of the software and now open in both the 2003 and 2010 versions.

There may be features of the newer software (such as internal functions, etc.) that don’t have a backward compatibility, obviously, but I haven’t discovered any yet.

My wife’s work requires several databases and the company has found there several databases that cannot be retrieved and updated from older versions. @Dutchess_III wants to have her customers retrieve and update the Access database from the customers’ PC’s.

Actually, with respect to Access, if the specific database in question is developed into “an application”, that is, forms-driven, with zero client access to the developer’s tools (the primary interface when the program is opened by most users of the software), then there shouldn’t even be a necessity for the client to “have” Access software installed. That may be beyond the scope of the question, but it does apply.

This is similar to the way a PowerPoint “show” (a .pps file) can work on a person’s computer when he doesn’t have PowerPoint installed, but a .ppt file (a PowerPoint file being developed) always requires that it be opened in PowerPoint.

Judi has had experience with exactly what I’m talking about, with an Excel file I sent her. I’ll go holla at her….

Do you have the disk that came with a previous computer and the authentication code? It may have only been good for one computer but you can always try it.

Well, what problems did you have with the Excel file I sent you until you upgraded?

Me? The pages just didn’t line up. Were you using Access?

I used to use OpenOffice until it forked. Many of the original people who produced OO now do LibreOffice.

It’s a long, complicated story, but the TL;DR version is that LibreOffice is OpenOffice, only it’s still being actively updated.

No, I was using Excel @Judi, but the same kind of problems could crop up.

I recommend you don’t use Access for business-critical information. Access uses a “light-weight” database engine which limits what it can do.

Use a real database engine, like MariaDB or Oracle, or MSSQL if you must. With any of these, you can use the database to make a Web application that your customers can use without needing to have MS Office (or even windows) at all.

It’s possible to use an Access database with a Web app (I’ve done it), but it’s not advisable.
LibreOffice supports more than one kind of database, so that’s good. You can use its database connector (JDBC) to work on live databases. In theory you can also do this with Access (if you have access to Access, that is), but I’ve not been able to make it work in practice.

As of the last time I messed around with this stuff, LibreOffice could not open an existing Access (*.mdb) file and edit it. You can import the database, but not work on it directly. Importing works fine, in my experience.