Creating Relationships in Microsoft Access 2007

The true power of relational databases lies in their ability to track relationships (hence the name!) between data elements. However, many database users don’t understand how to take advantage of this functionality and simply use Access as an advanced spreadsheet. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the process of creating a relationship between two tables in an Access database.

First, you'll need to start Microsoft Access and open the database that will house your new form. In this example, we'll use a simple database I've developed to track running activity. It contains two tables: one that keeps track of the routes that I normally run and another that tracks each run.

If you need a refresher on database relationships, read our article Introduction to Relationships before getting started.