Crystal Reports VS. MS Access

[mike14]

My Point of Sale software lets us access our inventory files with these two products in order to produce additional reports. My question is: which is easier to learn. I have limited experience with Access, (mostly simple queries), and none with Crystal.

All opinions are appreciated.


Thanks

 

[kenhamady]

I teach Crystal full time.
It is very common for me to hear:

'this is so much easier than Access!'

I have only had a few students who say the opposite, but these are always people who already know MS Access very well.

Remember that Access is much more than a reporting tool. That is why it can be a bit more of an effort to learn. Ken Hamady

http://www.kenhamady.com/

On-site custom Crystal Reports Training and Consulting.
Quick Reference Guide to using Crystal in VB.

 

[thomasyu]

Your choice at end-user pt of view
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CRW is a good choice in terms of Application integration. It has server option and ease to deploy to clients. End user using Access in general need more skill so it is recommended for casual users. CRW can do web reporting but even MS Access can do web reporting, it still need a client license. (i.e. it is not a choice for internet, but should be fair enough for intranet)

At tech side
============
the reporting feature for Access is not so powerful as CRW. CRW is a always focus on that but Microsoft do not.

The only strong point in MS Access is that you can build a VBA function to be used in the Query just like the new SQL 2000 functions and stored procedure of Oracle and Informix.

However, these VBA functions cannot be accessible outside the MS Access Application. (up to Access 2000. I am not whether it can be done in Access XP or not)