With a feature called data access pages, you can distribute reports through Microsoft Internet Explorer or e-mail, display live data, and even interactively manipulate that data. A data access page is a Web page that is connected to a database. You can use a page not only as a data-entry form, but also as an interactive report or a data analysis report.

Interactive report  Use an interactive report to consolidate and group information that is stored in the database, and then to publish summaries of the data. For example, a data access page might display products by category. Using expand indicators, you can go from a general summary of the information, such as a list of all categories with descriptions, to specific details on each product in a category.

Data analysis report  A data analysis report contains a PivotTable® list, which is similar to a Access PivotTable form or Microsoft Excel PivotTable report. Use a PivotTable list to reorganize the data so you can analyze it in different ways. You might also add a chart to analyze trends, detect patterns, and compare data in the database.

 Tip   You can add a spreadsheet to a data access page and use it to enter and edit temporary data, and use formulas to calculate as you do in Excel.