Microsoft Word is a word processor - a program used to create textual documents (e.g. letters, essays, books, manuals). Its end product is designed for a human reading it. Some of its competitors are Word Perfect and Word.



Microsoft Access is a database - a program used to store relational information (e.g. customer data, payroll, scientific data, financial data) in the computer and retrieve parts of it according to a user's need. Some of its competitors are mysql and Oracle.