Zim: Does 'ODBC' ring any bells?
I knew the acronym but not the actual meaning: "Open Database Connectivity is a standard application programming interface for accessing database management systems." Thanks for asking, as it got me to look it up and learn that it is an OPEN standard.
The original plan was for me to use Access to start off with and, later, learn more about written SQL and, eventually, programming ... probably in C#. Since I got behind, I decided to jump ahead into the SQL with the hope it will make the whole thing more motivating to me. We will see how that goes.
The bigger plan is more grandiose: get off of Windows Server and Windows as a client, and go to Linux as a server...and eventually re-write the client software to run all on Linux. The server was successfully moved to Linux on Friday. The next steps are up to me. I haven't programmed in more than 30 years, and have almost no experience with SQL, so I am a little ADHD/anxious now. ;->