In MS Access 2007 Microsoft has introduced a new data type called attachments. Many types of files can be stored in a column which has the attachment data type. Someone can add bitmap files, jpg files, sound files, word documents, etc. to a column without increasing the size of the database. However, these objects will be run by the appropriate executable programs for these attachments when they are called to do so. This goes even further such that you can attach multiple, different types of attachments to the same record. This allows for the storage of the information about an employee including his picture, his resume, and any other necessary information all in one column. The Access project which is now supported again in Access 2007 does not support the attachment data type since the underlying database does not.

This comprehensive tutorial shows an example of creating a table with a column which has the new data type, attachments. It also shows how you may populate the table and view the contents of the table. It goes further and shows you how to create a report based on this table and how the report can be viewed effectively to display or render its contents.