Tips for Microsoft Access
Use design view for Tables and Queries. A wizard for these just complicates a straight-forward job. 
Use Wizards for Forms and Reports. While it is not difficult to add controls to either, it CAN be very time consuming. Use the wizard to set up the initial form or report and then make any modifications that may be necessary (and they WILL be :-).
Use a numeric data type ONLY when the data will be used in calculations.
Give EVERYTHING a 'meaningful' name and indicate the object/control type when naming it. For example, call the table that contains Customer information Customer Table. Many places in Access list multiple types of database objects together in the same list box. If similar names have been used for different objects, without indicating which is which, it can make life VERY confusing! Double-ditto for controls added to a form/report.
Not enough room to see what you're typing? In tables, queries, forms, reports, and macros, right-click and then click Zoom or use Shift+F2 to expand a field or text box to make it easier to edit.
If it is necessary to keep a static copy of a table, query, form, or report for a specific date, it can be saved as either a Word Document or an Excel Worksheet. If the Office Links Tool button is not available from the current toolbar, it is always available from the Tools menu. Save it in Word, if just a 'picture' of the report is needed. Save it in Excel to have the ability to compare/analyze with values from other dates.
Default values for fields can make data entry more efficient. IF, however, the person entering your data does not care as much about the accuracy as YOU do, it is usually better to NOT set defaults. It is too often tempting to just keep the default entry, rather than having to type, regardless of its accuracy. 
Things to check if you're having trouble importing from Excel:  no fieldname should start with a space or contain illegal characters (periods often cause problems here!), there should not be any completely blank rows or columns in the import data (blank fields are OK!), and fields in Excel that contain values which need to be imported as text should be preceded by an apostrophe in the first row of data.
REMEMBER MOST OF ALL: The database is only as valid as the data it contains! Keep it accurate and update. Field properties such as validation rules/text and referential integrity can go a loooooong way to help ensure/maintain the integrity of your data.