To import an entire table created in Access (as opposed to a specific set of records from that table), click the Data tab, and then click From Access in the Get External Data group. Windows launches a search for files with the extensions .mdb, .mde, .accdb, and .accde. When you find the Access file you’re looking for, select it, and then click Open. If your database has more than one table, you’re presented with the Select Table dialog box, which is shown in Figure 24-4. (Drag the lower-right corner of the Select Table dialog box if you need to see more of the Description column.)

The Select Table dialog box actually lists not only tables from your Access file but certain views as well. (The items shown in Figure 24-4, for example, are all views from the Northwind database that Microsoft supplies as a sample file with Access.) If you open any Access view in Excel, you get all the records currently displayed by Access in that view. If you open a table, you import all the records in that table. In either case, the data you import becomes a table or a PivotTable in Excel, depending on how you complete the Import Data dialog box (see Figure 24-2).

Figure 24-4. When you click the From Access command to open an Access file, the Select Table dialog box asks you to choose which table you want to import.

You can set refresh parameters for your imported Access data the same way as for any other data connection. For details, see Setting Refresh Options on page 817.