Although the Clipboard cut-and-paste approach is neat, it doesn’t always work out. If you need to export data to a file and you don’t have the corresponding program installed on your computer (or you just don’t want to bother running it), then you need a different way to transfer your information. Similarly, if you’re downloading data from the Web or fetching information from a program that doesn’t support Windows cut-and-paste, you need the full-fledged Access import feature.

You can do all the importing and exporting you want from a single ribbon tab, which is named External Data (Figure 20-3).