There are vast more changes in Access 2007 than there are in Excel 2007. That I see anyway. Someone with prior Excel experience can very effectively work through the lastest version of Excel. This is not true with Access. I'm no novice to Access but some of the changes between 2003 and 2007 are difficult even for me to understand. The flow of things isn't there in 2007 as it is with 2003. You can oversimplify things to the point that it's harder. Microsoft has managed to do this with Access 2007. Of course the decision of what to start next is yours but my vote goes for Access from the standpoint of the major changes in it.