Is Field Size storage actually based on the actual # of characters entered or by the defined field size (i.e.- a 30 character name or the 255 character definition)?

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Reply from Richard Rost:

In the old days, when you specified 30 characters for a text field, Access reserved 30 bytes of storage for EACH record. This was a waste for something like FirstName when you only used, on average, 7 or 8 characters for each record. However, newer versions of Access don't do that anymore. They dynamically allocate the space per record. Furthermore, when you compact/repair your database, Access gets rid of any empty space for all of your fields (including Memo fields which are notoriously bad at bloating your database). Now, the field size is more for YOUR use - to limit the maximum size of the field.