Is there a way? If so, what kind of data can Access access and can it then populate a table? If so, can the table be automatically updated? If so, can the update be triggered by time lapse, data augmentation, or by something else? If so, how does one set about it?

It looks like a tricky proposition to me.

not very clear on what you want to achieve, but you can do this using Access import data function from the File->Get External Data->Import. If you know VBScript you can program it to automatically import based on schedule.

I would like Access to be able to look up folders, dig out any data from the individual files in that folder, whether text, image, or whatever, see if there are any sub-folders associated with said folder, and dig out the data from the files therein, whatever it is.

Isn't the command "get external data" limited to data in a selected few common options, like text files, Word, Excel, etc?

I haven't try this is in Access but I am sure you can do it using the FileSystemObject in Microsoft Scripting Runtime library

Thanks Volcane. I'll look up SystemFileObject. Hope I can understand it!