I don't think you can link Access to Word. You can set up a Mail Merge to link a Word document to an Access database. (See link)

To link to another database, click on File/External Data/Link Tables…
The default is MS Access. To change to another type of file, click on the dropdown at the bottom of the dialog box. Select the type of file to link to, then navigate to the file. A new dialog opens and guides you through the linking process.

You may want to link to an ODBC source. To do this, you have to have the ODBC drivers already installed on your PC. Usually, these drivers are available from the software vendor.

Advantages of Access: While it has a steeper learning curve than Word or Excel, it is quite powerful and flexible. It has the familiar Microsoft interface, and links well to Excel or Word. There are many tutorials online, and many training books available. It's easier to learn than many other PC based dbs, and less expensive than some of them.

Disadvantages: It's not as powerful as some other db system. Limits to file size (2 Gb – still a lot of data!). No rollback function. Not really intended as a multi-user db, although you can use it that way.