Allowing users to edit database

I'm relatively new to administering SQL Server, hence this basic question.

What are the standard practice tool(s)/methods for allowing users access to a database to edit data? In this case, these are engineers (not programmers) that need to edit some values. The practice in the past has been to install Enterprise Manager on their PC. However, this does not seem proper to me and I was thinking more along the lines of having them use Access instead.

I compare Enterpise Manager in SQL Server as an equilvalent to Enterprise Manager in Oracle - these are tools only for use by database administrators. Is this a correct correlation, or is Enterpise Manager in SQL Server a tool that users (and programmers?) are commonly allowed to use? In the case of common users, I would think not.

Thanks in advance.ideally you want to disallow direct access to the tables and you would have an application that solely uses stored procedures and views to access data and having users doing data entry in the EM is anathema. You can do this with Access although a lot of access developers do not do it well.|||Thanks much! This helps confirm what I thought.|||I have my databases on SQL Server with Access on the front end for users and they get Read only ability, some get read and write (the ones that have been properly trained)
Though I still have allot to learn