How to interract with my database?

I am generally new to Databases, and I have a MySQL server with several tables which have a unique ID that is connecting them all.

I am about to populate the db with data from external resources (XMLs mainly).

I would like to know if there is an easy method of appending/altering the data in my DB that is not cumbersome like how I am doing it today.

as of now, I am using a server script that loads the XML, displays it and if all is ok, it would populate the XML to the tables.

But this is a little crooked. I would like to have the data visualized in Excel and on a push of a button, be sent to the correct tables.

I found MySQL for Excel today, which seems like an interesting approach.

I would like to know what is a sane approach to an interface with my DB, that is not a server script or phpmyadmin.

I hope this question is valid here. Thanks in advance.