absolute beginner

[ant!]

We are a volunteer group trying to create a system for parents wishing to
screen foreign teachers who will have access to their kids. Can you please
help us with the following:

1. I have a list of names.
2. They are divided into 5 groups.
3. Each group is a nationality.

A - Do I make 5 tables based on nationalities?
B - Each table would have 2 fields - Last Name / First Name

i - If a searcher gets a hit I want the result to appear with details and an
image - Is this created in the Forms section?

Thank You

 

[Philip Herlihy]

We are a volunteer group trying to create a system for parents wishing to
screen foreign teachers who will have access to their kids. Can you please
help us with the following:

1. I have a list of names.
2. They are divided into 5 groups.
3. Each group is a nationality.

A - Do I make 5 tables based on nationalities?
B - Each table would have 2 fields - Last Name / First Name

i - If a searcher gets a hit I want the result to appear with details and an
image - Is this created in the Forms section?

Thank You

No, you wouldn't have 5 tables, or you'd have to search 5 times!

You'd want a single table of Teachers, with an ID number (an Autonumber
is good for this), and fields for First Name, Last Name and Nationality.
You could also include an image (in an OLE Object field) or (better)
a hyperlink to an image file location on your computer.

You may want to search against a query which combines the First and Last
names into a single field, but don't merge them in the table. Then use
the Forms Wizard to build a form on that query.

For searching, read up on "parameter queries" - you can use the name of
a control (box) on your form as a parameter, and then the query will use
the contents of that control when searching. Filters are an even
simpler way of finding data.

This great web resource will tell you everything you need to know abot
searching:
http://allenbrowne.com/ser-62.html

Two general observations: yours is a simple requirement and it seems you
only need one table - unusual. If you find that you want to store more
information about Nationality (details of the source of information
within that country, for example) you'd want to break Nationality out
into a separate table, and include a link to the relevant record(a
Foreign Key) in your Teachers table. For most beginners it's vital to
get this right, so I feel I should mention it even when you may not need
it this time! There's a whole subject of "Normalisation"...

Finally, watch out for legal implications of what you are doing...

Hope that helps,

Phil, London

 

[ant!]

Thanks for the advice.

Legally we are sound - I am in the Far East where many bad guys prey on
young kids using teaching as an access point...

With that in mind, I have collated many records of individuals who have been
convicted and details of their crimes. So I hope that parents can simply type
in the name of their child's teacher and if it comes up then the name / photo
/ and some details will appear. Currently I have prepared these in an MS Word
table.

I looked at the "Student" template in MS Access and it appears to be the
sort of thing I wish to make.

So I also think now that 1 table is enough.

Do you have any other advice?

Thank You

 

[Philip Herlihy]

Thanks for the advice.

Legally we are sound - I am in the Far East where many bad guys prey on
young kids using teaching as an access point...

With that in mind, I have collated many records of individuals who have been
convicted and details of their crimes. So I hope that parents can simply type
in the name of their child's teacher and if it comes up then the name / photo
/ and some details will appear. Currently I have prepared these in an MS Word
table.

I looked at the "Student" template in MS Access and it appears to be the
sort of thing I wish to make.

So I also think now that 1 table is enough.

Do you have any other advice?

Thank You

Sounds like you're going about it the right way - look for templates and
ask advice! Post back if you hit specific problems.

Phil

 

[ant!]

I have created a list of names with 3 fields - last name / first name /
nationality.

I have also created 1 form which provides further details of one of those
names.

How do I create the relationship between that row and that form?

Thank You

ant!

 

[Philip Herlihy]

I have created a list of names with 3 fields - last name / first name /
nationality.

I have also created 1 form which provides further details of one of those
names.

How do I create the relationship between that row and that form?

Thank You

ant!

Your forms have fields which need to be "bound" to fields in the table -
fields which you haven't created yet. If your form has a field for,
say, PassportNo, then you'd have to create a new field in your table for
PassportNo, and then select that field as the control's (box's) "Control
Source".

However, it's much easier to start with the table, so that Access does a
lot of the work for you. Add table fields (columns) for all the data
you want to store, and then create a new form (discard the old one, it's
easier!) using the Form Wizard. Nudge things around a little in form
design view, and you're good to go.

Remember, it's only in very simple situations that you have only one
table, and then you'd base your form on a query which draws from
multiple tables.

Phil