DB guide

[TotallyConfused]

First time I have inherited a db with no documentation and which I am having
trouble figuring it out. Which or how is the best way to figure someone
else's db??? Thank you.

 

[Fred]

Is it documented (or obvious) what the table, link and field definition are?
This will determine whether or not it actually contains truly databased
data.

Is this DB successfully in use?

I f the answer to both of the above questions is "no", you have to consider
the possibility that you inherited a piece of junk rather than a viable
database.

That said:

I'd first peruse the "relationships" view and the tables.

Try to figure out (and write down)

- Define the entities that each table/record represents?
- Define what goes into each field
- Define what type of relationship any linkages records.

After that, start figurign out what is shown in (and the data source for)
each form and report,

Well, there a few ideas to start.

 

[Jeff Boyce]

To what end? Why do you need to? How may depend on what you want to do
with it?

What level of experience do you have with "normalization" and "relational
database design"?

What level of experience do you have with MS Access? ... with graphical
user interface design?

How you interpret what you find will depend on what you are familiar with...

More info, please...

--

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Access MVP

Disclaimer: This author may have received products and services mentioned in
this post. Mention and/or description of a product or service herein does
not constitute endorsement thereof.

Any code or pseudocode included in this post is offered "as is", with no
guarantee as to suitability.

You can thank the FTC of the USA for making this disclaimer
possible/necessary.

 

[Steve]

I have done what you are asking numerous times for customers. I provide
fee-based help with Access, Excel and Word applications. My fee to help you
would be very modest. I would provide you a map of the tables that shows all
the tables in your database and for each table would show all the name of
the table and a list of all the fields in each table. Primary and foreign
keys would be shown and all relationships would be shown. For each
relationship, the type of relationship would be shown. The map would
generally show the flow of information in the database. Finally, a narrative
describing and analyzing the database would be provided. If you are
interested in having me help you with your database, contact me.

Steve
(e-mail address removed)

 

[John... Visio MVP]

I have done what you are asking numerous times for customers. I provide
fee-based help with Access, Excel and Word applications. My fee to help you
would be very modest. If you are interested in having me help you with
your database, contact me.

Steve
(e-mail address removed)

These newsgroups are provided by Microsoft for FREE peer to peer support.
There are many highly qualified individuals who gladly help for free. Stevie
is not one of them, but he is the only one who just does not get the idea of
"FREE" support. He offers questionable results at unreasonable prices. If he
was any good, the "thousands" of people he claims to have helped would be
flooding him with work, but there appears to be a continuous drought and he
needs to constantly grovel for work.

A few gems gleaned from the Word New User newsgroup over the past Christmas
period and a few gems from the Access newsgroups to show Stevie's
"expertise".


Dec 17, 2008 7:47 pm

Word 2007 ..........
In older versions of Word you could highlght some text then go to Format -
Change Case and change the case of the hoghloghted text. Is this still
available in Word 2007? Where?
Thanks! Steve


Dec 22, 2008 8:22 pm

I am designing a series of paystubs for a client. I start in landscape and
draw a table then add columns and rows to setup labels and their
corresponding value. This all works fine. After a landscape version is
completed, I next need to design a portrait version. Rather than strating
from scratch, I'd like to be able to cut and paste from the landscape
version and design the portrait version.
Steve


Dec 24, 2008, 1:12 PM

How do you protect the document for filling in forms?
Steve


One of my favourites:
Dec 30, 2008 8:07 PM - a reply to stevie
(The original poster asked how to sort a list and stevie offered to create
the OP an Access database)

Yes, you are right but a database is the correct tool to use not a
spreadsheet.

Not at all. If it's just a simple list then a spreadsheet is perfectly
adequate...


Sept 10, 2009
(In respose to a perfectly adequate GENERIC solution stevie wrote)

This function is specific to the example but not generic for any amount paid
out.

Steve



Sept 9, 2009

you can then return all the characters in front of it with the Left()
fumction. Would look like:
Left("YourString",Instr("YourString","VbCr" Or "VbLf") - 1)

Steve

No, it would not look like

Left("YourString",Instr("YourString","VbCr" Or "VbLf") - 1)

First of all, the constants are vbCr and vbLf: no quotes around them. With
the quotes, you're looking for the literal strings.

Second, you can't Or together character constants like that. Even if you
could, Or'ing them together in the InStr function like that makes no sense
at all.



Sept 22,2009
Sorry Steve, even I can see that this is a useless answer. I made it pretty
clear that "CW259" is just ONE possible value for the control.

Hello David,

Open your report in design view and select txtOrderID. Open properties and
go to the Data tab. Put the following expression in the Control Source
property:

=IIF([chkActive],"CW259","(CW259)")

Steve

John... Visio MVP

 

[Keith Wilby]

I have done what you are asking numerous times for customers.

Couldn't you get it right the first time? Doesn't surprise me. The word
here is "free", NOT "fee". Look it up in your "library of reference books".

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

I have done what you are asking numerous times for customers. I provide
fee-based help with Access, Excel and Word applications. My fee to help you
would be very modest. I would provide you a map of the tables that shows all
the tables in your database and for each table would show all the name of
the table and a list of all the fields in each table. Primary and foreign
keys would be shown and all relationships would be shown. For each
relationship, the type of relationship would be shown. The map would
generally show the flow of information in the database.

Said tools can be found for free.

Finally, a narrative
describing and analyzing the database would be provided. If you are
interested in having me help you with your database, contact me.

Looking for more work yet again.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Tony's Main MS Access pages - http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
For a convenient utility to keep your users FEs and other files
updated see http://www.autofeupdater.com/
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