Database to be shared between two people

[Guest]

LONG STORY/QUESTION

Right now I have a few spreadsheets (separated by workshop location) which
contains various pieces of information (same type of information on each
spreadsheet). Right now I am one of two people who make updates on this Excel
spreadsheet. And I make updates and then have to send the spreadsheet(s) to
my co-worker who also has to make updates. Long story short only one person
can work on the spreadsheets at a time.
Is there a way to set up a Access database that can be shared by two
seperate people and can make updates / changes simultaneously? I do have
access to a intranet - could a form be created that's connected to a access
database?

As much detail as possible in your reply would be appreciated.

 

[John W. Vinson]

Is there a way to set up a Access database that can be shared by two
seperate people and can make updates / changes simultaneously? I do have
access to a intranet - could a form be created that's connected to a access
database?

Access is (formally) limited to 255 concurrent users. In practice I'd be
uncomfortable with more than forty or so concurrent updating users, or more
than a hundred or so read-only. But two? NO problem!

You may (probably will) need to restructure your data. Good spreadsheets
aren't necessarily good relational tables. For one thing, you cannot do
calculations in tables; the tables should contain only "base data", and
calculations should be done in Queries. Also, spreadsheets lend themselves to
columns named January, February, March... or Agent1, Agent2, Agent3; these
need to be "normalized" out into one-to-many relationships to additional
tables.

You will want to "split" the database to have a "backend" database containing
only the tables, and give each user a "frontend" containing the forms,
reports, code, etc., with links to the tables. See
http://www.granite.ab.ca/access/splitapp/ for details and cautions about this
approach.

Don't hesitate to post back with more details if you need help - but I'd
really encourage moving to Access, from the sound of it.

John W. Vinson [MVP]