Help - address book / DOB's, Anniversarys & Christmas list

[Lisa - NH]

Hi. I setup a DB using the Contacts Template. I'm finding it's not going to
work for me. Please bear with me as I try to be as detailed as possible.

1. This is a small (under 100) personal address book that includes family,
friends & business we deal with.

2. Quite a few people I only contact once a year at Christmas. In the
original Excel file for names, I had Last Name & First Name fields. I put
the couples names together into the First Name field (ex. Chris & Sheryl). I
did more work than I had to by creating lables by typing in the information.
For couples I typed Mr & Mrs FirstName LastName, etc.

3. Birthdates were included for those few that I send birthday cards to.
On the couples (like my Mom & Dad's), I would just type the name following by
the birthdate and then a / followed by the next name & birthdate. Again this
wasn't an issue as I created a seperate worksheet that listed all the names &
birthdates (again I know, more work). Anniversarys were also included.

4. Some of the birthdays & anniversaries only have a month & day and some
have the full date. Not sure how I'm going to be able to work that into
Access and be able to pull a query that only shows the ones that I will be
sending cards too. I suppose I could use a check box for birthdates and one
for anniversarys in addition to the dates. Was hoping there was an easier
way.

5. I was thinking about putting LastName, FirstName, SpouseName, etc. and
then having 2 birthdate fields but I don't think I'd be able to associate a
birthdate with a name that way. Is the only solution to this to split the
copules up into two listings? That would solve the birthdate issue but then
how do I deal with the Christmas card issue as I would need the couples
combined for the check box I was planning on using.

Any suggestions?
Lisa

 

[Stockwell43]

Lisa,

Go to Microsofts website. They have database templates there that you can
download for free. In fact, they have one that is an address book that I
believe will take care of your needs. check it out. Here is the link:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101426031033.aspx

 

[Lisa - NH]

Hi,

I had already gone there and downloaded all address book & contacts DB's
that I could find no matter what version of Access they were for. There is
some that are close to what I want but I'd have to remove stuff & add stuff
and frankly only have a basic knowledge of the most simpliest of forms.

They also didn't help what I'm trying to address.

Anyone else?
Lisa

 

[SmartbizAustralia]

Hi.  I setup a DB using the Contacts Template.  I'm finding it's not going to
work for me.  Please bear with me as I try to be as detailed as possible..

1.  This is a small (under 100) personal address book that includes family,
friends & business we deal with.

2.  Quite a few people I only contact once a year at Christmas.  In the
original Excel file for names, I had Last Name & First Name fields.  I put
the couples names together into the First Name field (ex. Chris & Sheryl). I
did more work than I had to by creating lables by typing in the information.  
For couples I typed Mr & Mrs FirstName LastName, etc.

3.  Birthdates were included for those few that I send birthday cards to..  
On the couples (like my Mom & Dad's), I would just type the name followingby
the birthdate and then a / followed by the next name & birthdate.  Againthis
wasn't an issue as I created a seperate worksheet that listed all the names &
birthdates (again I know, more work).  Anniversarys were also included.

4.  Some of the birthdays & anniversaries only have a month & day and some
have the full date.  Not sure how I'm going to be able to work that into
Access and be able to pull a query that only shows the ones that I will be
sending cards too.  I suppose I could use a check box for birthdates andone
for anniversarys in addition to the dates.  Was hoping there was an easier
way.

5.  I was thinking about putting LastName, FirstName, SpouseName, etc. and
then having 2 birthdate fields but I don't think I'd be able to associate a
birthdate with a name that way.  Is the only solution to this to split the
copules up into two listings?  That would solve the birthdate issue but then
how do I deal with the Christmas card issue as I would need the couples
combined for the check box I was planning on using.

Any suggestions?
Lisa

This is a classic situation!

People go so far as to set up a relationships table to link couples
together.
This concept goes even further if you were to add a who knows who
system which is great for prospecting!
So the relationship table defines whether they are a couple, partners,
business associates or friends/referrals.
There are some very expensive systems that cater for this but for your
needs an extra table, sub forms and sub-forms,some vba functions of
complex iif statements in your queries and a few queries on top of
other queries and you have a workable solution.

Then for couples, you have a query to get them out separately.
The end result behind the scenes is often a couple of queries which
you then join via a union query.
This kind of plumbing gets quite complex very quickly but is do-able
if you take everything in little steps.

Regards,
Tom Bizannes
Microsoft Access Development
Sydney, Australia

 

[Lisa - NH]

Hi Tom,

I appreicate the input. It's a little beyond what I can do right now
though. I don't know anything about vba functions. I can handle
multi-tables as I have setup a few other DB's that needed multi-tables &
queries. I did however get help with forms as I was having trouble with
them.

I might sit down & re-work it again another day when I'm bored but I did
already go ahead and re-do the file. I did just use the one table the
template had. I added the brithdate, anniversary, send card check book and a
christmas card check box.

For those people (like my parent's) that I send birthday, anniversary &
christmas cards. I seperated them. I put one record for him, one for her
and one for them. I know that's not really the best way to do it but at the
time that was the only way I could think to do it so it would work how I want.

For those couples who I only send a christmas card to, I just put the one
listing and put both names as first name.

The template already had a contacts extended query which had a Contact Name
field that combined the first & last names. I used this query to create the
christmas card query. So now the labels will print how I want without
editing.

Then I created the greeting card query. I originally didn't have the send
card box for the birthday & anniversary. I couldn't find a way to get query
both fields properly. So I added the check box and that worked.

So I have what I need/want now, even though it's not the best setup.
Lisa