Is there a better way?

[Terry Bennett]

Not sure if there is a better way of doing this ...

I have a workbook comprising several sheets. The main sheet on which I
input data lists projects that are started and finished throughout the year.
In simple terms, the columns are: Date Started, Project Owner, Brief
Description, Date Conpleted, etc. I then filter the Date Completed column
so that only 'live' projects are showing and, on other sheets, have various
data analysis.

One further column on the inputs sheet details progress on each project -
every time something happens this is updated. I enter this simply by
creating a new line each time a new event occurs using Alt+Enter and then
prefixing each line with a '-'. This is fine but for some larger projects
there can be 30, 40 or 50+ entries so the cell in which all this is entered
starts to get somewhat 'crowded' and sometimes won't even show everything on
the screen (I have to click within the cell and then move down using the
arrow keys).

Although everything works OK, I'm conscious that the spreadsheet is getting
bigger and bigger (currently c 1.2 Mb) and I wonder whether there is a
simpler way of storing all of the 'progress' data whilst retaining the basic
format of things. I don't know much about Access - should I be using this
instead?

Any suggestions will be welcomed!

Thanks.

 

[David F Cox]

This does sound like a database application to me. If you do go that route
check your design decisions with some experts, it will save you much grief
later on. Designing a database application with a spreadsheet mindset can
get very messy.