Thanks John,
Actually I created a Customer database with complete customer details and
Bonus card tables. I have Order database with a few customer details and the
orders.
i need to rethink my batabase structure as I have the same info in both
databases. That's the raison why I wanted to link-up all my databases. I'm
also considering adding an accouting database. As I' new to Access I can't
always grasp the difference between data and information. I've read a few
artivcles on the website from the book "Microsoft Office Inside Out".
However, I'm still not clear on what would work best. Maybe you could give me
more advise.
Check out some of the links at:
Jeff Conrad's resources page:
http://home.bendbroadband.com/conradsystems/accessjunkie/resources.html
The Access Web resources page:
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html
In a nutshell, you should use separate databases only for basically
unrelated applications. If Customers have both Bonus Cards (? no idea
what they might be) and Orders, then you should have only one table of
Customers, linked to both. You need to identify every type of Entity
relevant to your business. An Entity is a person, thing or event about
which you need to record data: a Product is an entity, a Customer is
another type, an Order is yet another. Each type of Entity should have
its own table, and each table will typically be related to one or more
other tables; for example, a Customer will (hopefully!) have one or
more Orders.
You will probably need to use File... Get External Data... Import to
import tables from your various databases into one master database.
How you'll integrate the partially-duplicated and overlapping data is
up to you, but I can assure you it won't be much fun... <g>
Don't worry too much about jargon terms like "data vs. information".
Just read the Database Design 101 links on Jeff's page, post your
table designs here if you need suggestions, normalize your tables
*first*, and go from there.
Just two comments: Accounting (as in accounts-payable, etc.) can be a
very complex subject. If it includes payroll and taxes, it can be
nightmarish. There are excellent turnkey programs out there
(Peachtree, Quickbooks, Microsoft Money Business, and others); I'd
really be very leery of trying to build your own. And just be aware
that Aaron posts to this newsgroup almost entirely to inveigh against
MDB files; ADP's are certainly workable but MDB's (which you're using
now) work fine, his rantings to the contrary notwithstanding. Now he's
going to post back and flame me (probably obscenely) for saying so;
take his response for what it's worth.
John W. Vinson[MVP]
