More Help Please

[DUNNER7]

Thanks for the last help. I am working with some of my teachers to design a
student database that meets the needs of our school. We are amatuers, but we
are making headway. 2 Questions:
1. I have made a table for course scheduling, 1 for teacher information, 1
table linking the scheduling to student information. I was able to Use a
demographic table and make a field for each period (8 total) I used the
lookup wizard tool to make a drop-down box and I was able to make an
expression that only allowed classes scheduled for a certain period to appear
in that class period drop down box. Is there a way that I could lay-out a
form so that a counselor could go through and click a particular button/radio
button and select a course for each class period. It would mean having some
type of form with 80-100 courses listed and a way to pick 8 to make a daily
schedule for a student. Maybe there is a way to use a tabed form with a tab
for each period and the course offerings for that period on each tab? That
was a long question, but here is number 2.

2. I have figured out how to make a daily attendance table and use a combo
box to find a students name and then upon entry timestamp the arrival to
school. It is cumbersome using a drop down/combo for 300 students. Is there
a way to have a form listing every student alphabetically and when I click
their name their arrival time is recorded into the table? Better yet, is
there a way to assign a bar code based on their ID number and use a
pen-swipe/scanner to enter their arrival?

Thanks for your continued help
Del Dobbs

 

[DUNNER7]

Part of it was helpful. Thanks. I tried doing your design for the schedule
using the studentid, courseid, and period number. I linked the studentid to
the demographic table in a combo box, and the couseid to the course
timetable. I do not see the relevance of the period number for this function
plus it is part of the course timetable...unless I should have placed it
someplace different. When I open my form I am table I have 3 columns. I
guess you are suggesting that I enter the students name 8 times and pick 8
classes. So if I had 300 students I would have 2400 rows in the
table???Maybe that is right.

 

[John W. Vinson]

Part of it was helpful. Thanks. I tried doing your design for the schedule
using the studentid, courseid, and period number. I linked the studentid to
the demographic table in a combo box, and the couseid to the course
timetable. I do not see the relevance of the period number for this function
plus it is part of the course timetable...unless I should have placed it
someplace different. When I open my form I am table I have 3 columns. I
guess you are suggesting that I enter the students name 8 times and pick 8
classes. So if I had 300 students I would have 2400 rows in the
table???Maybe that is right.

I'm suggesting you use a Form - NOT A TABLE.

Tables are for data storage. Forms are for user interaction with the tables.
Users should basically *never see a table at all*! Even you, as the developer,
should only see a Table when you are working with its structure or debugging;
any interaction with the data in the table should be via a Form, not the table
directly.

What I was suggesting is that you have a Form based on the student table; on
that Form you would have a Subform based on the schedule table. You would
enter the student name - *once*, once only while that student is involved with
the school, maybe once in eight years - on the student form. You'ld have a
combo box on the form (created using the toolbox combo box wizard) to find a
student if you want to edit information about that student later on. On the
Subform you would use the combo box to pick eight classes.

Yes, you'ld have 2400 rows when you got done. You have 2400 enrollments to
record! THAT IS REALITY: you have 2400 butts on seats in the classrooms over
the course of a day; your database should record that information. But by
using the tools Access provides, it's pretty easy to manage that information.

Just don't get tricked into thinking that a table is a spreadsheet, and using
it as if it were a spreadsheet! It's not, and doesn't work like one. Use Forms
instead. That's what they're for!