Not at all Familiar with Access

[RB-New User]

I am not familiar with Access and I am not sure if this is what I need.

I get various spreadsheets from multiple clients with variable information
in many different formats.

I want to extract only the information I need into one common format that I
can easlily use.

I currently take their spreadhseets, copy, paste, delete and move around in
excel and sort it to get the information I need. It takes tons of time only
to find out the client sent a new spreadsheet with changes and I need to
start all over again.

Would Access be a good solution to my spreadsheet woes?

Thanks for your input!

 

[John W. Vinson]

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:46:39 -0800, RB-New User <RB-New

I am not familiar with Access and I am not sure if this is what I need.

I get various spreadsheets from multiple clients with variable information
in many different formats.

I want to extract only the information I need into one common format that I
can easlily use.

I currently take their spreadhseets, copy, paste, delete and move around in
excel and sort it to get the information I need. It takes tons of time only
to find out the client sent a new spreadsheet with changes and I need to
start all over again.

Would Access be a good solution to my spreadsheet woes?

Thanks for your input!

Quite possibly it will... but the problem isn't the software, it's the
uncontrolled (and uncontrollable!?) format and arrangement of the data. I
guess it's too much to hope that each *client* uses a consistant format?

You could certainly come up with a properly normalized database structure to
hold the "information that you need"; and you could come up with a multitude
of Append queries to extract columns A, C, D, E, J, K from one spreadsheet,
and B, F, A, D, M and a constant from another, and append those records into
your table or tables. Of course whenever the spreadsheet format changes you
would need to tweak the query, but all in all it should be easier than what
you're doing now.

John W. Vinson [MVP]

 

[Jeff Boyce]

To get the best out of Access' relationally-oriented features and functions,
you are facing TWO steep learning curves. First, you'll need to be
comfortable with/conversant in "normalization" and "relational".

Second, Access is not a spreadsheet on steroids. The approaches you've used
with spreadsheets will need to be unlearned.

Is there a reason you aren't using a spreadsheet to "collect" the data from
multiple spreadsheets? Not by copy/paste, but by referring to cells on
other 'sheets?

And I'm with John -- if your clients aren't willing to use a common design
in what they send, what choice do you have?

Good luck!

--
Regards

Jeff Boyce
www.InformationFutures.net

Microsoft Office/Access MVP


Microsoft IT Academy Program Mentor
http://microsoftitacademy.com/