O, please help, I'm in a panic here, new (?) Access project

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My boss has sent me the following directions: "We are starting a campaign to
get new registrants to our program on our webpage. We're going to be getting
lots of registration info, and getting a lot at one time from the webmaster,
in an email format. I would like for you [that's me, gulp!] to start a
database of all the registrants. Are you able to do it in Excel or must it
be done in Access? I [that is, the boss] prefer Excel simply because I don't
have Access on my computer and don't know how to use it. I would like the
spreadsheet to have the following information fields:" and then goes on to
list the fieldnames that are posted on the form on the webpage.

Okay, first off, we already have an Access d/b. It is far from being in
perfect condition, but I've been using it since I started this job over 18
months ago. I don't know a lot about Access, or relational databases at all,
but I know absolutely nothing about Excel. I do know that Excel is most
efficient in number & financial applications, whereas we are a non-profit
youth organization, and have very minimal use for that type of information.
I also know enough to realize that this database is not normalized, and
somewhat inefficient, although I have been able to solve a few problems that
have arisen. I also realize it's potential. I have seen a "commercially
available product" that might fit our needs if tweaking were something I knew
how to do and apply to it (if it was indeed possible).

With all that said, most of the fields the boss lists are already in
existence on the current d/b. There are some on the current d/b that might
be helpful to be added to the webpage form, and there are a few that are on
the webpage form that could be added to the current d/b.

The boss wants this to be the most up-to-date, valid record of information
on youth in this area!

I can't see how ignoring all the records we already have would do that.
True we don't have all the information for each youth, but we still have a
great base to work from.

I just don't know if I should just keep adding the new registrants to our
current d/b, or start a whole new one, and try my darndest to create a good
new d/b. (I am totally unfamiliar with codes, and would use the only two
sources I know of, these newsgroups, and the book "Absolute Beginner's Guide
to Access 2002" (which is the version on my pc).

Please, any and all advice is welcome here!

Thanks!
 
If all you are going to be doing with it is listing a bunch of youth with
various pieces of biographical/demographis info, you may be better served by
using an Excel spread.

Some of the keys I use to decide are:

How many different entities am I tracking? (in your case...people)
How much redundant information would I be typing? (For you...state, city,
what else?)

If there are multiple different entities that relate to each other and lots
of re-typing, I go with a db. Otherwise keep it simple for the boss and put
together a spreadsheet, especially if you are new to Access....

HTH,

--
Kevin Hill
President
3NF Consulting

www.3nf-inc.com/NewsGroups.htm

www.DallasDBAs.com/forum - new DB forum for Dallas/Ft. Worth area DBAs.

www.experts-exchange.com - experts compete for points to answer your
questions


Max said:
My boss has sent me the following directions: "We are starting a campaign
to
get new registrants to our program on our webpage. We're going to be
getting
lots of registration info, and getting a lot at one time from the
webmaster,
in an email format. I would like for you [that's me, gulp!] to start a
database of all the registrants. Are you able to do it in Excel or must
it
be done in Access? I [that is, the boss] prefer Excel simply because I
don't
have Access on my computer and don't know how to use it. I would like the
spreadsheet to have the following information fields:" and then goes on
to
list the fieldnames that are posted on the form on the webpage.

Okay, first off, we already have an Access d/b. It is far from being in
perfect condition, but I've been using it since I started this job over 18
months ago. I don't know a lot about Access, or relational databases at
all,
but I know absolutely nothing about Excel. I do know that Excel is most
efficient in number & financial applications, whereas we are a non-profit
youth organization, and have very minimal use for that type of
information.
I also know enough to realize that this database is not normalized, and
somewhat inefficient, although I have been able to solve a few problems
that
have arisen. I also realize it's potential. I have seen a "commercially
available product" that might fit our needs if tweaking were something I
knew
how to do and apply to it (if it was indeed possible).

With all that said, most of the fields the boss lists are already in
existence on the current d/b. There are some on the current d/b that
might
be helpful to be added to the webpage form, and there are a few that are
on
the webpage form that could be added to the current d/b.

The boss wants this to be the most up-to-date, valid record of information
on youth in this area!

I can't see how ignoring all the records we already have would do that.
True we don't have all the information for each youth, but we still have a
great base to work from.

I just don't know if I should just keep adding the new registrants to our
current d/b, or start a whole new one, and try my darndest to create a
good
new d/b. (I am totally unfamiliar with codes, and would use the only two
sources I know of, these newsgroups, and the book "Absolute Beginner's
Guide
to Access 2002" (which is the version on my pc).

Please, any and all advice is welcome here!

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the quick reply! I greatly appreciate it.

I forsee about six different entities (students, parents, school, youth
group, summer camp, and house of worship).

I forsee more redundant information besides city, state and zip. Those are
Current Grade, Youth Group Name, Summer Camp, House of Worship, Religion,
County, and P.R.Source (that is, 'how did they hear about the website?').

I have never used Excel, other than to convert Access reports and query
results into it for my boss (which is a feature of Access).

I know really nothing about how to use Excel. Is it easier to learn than
Access? I don't have any problems learning a new program, just that I don't
know if I can learn it quickly enough to be of efficient use ...

Thanks again.

-- Max
 
I can definitely see Access being useful here, but it is significantly
harder to learn than Excel, assuming you want to design the db properly...

Have you looked on the Microsoft site for some templates that might be close
to what you need? These are generally quite easy to tweak...

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT011359381033.aspx

--
Kevin Hill
President
3NF Consulting

www.3nf-inc.com/NewsGroups.htm

www.DallasDBAs.com/forum - new DB forum for Dallas/Ft. Worth area DBAs.

www.experts-exchange.com - experts compete for points to answer your
questions
 
Wow, thank you so much! There seems to have been some new additions since I
last checked that source. I downloaded a template and can definitely see how
we could use it, with, as you've said, a bit of tweaking. Although this
stuff gives me a headache, I am motivated to try some tweaking after lunch ;)
today.

I have some questions about the example I downloaded, however. It is the
one in the business section, on Membership. For instance, the organization
seems to consist of 2 committees: Meals & Transportation. As it exists on
dowloading, there is one table for CommitteeMembers, consisting of 5 members
per committee. Shouldn't there be two separate tables, one for each
committee, as in MealCommitteeMembers and TransportationCommitteeMembers?

And seeing that there are 3 types of members (Full, Half, NewsletterOnly),
shouldn't there be 3 separate tables for those categories?

Thanks.

-- Max
 
just a couple comments for you, Max, re tables/relationships. i'm not
familiar with the book you're using, "Absolute Beginner's Guide to Access
2002", so i don't know how much or how little instruction it gives on
relational data modeling. i strongly urge you to read up on that subject, so
that you'll know what you're doing if your "tweaking" ends up involving
adding tables and/or fields to the template you have (and it will help you
understand the setup you're working with, regardless). and what you learn
will stand you in good stead in future projects, too (and they'll come up,
believe me - once you've worked successfully on an Access database, people
will crawl out of the woodwork with requests for more! <g>).

one good text that teaches relational data modeling is Database Design for
Mere Mortals by Michael Hernandez. you can also find many helpful links to
more info on the subject (look also for the topic "normalization") at
http://home.bendbroadband.com/conradsystems/accessjunkie/resources.html
beginning with the Starting Out and Database Design 101 links.

hth
 
Sorry for the delay Max...

Generally speaking, one table per entity....so if there are 3 types of
members, you have one table, plus a field for "membertype". Typically,
there would be a lookup table called Membertype and it would have a
relationship defined between Member and MemberType

re: committee, I would hazard a guess that committee would be a table,
member is a table and there would be a junction table called
CommitteeMembers that allows for one committee to have many members, and one
member can be on many committees.

I have not looked at the template.

HTH,
--
Kevin Hill
President
3NF Consulting

www.3nf-inc.com/NewsGroups.htm

www.DallasDBAs.com/forum - new DB forum for Dallas/Ft. Worth area DBAs.

www.experts-exchange.com - experts compete for points to answer your
questions
 
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