Phone Directory Template

[Chris B.]

I am running Windows 98 SE and MS Access and also MS Works Suite Data
Base.
I live in a small retirement condo/association community. I prepare the
annual phone directory. I have been doing it in a makeshift manner with
lists and then MS Publisher. This is very difficult and can be filled with
errors because I am not accessing the data via a form to a master data base
as is done with queries and reports in MS Access. I am looking for an
Access Template or some inexpensive (I am, of course, willing to pay for
this if necessary) and simple program to do this. The directory has two
sections: first by alphabet; then by building and unit number. The alphabet
section is no problem. The building and unit number section is not directly
in numerical order, however: evens on one side; odds on the other of our
circular drive. Each building is displayed separately with its units. Some
buildings have four units and some have six units. I print the directory
out with two panels to a regular 8.5 X 11 sheet, landscape aspect. The
complete booklet has 16 panels. The 8.5 X 11 sheets are folded to make for
a nice little booklet.
Thanks for any ideas.


Chris

 

[John Nurick]

Hi Chris,

The biggest difficulty seems likely to be with the printing: as far as I
know Access can't print non-sequential pages the way you need to make
booklets. You may end up using Access to store the data and generate
lists that can be laid out and printed using Publisher as now.

Assuming you have (or may have) people with different last names living
in the same units, you'll probably need tables along the following
lines:

tblUnits
UnitID - autonumber primary key
Unit - text field containing the street address or
whatever of the unit (e.g. 1 Chestnut Circle #3)
SortOrder - number field with values that can be used to
the units into the order you need. (e.g.
1 Chestnut Circle #1 10010
1 Chestnut Circle #2 10020
...
3 Chestnut Circle #1 20010
...
PhoneNumber - text field containing phone number


tblPersons
PersonID - autonumber primary key
LastName
FirstName
MiddleName
UnitID - foreign key into tblUnits

If you have people with complicated or non-Western names that don't
readily fit the First-middle-last pattern, do what I often do and have
two name fields
IndexName - the name as it should appear in an alphabetised list,
e.g. Jones, Peter K
AddressName - the name as it should appear on a letter or
mailing label, e.g. Mr Peter K Jones

Then you can create two queries, one to return the people in alphabetic
order with the associated units and phone numbers, and the other to
return the units and phone numbers in unit sort order with the
associated people.

Finally - probably - you'll need two reports to lay out the lists.
Because of the booklet printing issue, you'll probably need to output
the reports to Microsoft Word and then import the resulting files into
Publisher for final layout.

I hope this gets you started; post back with specific questions if they
arise.

 

[PC Datasheet]

Chris,

Email me at (e-mail address removed) if you would like my help.

Steve
PC Datasheet