Using pdf fillable forms with Access

[tjsmags]

I can create fillable forms with Adobe Acrobat. The data that users fill in
online will be emailed to me. I was told I can have this data
exported/readable/interfaced (I don't know what term to use) by Access. I
don't know how to do this, so I want to make sure I set up the database
correctly to grab all the information on the form(s) I create.

I am creating a student database for our school. At the beginning of each
school year parents fill out multiple forms for their child(ren). Contact
form (name, address, email, phone, etc), health form (allergies, etc), dental
form, athletic form, etc. I would like the student database to capture all
this data from each of the forms. I, then, would like to create reports
(which family did NOT return a certain form, which child(ren) have allergies,
etc). Is this possible from ONE database?

Last question, obviously every school year the student data will change
(graduates, new families, families that have left, etc). Should I re-save
the prior year's database and re-name it every year (i.e. Student database
2008-09, then Student database 2009-10, etc)? I'm not certain that I would
ever need to pull reports that cross over school years (meaning having one
HUGE database for every school year).

I would also love it if the data could be imported into MS Outlook for email
distributions, etc.

Thank you.

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Sun, 8 Jun 2008 08:55:00 -0700, tjsmags

When importing data, you first need to know what format the data is
in. In the case of AA, open one of these files in Notepad. Can you
make sense of it? If the data is stored in some proprietary format,
then you likely will have to use Adobe's SDK (software development
kit) to interact with the document, similar to say if you wanted to
extract the sentences out of a Word document.

If you are, as it appears, new to Access programming or database
programming in general, you will likely have a very hard time
designing a correct database. An incorrect db is easy, but will cause
lots of grief down the road. You may want to hire professional help
for at least the database design phase of the project.

You should NOT save annual databases nor have tables, fields or
queries with a year name in it (fee2008, students_2009, etc). One of
our clients did that and it is disastrous. Rather you create a
database design that can accommodate multiple years.

There is lots of Schools software on the market. Seriously consider
buying one of those packages. What you are about to undertake is a big
project that requires a fairly high level of skill.

-Tom.

 

[tjsmags]

Is there a link you can give that gives extra info on this? I actually have
set up (altered) a contact database template and have used it for an alumni
database, so I actually am familiar with the Access program. I have not,
though, set up a database to gather multiple years of info. I'm hoping
there's a link I can read up on this.

Thanks.

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Sun, 8 Jun 2008 17:50:00 -0700, tjsmags

I'm not aware of any. The general principle is that you store the date
in the table. E.g.:
tblParentForm1
ParentID (link to tblParents)
DateReceived
Letter Data Fields

Perhaps DateReceived is enough (you can calculate the SchoolYear), or
you add a SchoolYear field.

-Tom.