Access Newbie

[James Ivey]

Hello Everyone,

Access newbie here. We've got a calligraphy organization with app. 450
members. All the data (for the last several decades) is living in a
handwritten, spiral-bound notebook, about 6 inches thick <g>

We figure its time to get a grip on things and get our membership data into
some kind of software program, and I'm thinking Access is the way to go.

First question: What can we do in Access that we can't do in Excel? I know
thats a big question, so I'm looking for some general answers that would
apply to membership information.

Is there a sample database somewhere that would get me started?

Good beginner books perhaps that would help me get started?

Thanks in advance,

James Ivey
Dallas, TX

 

[James Ivey]

Sorry, didn't mean to jump into this thread. I reposted with a different
subject line.
James

 

[Tim Johnson]

James, I'd like to start with a slight disclamer:
I am fairly inexperienced, and nowhere near the expert that some of the
people using this news group are.

That being said, there are several reasons to use Access over Excel for your
purpose. One of which is relational information management. I am a little
unsure of what all you track within your organization (aside from the obvious
contact information), and whether you would care to keep relational
information or not, but I think you will find that even if you haven't in the
past, it will become very useful in the future. Another is data
integrity...ever messed up on a sort in Excel and get your rows jumbled? It
doesn't take much to accidentally screw up a row, and it can take a lot to
fix it. Insofar as user interface, I feel that Access' forms are much more
user friendly on the design end, and if done properly, you won't be scrolling
all over. Need to find all of your members who have a common qualities (e.g.
zip code, common interests, etc.)? Queries are much simpler to work with than
the formulas required in excel for most of these tasks, especially as your
criteria gets more complex.

Insofar as resources, I started off using lynda.com (a fine introduction in
concept, but rather limited) and the MS tutorials. Most of the knowledge
I've been able to obtain have been through this newsgroup, the MS Access help
files, and good old google, though. There are also a lot of good books out
there, too.