Creating, Linking tables & form design

[Mike P]

I'm completely NEW to Access (data bases in general) so please excuse my
ignorance)
I'm using Access XP (2002) on Windows XP

What I'm trying to do is create a data base to list, organize all my CD's,
songs Artists etc. (i/e: make a song list) as I am a mobile DJ. I have about
370 CD's and about 5,000 songs to list out.
What I want to be able to do is list each Artist / Band in alphabetical
order with all the songs I have from that Artist / Band and be able to print
out a "Song List" showing -- Artist / Band name, Song Titles from said band,
and CD# it is located on (I have my CD's numbered) and track# of each song.

I want to be able to enter all data on "One Form" with an end result of
being able to print out a "Song List" sorted to show "Artist / Band Name" in
alphabetical order with all songs from that band, with the CD# the song and
or Artist is located on and the track# of the song.

I also want to be able to add in a song(s) to an exsisting Artist or New
Artist as I aquire them. Also...is there anyway to do this so that I would
not have to "Reprint" the entire song list just because I added in some new
songs or Artist and therefore it changed the layout - order of the printed
"Song List"

As I said....I'm completely new to Access, so please be very expliciate in
instructions on "How To Do"

 

[Jeff Conrad]

I'm completely NEW to Access (data bases in general) so please excuse my
ignorance)
I'm using Access XP (2002) on Windows XP

What I'm trying to do is create a data base to list, organize all my CD's,
songs Artists etc. (i/e: make a song list) as I am a mobile DJ. I have about
370 CD's and about 5,000 songs to list out.
What I want to be able to do is list each Artist / Band in alphabetical
order with all the songs I have from that Artist / Band and be able to print
out a "Song List" showing -- Artist / Band name, Song Titles from said band,
and CD# it is located on (I have my CD's numbered) and track# of each song.

I want to be able to enter all data on "One Form" with an end result of
being able to print out a "Song List" sorted to show "Artist / Band Name" in
alphabetical order with all songs from that band, with the CD# the song and
or Artist is located on and the track# of the song.

I also want to be able to add in a song(s) to an exsisting Artist or New
Artist as I aquire them. Also...is there anyway to do this so that I would
not have to "Reprint" the entire song list just because I added in some new
songs or Artist and therefore it changed the layout - order of the printed
"Song List"

As I said....I'm completely new to Access, so please be very expliciate in
instructions on "How To Do"

See if this working template gets you going Mike:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010186291033.aspx

 

[Mike P]

I've tried that template, but it includes a LOT of information that I would
not want to use...Date Of Birth, Date Of Death, Recording Label
etc......which puts me in the position of having to modify it (which I do not
know how to do)

ANY other suggestions or help will be much appreciated.

 

[Jeff Conrad]

I've tried that template, but it includes a LOT of information that I would
not want to use...Date Of Birth, Date Of Death, Recording Label
etc......which puts me in the position of having to modify it (which I do not
know how to do)

ANY other suggestions or help will be much appreciated.

Well Mike, as I see it, you have to realize that you will have to do
*some* work on this either way! You said you do not have a lot
of Access experience, but want something tailor-made to your
requirements. This will require you to make something from scratch
that fits all of your needs. You can use the ready-made MS template,
but of course, it may not be exactly what you need. So you will need
to make modifications to it to fulfill your requirements. Either way,
you will have to do some work on this.

If you are thinking of finding a ready made database that meets ALL
of your requirements, that would be highly unlikely unless you are
willing to pay someone to do this for you.

The best suggestion I can give for you is to use the MS template. As you
begin to use the database you will start to learn how everything works
together. You said there are fields that you do not wish to use. Just
because the fields are on the form, doesn't mean you *have* to use
the fields; just ignore them. The easiest thing to do would be to open
the form in Design View, right click on each text box control you do
not wish to use, and hit the Delete key. The form may not be as organized
now, but only the fields you wish to use will show on the forms. The same
goes for the reports as well. Just remove the report text box controls you
do not want to see. (This assumes the tables fields are not required).

Your only other alternative (besides paying someone) is to read up on
Database Design and Normalization and study how to correctly set up
tables and fields, create Relationships and Indexes, and design queries,
forms, and reports, to make a user interface. The choice is yours to make.

--
Jeff Conrad
Access Junkie
Bend, Oregon