excel database?

[wendydenisse07]

Hi,
I need help! I would like to create a report similar to the one that access
has in excel. In my job we have all the transactions we have worked on in a
excel format where we can filter information similar to access. I would like
to know when it's time to print a report from that database if instead of
moving it to work and then modify it, if there is a way that i can pull the
info i need from my database and modify it in a way that looks readable and
print it directly from excel. I am making sense? please help me
Thank you,
Wendy

 

[Nicholas Scarpinato]

My first question would be, why are you even bothering with Excel? It sounds
like from your description that you're attempting to mimic Access in Excel,
which is not at all how Excel was designed to be used. But to answer your
question, you can't really create a report in Excel. You'd have to create a
new sheet, pull your information, and then print it out... but I'm still left
to wonder why you don't just pull your Excel data into Access, it's much
easier that way.

 

[Dave F]

You can't use Excel to create a report similar to one you find in
Access. You can, however, use Access to build a query from an Excel
table, from which an Access report can be created.

Dave

 

[wendydenisse07]

Hi,
I tried to use Access because for me as the same as you it's simplier.
However, at work people are so used to using excel that when i propose to
move all the records of our deals in access my boss freaked out. He does not
want people to spend time learning how to use access and he also mentioned
that access is good when you have a lot of information which in this case we
don't. My boss first suggested for me to look into pivot report which in my
opinion does not work for what I need. That's why i want to create something
that i can pull out the info I need and print it on excel to look like a
report.

 

[Bill Sharpe]

Hi,
I tried to use Access because for me as the same as you it's simplier.
However, at work people are so used to using excel that when i propose to
move all the records of our deals in access my boss freaked out. He does not
want people to spend time learning how to use access and he also mentioned
that access is good when you have a lot of information which in this case we
don't. My boss first suggested for me to look into pivot report which in my
opinion does not work for what I need. That's why i want to create something
that i can pull out the info I need and print it on excel to look like a
report.

You can filter information in Excel to display just what you want, but
you'll never(or as the monarch of the sea in Gilbert and Sullivan's
Pinafore would say, "hardly ever") get a report that looks as good as
one created in Access. Something that "looks readable" in Excel is
certainly possible but as you have already found out it isn't going to
be an easy task to get there. Perhaps exporting the information to Word
and then embellishing the results there is an option.

Bill

Bill

 

[Nicholas Scarpinato]

I absolutely detest people who think like your boss... They only say that
because they have no idea what Access is capable of. A good database designer
can make Access easier for the user than any Excel sheet they've ever used.
(That's why I've got the job I have now, lol.) What he doesn't seem to
understand is that Access can pull the data straight off an Excel sheet
without much effort as long as the Excel sheet is pretty much standardized
(i.e., everything is in properly headed columns, etc.). You can link the
Excel sheet into Access as a linked table and run your reports directly off
of that without knowing where the data is coming from or how it works. The
added benefit of that is any time you change the Excel sheet, you're
automatically updating the report in Access. The downside is you have no way
to run archive reports (if you needed that functionality). You could also use
the "TransferSpreadsheet" functionality in Access to dump the sheet into an
Access table and then you would have archive functionality as well.