Excel or Access

[Jo4321]

I'm in a new job with a college sports team and there is an existing roster
of team members on Excel. It contains all the usual info name, address, ssn,
etc. There are other spreadsheets with team member with other info, such as
home of record, summer address, etc. There are other spreadsheets with
possible recruits with similar information. The coaches are familiar with
the excel format.

Am I better off just sticking with the various excel spreadsheets and
connecting them somehow? Or is the only way to have these connections by
using a database.

I played around and created a database for potential recruits and have been
using it with Word to generate letters, nametags, and directories and it's
working well.

I created a form for it so the coaches could enter their info from their
recruit cards. But before I get too deep into database/form design, I've
been reconsidering this. I'm worried that if they want to use the database
for their own uses, that excel may just be the better choice. (occasionally,
they'll just do a "save as" on the excel spreadsheet and delete stuff they
don't need and add stuff they do. Can this be done easily on Access, or
would they have to know how to run reports, or use mail merge? I'm part
time, so I'm not always there.

Jo

 

[Larry Daugherty]

Just about everything you might consider in making your decision will
come down to qualitative rather than quantitative evaluations based on
your own level of expertise with Access and Excel.

Access and Excel are easy to compare for a given situation.. Nothing
else is that clear cut. From reading your post, I infer that you
haven't yet mastered the fundamentals of Relational Database design.
It's a foreign concept and practice to the rest of the world. If you
don't master it then developing in Access will become increasingly
difficult as you try to add layers of functionality. One clue is the
sequence in which you mention the first use of Access and then mention
creating a Form for the users. Access users should *never* be able to
get into the tables directly. Their only interaction with the data
should be via forms.

The first question is "How much time and effort are you ready and
willing to devote to learning Access? Be aware that the Access
learning curve is long and steep. To those of us who have made the
trip to the "journeyman" level, it was worth the trip.

Access is clearly superior when it comes to rapidly and efficiently
developing a comprehensive application for the sports team. You can
go a long way toward protecting your users from data entry errors of
all kinds. You can provide them with meaningful forms that help them
get done the task before them. If all of the users of your
application are limited to using it from their PCs connected to the
same Local Area Network Access is the choice.

However, other considerations may be more important to your user
community:

1. They're familiar with Excel and some will be loathe to give it
up.
2. Not everyone will already have Access on their PC>.

3. Eventually merging databases that were entered independently on
disparate PCs is more easily done at an unsophisticated level using
Excel than using Access. (Using Access with all PCs on the same LAN
the data would never require merging).

If you think you'd like to go with Access then post back with specific
issues and you'll find people happy to help.

By the way, another great group to lurk along with this one is

microsoft.public.access.tablesdesign

HTH

 

[scubadiver]

Are there spreadsheets for the season's games (scores, scorers, assists
etc). The coaches can stay with spreadsheets but ask them what more
information they may like to have. Then you might be able to pursuade them to
use Access but there are practical IT issues involved. As Larry said, the
learning curve is very steep, almost vertical.

 

[Jo4321]

I think the problem is less my willingness to learn, than the thought that I
might end up making things more difficult for others.

I like the idea of them having a form to enter the data and never having to
touch the tables. The problem I can see (just from some things we were
generating today) is that they often want the hard copy of the report on the
network, so that they can see it and add to it.

Here's an example: The coaches enter the names of possible recruits into
the database, but they do not put ALL of the info possible in. I take the
data merge it to send letters to the recruits who will visit and then I take
the data, merge it to a table in word that lists who is coming on what date
and the coach assigned to them. There are other columns on this document
too, such as the high school, the grades, the height and weight. Basically,
it is a paper report that they can look at and see at a glance who is
visiting that day and a bit about the player.

Once the document is merged, they may need to add info later. So now they
go into the network drive and add things onto the document. Since they are
adding this to the document, not the database, my database will not be
updated.

I can try to generate the list as late as possible before the visits, but
they want to be able to look at it in advance. If they just try to look at
it in the database, it is too confusing for them.

Jo

 

[Dale Fye]

I work in an environment where my co-workers love to work in Excel.
Unfortunately, Excel is not a database, does very little error checking
(although if you get good at writing VBA in Excel, you can improve some of
that), and is hard to merge from data from multiple users.

On the other hand, Access is designed for entering data (forms), error
checking the data as it is entered, storing and retrieving data, and
generating reports (I would argue that Access has the best report writer on
the market). Yes, there is a steep learning curve, but it is well worth it.
The real plus is that you can put your data on the network and give everyone
their own front-end (application). With Excel, you have to deal with merging
changes from the various individuals, which is/can be a nightmare.

If they want to take your application on the road with them, you can even
use replication to allow them to disconnect from the network, continue to
enter/modify data, and then merge the data sources when they get back off the
road. Although this topic is a one of those that is very high up on the
learning curve.

HTH
Dale

 

[Larry Daugherty]

Hi Jo,
Most of us here wouldn't consider the modifiable documents on a hard
drive to be *hard copies*. To me, a "hard copy" is on paper.

For what you're doing, Access is clearly the superior tool. It's what
Access was desogmed tp do. Whether you can make it useful to yourself
and to your customers in a timely manner is the first issue. Whether
you have the time to apply to the task is another issue. If you are
determined to keep Word in the mix, Word can pull data from an Access
Query (usually to be preffered) or an Access Table. Also the training
of your users in using Access is something to consider. People fear
and resist change.

The things you mention are all deliverable via Access at a high level.
That is to say that every result that can be achieved with your
current Excel based paradigm can be achieved with with less user
invovlement and with greater reliability in an Access based paradigm.
All of the user processes and worklows wold be impacted. Some
changes:

All user interaction whti the data would be by using Forms provided by
you.

You would provide Reports for Viewing and Printing data.

Both Forms and Reports will get their data from Queries you design.

For best results:

Every user should have a copy of the Front End of your application on
their desktop. The Data in the Back End will reside in a shared
folder on a Server where all of your users will have full rights.

All users computers will be on the same Local Area Network.

There are ways to achieve success wven when the above restrictions
can't be met. However, they all require more learning in order to
correctly design and implement them. That includes the situation in
which the user's PC must occasionaly run the application off the LAN.

If you intend to use Access then Welcome to the World of Access. It
can be a bumpy ride but perseverance is rewarded.

HTH