Is Access right for me???

[Erin]

I am wondering if I should start to use access with my team? I support a
team of 8 sales reps.. we gather info from contacts and then distribute that
info to our partners as a lead. I find that we are retyping a lot of the
same information just in different places within word docs and outlook. I
would like to be able type the info once and then have it auto populate
fields within multiple documents. very easily

 

[Tom Wickerath]

Hi Erin,

It would be fairly easy to set up an Access application, where you could
export information to one or more Excel spreadsheets using a little VBA code.
You could easily limit the records exported to each Excel spreadsheet with
the appropriate criteria in a query. An example for a movie database is shown
here:

http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/downloads/Chap08QBF.zip

This sample was set up to demonstrate Query by Form (QBF). You could set
something similar up, except instead of having Movie Categories displayed in
a list box, you might have the names of the salespeople instead. You can even
append (add) the name or initials of the salesperson to the Excel filename,
along with the date exported, if desired. I have a new tutorial available on
the QBF technique, available here:

http://www.seattleaccess.org/downloads.htm

See the download for February 12, 2008. However, this tutorial does not
include Export to Excel functionality, as the first sample does. That would
be fairly easy to add.

Exporting to Word documents is going to be significantly more difficult. If
the information was read-only (ie. no need to edit after exporting), then
you'd be a lot better off to create a report in Access and print that. Or,
export the report to either the Microsoft Access Snapshot (*.snp) or Portable
Document Format (*.pdf) file format.

To move data from Access to Outlook, you can use this MSDN article as a
guide. However, I think this transfer is limited to the active user's
Outlook, ie. person A could not run a function in Access to populate person
B's Outlook calendar or tasks.

Using Automation in Microsoft Office Access 2003 to Work
with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa159619(office.11).aspx


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/
http://www.access.qbuilt.com/html/expert_contributors.html
__________________________________________

 

[John W. Vinson]

I am wondering if I should start to use access with my team? I support a
team of 8 sales reps.. we gather info from contacts and then distribute that
info to our partners as a lead. I find that we are retyping a lot of the
same information just in different places within word docs and outlook. I
would like to be able type the info once and then have it auto populate
fields within multiple documents. very easily

Well... yes, Access can do this; and it can do it very easily for the users,
once the application is built.

HOWEVER the learning curve for Access is steep and rocky, and linking it to
Word and Outlook gets into some thorny underbrush along less-traveled trails.

It can all be done, but prepare to spend a fair bit of effort getting the app
set up, or to hire an expert to develop it for you.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Erin:

I am wondering if I should start to use access with my team? I support a
team of 8 sales reps.. we gather info from contacts and then distribute that
info to our partners as a lead. I find that we are retyping a lot of the
same information just in different places within word docs and outlook. I
would like to be able type the info once and then have it auto populate
fields within multiple documents. very easily

First thing I'd do is look for an off-the-shelf application that
does 80% of what you want to do and, hopefully, 100% of what you
really need to do. Vastly cheaper than rolling your own.

 

[Khoe]

In Excel I have in column A employees, and then I manually enter their phone
number, address, and employee ID beside them in columns B, C, and D
respectively. I do similar redundant tasks all over my files. Any suggestions?

 

[Tom Wickerath]

Khoe,

Is your question related to using Microsoft Access? If not, then you should
re-post your question to an Excel newsgroup:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.excel.misc&exp=1

If you are using Access, then you'll have to explain in a lot more detail
what the issue(s) are.


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/
http://www.access.qbuilt.com/html/expert_contributors.html
__________________________________________

 

[xiaojun]

Khoe,

Is your question related to using Microsoft Access? If not, then you
should
re-post your question to an Excel newsgroup:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.excel.misc&exp=1

If you are using Access, then you'll have to explain in a lot more detail
what the issue(s) are.


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/
http://www.access.qbuilt.com/html/expert_contributors.html
__________________________________________

 

[xiaojun]

In Excel I have in column A employees, and then I manually enter their
phone
number, address, and employee ID beside them in columns B, C, and D
respectively. I do similar redundant tasks all over my files. Any
suggestions?

 

[roccogrand]

Tom,

Have you updated your QBF example to use multi-value fields?

David

 

[Tom Wickerath]

Hi David,

Have you updated your QBF example to use multi-value fields?

No. And I have no plans on doing so. Sorry. I will never implement
multi-value fields in any application I create. They violate relational
database design principles, and make it very difficult if you later want/need
to upsize the data portion (ie. "Back-End" of a split application) to SQL
Server, Oracle, Sybase, MySQL, etc. So, me says "no thanks" to future MVF
nightmares.


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/
http://www.access.qbuilt.com/html/expert_contributors.html
__________________________________________

 

[roccogrand]

Thanks Tom.

Are you sure that MVF will not be compatible with SQL Server 2008?

David

 

[Tom Wickerath]

Hi David,

I'm not sure what capabilities that SQL Server 2008 brings to the table.
However, I would be surprised if the SQL Server team would implement a
feature that violates relational principles. And I'm pretty sure that the
other database vendors (Oracle, IBM, Sybase, etc.) will not support MVF. I
like to keep my options open, and not have all my efforts in Microsoft's
cookie jar.


Tom Wickerath
Microsoft Access MVP
http://www.accessmvp.com/TWickerath/
http://www.access.qbuilt.com/html/expert_contributors.html
__________________________________________