Is Access the right choice?

[quazee]

Not too sure if this is the right forum or not, but...

I work at a private golf course. We have 350 homes on site and a guard gate that controls access onto the property. We want to have guest passes for the guard to give out that have, among other information, directions to the house that the guest is going. We also want to track the passes that we give out. My boss wants to use Access but I think it would be easier/quicker to use Excel.

I also have ZERO working knowledge of Access. Is this too big of project?

 

[djj55]

Access would be a better way to go then Excel. I would suggest picking up a book on Access with VBA, but others might have better suggestions.
djj

 

[Hap007]

Hi,

I also agree that Access would be a much better tool than Excel based on what you describe

With Access, you could write a little program that allows you to enter the Pass Id. The same program could be set to print directions from the Gate to the Home in question.

Good Luck,
Hap...

Access Developer

http://www.fcs-software.com/fcsaccessdev.html

Access based Accounting Solutions - with free source code
Access Consultants forum

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=1121

 

[fneily]

Hmmm. Zero working knowledge...how much time do you have to set up the database? Access has alot of non-intuitive concepts and protocols that must be followed to produce a product that can be of continuous use. Normalization, relationships are examples. If you just slap together something, you'll run into problems quickly. What you propose isn't a "too big of project". In fact, if done right in Access, there's alot of analysis you can do beside just tracking.
Personally, I think you'd need more than one book. Courses would help, books on the basics which include designing, and contact with actual Access programmers. Like most things, it all depends on your initiative.

 

[jontout]

If you can easily set up your tool using Excel to get it working, use Excel to get up and running then start on recreating for Access. There are plenty of Websites & books to get you going. Good luck.

 

[quazee]

Thanks for all the responses. I'm not really sure when they want this by, but it seems to me that they want it somewhat soon.
From trying to play around with Access, it definitely isn't intuitive at all. That's why I was leaning towards Excel.

 

[JoeAtWork]

Definitely Access over Excel. Even if you are not sure what you are doing, you will be forced to enter your data in a structured format. At the very least you should be able to set up your tables - that should be intuitive enough. After that, you are no worse off than using Excel sheets.

Access has lots of Wizards to set things up for you.

 

[lespaul]

Be sure to read:

The Fundamentals of Relational Database Design

The Evils of Lookup Fields in Tables

Understanding SQL Joins

If you create your tables in the proper way (Fundamentals) then writing queries to get the data you need is much easier.


Leslie

In an open world there's no need for windows and gates

http://www.ubuntu.com

 

[Remou]

Do not use Autonumber for anything but a unique number. It is not suitable for sequential numbers.