[mso] Re: Excel?

Hi Herbert,

<<I would be interested in the different options available in Excel as well as
the usual suspect "Access", which I am not very good in.>>

I'm the computer guy for a 500-member astronomy club. Someone organized the
main membership records into an Access DB two years before I joined the club
(1998), and over the years, at least five different people have become
responsible in turn for membership records. Each of those people has differing
levels of familiarity with computers in general in with Access in particular.
I'm certainly no expert, but with the help of Google and this discussion list,
I have been able to keep the membership chair-person functioning.

Another problem with using MS Access is that in a few cases an otherwise
willing member could not be considered for membership chair because he/she
didn't have MS Access in their version of Office. As far as I know, all 
versions of Office have Excel.

Since we are already in Access, I've suggested separating out some of the
fields into related tables such as for special interest groups, types or
levels of membership, a geographically oriented speakers bureau etc.  My
possible successors object to that idea because they think the structure would
be too complicated. As a result, we are using the massive power of MS Access
to manage a flat file.

The handful of report types that are frequently required are all invoked from
a single form in Access, but for all the ad hoc reports, I usually pull out 
the
records I need from the table and paste them into Excel, then bang out the
report. That's very quick and simple.

Excel has a built-in macro generator. Access does not. In Excel, turn on the 
macro recorder, do a procedure, then save the recording. You can't do that in 
Access.

Lots more people in our club (and probably in the general population) are 
familiar with Excel than with Access.

You could begin your automation using Excel. After you work with it for a 
while, if you find that you need any of the functions that David Smart 
mentioned or some he didn't mention, it's fairly easy to import all your 
records into Access. I don't think the reverse trip would be as easy unless 
you keep all your records in a flat file within Access. If you do that, of 
course, you don't need Access.

HTH

Ray Shapp


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