Hi Glenda, You wrote: > Hi Andrew. I'm interested in the part of your process that > "rearranges data from another workbook..." How is that set > up? /glenda Well, I don't have the sheets in front of me (and I forgot to bring them home from work). My 'solution' is a bit pitch-and-patch but it was (and is) designed to see if what I wanted to do would work. Currently I have an Excel sheet which contains details of exams clients have taken - one line for an exam. This data needed transferring into an Access database, which had already been set up. I collect more data in the spreadsheet than goes into the database and some of it is in a different format so, at the moment, I copy the info required to update the database (all the records which aren't marked with a 'y' in the DB column but which do have a 'P' or 'F' in the results column. Automatic Filters are good for this: filter on blanks in the DB column and non-blanks in the Results column. I 'paste special' this filtered data into the first sheet of another workbook which has two sheets. The second sheet picks up the data, line by line, and formats it in columns labelled exactly as the database fields. That's no big deal, really ... the main difference is that the exam reference takes two columns (module no and paper number - there being four papers one can choose from for each module) in the original data but the database combines these two numerics in a text field. It's no rocket science to convert two numeric fields into one text field in the format required. I then save this second sheet as a .csv file for import into Access and, in Access, test my import first in a dummy table, then import into the real one. The whole operation takes me less than 5 minutes, I guess. Once the process is proved to work, I intended to automate it a bit more but lack of time has been the problem. You might ask why I use a .csv file. The answer is that I had some problems importing straight from the worksheet. I think they were to do with the same problem of blank fields that I get with the .csv - but it's easier to delete all the rows in the .csv which contain blank data. If I can solve that problem and automate the process of filtering the records, then it could all happen at the press of a button. Indeed, there is actually no need to use an intermediary spreadsheet but I wasn't allowed to alter the structure of the database, so I chose this method while I was testing. If I have the time to implement it, I see no reason why all my data should not go into the same database - complete with the Pivot Table reporting tools which I think helped to earn me a promotion, lol. I hope that answered your question. If you have a specific problem which might answer to a similar treatment, why not air it here? Andrew ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com ************************************************************* You are receiving this mail because you subscribed to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx or MicrosoftOffice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To send mail to the group, simply address it to mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To Unsubscribe from this group, send an email to mso-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the subject line. Or, visit the group's homepage and use the dropdown menu. This will also allow you to change your email settings to digest or vacation (no mail). //www.freelists.org/webpage/mso To be able to use the files section for sharing files with the group, send a request to mso-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and you will be sent an invitation with instructions. Once you are a member of the files group, you can go here to upload/download files: http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/msofiles *************************************************************