[mso] Re: Newbie Access Question: Create Form to Enter Multiple Records at Once

Scot, I agree completely with Jim's reply below and can tell you from
experience, it is well worth the up front time to establish the right table
structure/relationships, it can save time and rework down the road.  I just
went through this myself and am still in the process of developing a new
employee training tracking database because the first one we were using had
been set up with wrong table structures and as we began adding more and
more records, people wanted more and more reporting that we were just not
able to supply because the data was not being input/stored correctly.  The
kinds of reporting they were needing were look aheads reports for each site
to see who's training would be up for renewal, this would help develop the
'class' list for the next training session.

We had same thing where a sign in sheet was supplied from a class with the
'header' information the same for that group, such as instructor, class,
etc.    My new data entry process will be to first enter the class with
it's information, then link students to that class.  Some students will
already be in the database, as they took other classes, and some will be a
new entry.  I'll have an 'add new student' button so students can be added
on the fly.

Access 97 has a  very good Students and Classes template, but haven't been
able to find same for 2002.

Also, Jim recommended checking out normalization . . . again, I learned the
hard way and agree totally with him!  Here is a very good starter link I've
been utilizing.

http://www.utteraccess.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=accessfaq&Number=373096&page=0&view=expanded&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

hth, Cathy



                                                                                
                            
                      "Jim Pettit"                                              
                            
                      <jimpettit@xxxxxxxx      To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>          
                            
                      m>                                                        
                            
                      Sent by:                 cc:                              
                            
                      mso-bounce@freelist                                       
                            
                      s.org                    Subject:  [mso] Re: Newbie 
Access Question: Create Form to   
                      06/27/2005 06:05 PM         Enter Multiple    Records at 
Once                         
                      Please respond to                                         
                            
                      mso                                                       
                      ..... 
                                                                                
                            
                                                                                
                            




Scot--

If I understand your question correctly (and I think I do), that's not the
best way to utilize a relational database (as Access is). Rather than have
all the course info being copied to each employee's record, you would be
better off to have 1) an employee table (which you probably have); 2) a
training session table (which you may have); and 3) a go-between table.
There is a many-to-many relationship between employees and classes; in
other
words, an employee might attend multiple classes, while at the same time a
class might have multiple employees. Each row in the go-between table,
then,
will have *one* employee's ID, and *one* class ID -- nothing more, nothing
less.

This is actually a big part of database design, and learning a little now
will save you *big* in the future; I'd suggest you check Access help for
'many-to-many' relationships, and how best to represent them in a form or
report. You also might want to check into database normalization, which is
a
method of keeping a DB happy and healthy no matter how large it ultimately
gets.

Hope this helps.

--Jim




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