[mso] Re: Database or Spreadsheet
- From: Cathy.Evans@xxxxxxxxx
- To: mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 13:16:12 -0400
My 2 cents . . . (worth about half!) :)
Excel and Access both have their value, it depends on what your role is,
and your relationship to the capturing, maintenance and reporting of data
for your project/company. If you know Excel, can whip up something fast
and send it out, go for it! It's easy to figure things out fast and make
them look good and get the totals you want. Usually the next person you
send it to is familiar enough with Excel to do what they need with it. My
boss understood the need for data to be captured and maintained for
reporting, so she bought me Access and sent me to class. She did not need
nor want to take the time to learn it herself. That is probably the
biggest difference, is that most people do not come into contact with
Access on a daily basis unless it is a part of their job or will be, such
as what happened to me.
Now that I know Access and what it can do, if I'm going to handle the same
data more than once and am going to want to look at it in a variety of
ways, I get it into Access so I can do various reporting. Can always
export it to Excel if charts/other fancy things needed. If the data is
going to build and grow and be a life in itself, it needs to get into
Access so you can care for it. If it's a one time passing through, you
won't see it again, won't need it again, use whatever is fastest and most
comfortable.
I use Access side by side with Excel, they are my 'team'. Many times I
copy my access tables and paste into an excel sheet to check my totals
before finalizing my query/report, due to sometimes if you are not careful,
and you think you are summarizing things OK in access and don't have your
table relationships right, things can happen. I cut/paste back and forth
all the time from Excel to Access, sometimes to convert dates/numbers I've
copied from an email table or a word table, using Excel to quickly
format/copy/manipulate before pasting back to Access. Prefer calculations
in Access, mostly because once Excel came along, I went pretty much
straight from Lotus 123 to Access and (I still use the convert Lotus 123
formulas feature in Excel). If there's data that needs to be captured,
whether from text or table or other source, Excel is great for grabbing it
and putting it into a format to either import or paste into Access. The
copy/fill series function in Excel works great to add things to your data
before putting back into Access.
They compliment each other and both have their strengths. In my situation,
I receive work from a variety of sources/formats and usually turn it around
for them in the application they need, then capture the data in Access for
further reporting/mail merges/labels/etc. Also export most of my queries
and reports to Excel because the other users who need to use/manipulate
the data are more comfortable with Excel. Once they do their changes, I
use Access to capture their revised data. That way, we're both happy!
"Peter Chiavaro"
<kp@xxxxxxxx> To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by:
mso-bounce@freelist cc:
s.org
06/08/2004 06:52 AM Subject: [mso] Database or
Spreadsheet
Please respond to
mso
.....
Hello fellow Office Dweebs.
I am amazed at the amount of people that are using a spreadsheet
when (I think) they should be using a database. I'm not real sure
about this but it looks like (to me anyway) most of the questions
from people using Excel, look like the people should be using
Access. I don't understand. It could be that that I have no idea
what I'm talking about because I have never used Excel. I have no
idea "what" to use it for let alone HOW to use it. I "think" it's
good for formulas, as in making Ice cream. So much sugar, so much
milk, so much flavoring etc.
Can someone explain what the difference is between a spreadsheet
and a database? My MAIN question would be; what is it that Excel
can do that Access CAN'T. If someone could answer that one
question, I'd be very happy.
I've always been curious about this but have always been afraid to
show my ignorance.
Peter C.
Stuart, FL
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The information transmitted is intended only for the person
or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential
and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient
of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review,
retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any
action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you
received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the
material from any computer. Any views expressed in this message
are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect
the views of the company.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*************************************************************
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
*************************************************************
Other related posts:
