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View Full Version : Excel/Word or move to Access; opinions sought (not really VBA sorry).



MissRibena
08-04-2006, 01:46 PM
Not really sure if this is even the right site to post this, so sorry in advance if I'm getting on your nerves.

I have an excel spreadsheet that I use in a list form to track the status of open orders and provide a history for closed ones. I just use Autofilter to pull up whatever info I want. Because it's only me and my boss, I never had to really worry about someone over-writing the raw data. However, we're expanding and more and more people are relying on the information on my spreadsheet. Now we are using it as a mailmerge with Word for creating daily delivery notes, packing labels etc. This works fine but it's not very elegant and it's definitely not intuitive (and you get nasty DDE warnings when initialising the mailmerge doc and a link from the spreadsheet to initialise the word doc times out).

Is there a better way of doing it? I've thought about using excel to create the delivery notes, with macros and Vlookups to paste the data from the "main spreadsheet" for each individual order. It's do-able I think but a lot of work.

What do people usually do? Is this just the time to move the whole thing to Access? I'd gain a lot of flexibility with multiple tables and secruity but would need to set up queries etc to view the kind of info I now have at a glance in a spreadsheet.

Rebecca

lucas
08-05-2006, 09:35 AM
Hi Rebecca,
If I understand your question....your trying to use the data in your spreadsheet to make labels, etc..correct?

If so you can just create a new access database and import(file-get external data-import...don't forget to tell it to look for excel files)the excel sheets as tables.....then go to reports and click on "New" and select the label wizard, etc. its all set up for it and you can select the tables you wish to use. Hope this is what you were looking for.

mdmackillop
08-16-2006, 12:36 AM
And when you get there, instead of doing a mailmerge with word, you can place an image of your document as a background to a report and just place the Access fields on top of it. This runs a lot quicker.

MissRibena
08-16-2006, 01:12 AM
Thanks guys.

I've started creating the database in Access but it is getting really complicated really quickly. To replicate the way I use the data in excel and achieve the extra functionality of Access is harder than I thought. But I shall persevere.

Love the idea about the word image with access fields on top.

Thanks again
Rebecca