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Old 12-03-2003, 04:45 AM
Karen
 
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Default tracking Magazine articles

Ted Byers wrote:
Karen wrote in message ...

I now have a hefty pile of Orchid and The Orchid Digest Magazines and I
want to organize them on a database somehow so that if I have a question
I can refer back to a specific article. I am always so impressed by
people who can pull journal references out for other people to refer to.

Currently I have Access and Excel 2000 on my computer. Is there anything
reasonably priced out there that anyone can point me towards that is not
to hard to set up and use?

Karen



Karen,

How familiar are you with Access 2000? Since you have it, and it
ain't cheap (I KNOW, as I have it too), you might as well make use of
it. If you are an experienced database developer, you could probably
work up a proper data model, and relevant tables and queries, in a
matter of a few hours. If you've never done it before, it might take
you a few weeks, or longer (depending on whether or not you're a
perfectionist), but that is well worth the experience. The most time
consuming part of the task, though, is entering the data. While you
could scan some of the data in, as some have suggested, I find that
would take much longer than if I just typed the data in manually.

To start, you probably want to sit down, away from the computer, with
a notepad, and make some notes on how you do a search through your
magazines manually. Then draw a sketch or two of the relationships
between the various pieces of information. Then you are in a position
to begin making your first (of many ;-) version of your tables.

As I develop software for a living, and I have Access 2000 (along with
the rest of MS Office), I can point you to a few books that you may
find helpful. Or, if your query is not time sensitive, you can ask me
and I wil help you out as time permits (I can't guarantee a speedy
response, especially on weekdays when my workday is often in excess of
12 hours). After all, why pay money for some other product when you
already have a product that, if used well, will meet your needs? With
data of the sort you describe, it will be hard to get it wrong.

Cheers,

Ted


I have done one database in my life. It was not bad and it is still in
use by my former employer. That said, I would not consider myself a good
database programer.

That is why I was looking at something basic that I could purchase that
I could input the info I have into it.
Karen