Incorporating a spreadsheet or table into a record

G

Groundhog

I was wondering if there was a way to insert a spreadsheet (or something with
similar spreadsheet or table properties) into an individual record?

I am tring to create a database where each record will contain it's own
subset of data. Kind of a records-within-a-record concept. The people
entering the data will be only somewhat computer literate so I need the
format to be rather simple; something with spreadsheet or table properties.
The kicker is, every record subset will be of different length - anywhere
from four to one hundred and four - or else I would just create individual
fields for what I need.

Does anyone know if Access offers anything like this?
 
S

Sprinks

Groundhog,

Access provides a Hyperlink fieldtype. You could use this to link the
record to a separate file or bookmark.

Sprinks
 
G

Groundhog

Good idea, but I kinda need to be able to view, update, and print everything
at once.
 
S

Sprinks

If the *format* of the related data is consistent, but the number of records
varies, could you define a related table, and display it in a continuous
subform?

Sprinks
 
J

John Vinson

I was wondering if there was a way to insert a spreadsheet (or something with
similar spreadsheet or table properties) into an individual record?

I am tring to create a database where each record will contain it's own
subset of data. Kind of a records-within-a-record concept. The people
entering the data will be only somewhat computer literate so I need the
format to be rather simple; something with spreadsheet or table properties.
The kicker is, every record subset will be of different length - anywhere
from four to one hundred and four - or else I would just create individual
fields for what I need.

Does anyone know if Access offers anything like this?
Click to expand...

Sounds like your table design needs work. It SOUNDS like a one to many
relationship from a "record" to a detail table with multiple records
related to the parent record; but "four to a hundred and four" sounds
like you're not normalizing your data correctly! The child table can
have any number of RECORDS but must have a fixed number of fields.

What are the real-life entities modeled by the record and its
"subrecord"?

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
G

Groundhog

Sorry this took a while to get back to you.

What we do is develop software. Before we release each version we have to
put the software through rigorous testing. The scripts for each test we
perform need to be documented in reports and cataloged for our customer.
Each test script has fairly standard information that I can put into fields
in a record...except for where we lay out, step for step, the actions taken
in each test script. Some scripts are simple, some quite complex, hence the
variable table lengths.

Right now our test scripts are done in Word documents, which is about the
extent of some of our test developers and testers PC knowledge. My only
problem is that, when I do my test reports, I have to re-create a lot of each
script twice in my report. I was just thinking that if I could put all this
in an Access database, I could create a simple VB application for the testers
to open, edit, and update the scripts and I can run my reports straight from
there without recreating and copying what's already been done.

I'll look into your idea of setting up a One-to-Many relationship. I
thought about that at first but I wanted see if there were any simpler
methods.

Thanks.
 
J

John Vinson

What we do is develop software. Before we release each version we have to
put the software through rigorous testing. The scripts for each test we
perform need to be documented in reports and cataloged for our customer.
Each test script has fairly standard information that I can put into fields
in a record...except for where we lay out, step for step, the actions taken
in each test script. Some scripts are simple, some quite complex, hence the
variable table lengths.

Right now our test scripts are done in Word documents, which is about the
extent of some of our test developers and testers PC knowledge. My only
problem is that, when I do my test reports, I have to re-create a lot of each
script twice in my report. I was just thinking that if I could put all this
in an Access database, I could create a simple VB application for the testers
to open, edit, and update the scripts and I can run my reports straight from
there without recreating and copying what's already been done.

I'll look into your idea of setting up a One-to-Many relationship. I
thought about that at first but I wanted see if there were any simpler
methods.
Click to expand...

When you get the hang of it, it IS simpler. A script is just exactly
that - a one (script) to many (steps) relationship. It would be very
simple to implement, and even to import from Word; you'ld have a
Scripts table with a primary key, the name of the script, probably the
program and version which the script is designed to test; and a Steps
table (a single table for all the scripts) with a ScriptID field
(linked to the scripts table), a sequence number (step 1, step 2
etc.), and a text or memo field containing the actual action to be
taken.

Or, if there are a set of standard actions which can be used in many
different scripts, you might have just a table of Actions and store a
link to the Actions table in your Steps table.

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
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