records linked together and categorized

9

99510

I want to make records of documents in an office (that is, hard copies, not
electronic), organise them in categories and subcategories (possibly a
different number of subcategories for different documents) and link related
documents together. Would Access be suited to this problem? Can someone
suggest a better solution?

Thanks very much.
 
L

Larry Linson

If your question means "does Access manipulate hard copies", the answer is
"no".

If you mean "Can I create a database to keep track of and search for the
physical location of hard copy documents, the answer is "YES".

If it means neither of these, please clarify.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access
 
N

Nadia

Yes - Access would do the job perfectly

However...

1. the fact that you are asking the question I presume means you are not
familiar with Access - does the calaloguing merit the learning curve reuired
to use Access? Or the cost required to employ someone to create the database?

2. the value of the Access data will only be as good as the discipline
imposed in keeping it up to date and in sync with the "hard-copy" documents -
don't underestimate the diffficulties required to do this

3. I believe in simplicity - would a "paper" record suffice to do the task -
i.e. keep records of your document categories in "paper written" format?
Amazing what you can do with a loose leaf lever arch folder...

Good Luck

Nadia
 
9

99510

Could you give me some hints as to how I could do this in Access? Not
step-by-step instructions or anything, just give me an idea of what chapter
of my Access book I should turn to.

Thanks for your replies
 
J

John Vinson

I want to make records of documents in an office (that is, hard copies, not
electronic), organise them in categories and subcategories (possibly a
different number of subcategories for different documents) and link related
documents together. Would Access be suited to this problem? Can someone
suggest a better solution?

Thanks very much.
Click to expand...

Access would be quite capable, as Nadia suggests (and heed her caution
about the manual procedures you'll need to keep this up to date!!)

I would start with three tables:

Documents
DocumentID Primary Key <see below>
Title Text
<other identifying info>

Categories
CategoryID Autonumber Primary Key
ParentCategory Long Integer
Category Text

DocumentCategory
DocumentID <link to Documents>
CategoryID <link to Categories>


The DocumentID should be a stable, unique, and short identifier for
the document. You may have a manually assigned ID; if not, I would
suggest using a simple DocumentNumber, a Long Integer field assigned
programmatically. Don't use an Autonumber, they always will have gaps
and aren't suitable for human viewing.

The Categories table as shown will allow sub-, sub-sub-, sub-sub-sub
ad infinitum categories; a "top level" category will have a NULL in
the ParentCategory field, and a subcategory will contain the ID of the
parent category. For instance you could have

CategoryID 317; ParentCategory NULL; Category "Fiction"
CategoryID 9824; ParentCategory 317; Category "Novels"
CategoryID 3398; ParentCategory 9824; Category "Historical Novels"

The DocumentCategory table will let you assign each document to any
desired number of categories.

You may want other tables as well - Authors, StorageLocations, etc.,
depending on your needs.

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
N

Nadia

Can't help you on the manual front - I do not actually have manuals at the
moment - something I need to rectify.

Using Access usually implies the same learning curve whatever the job or
situation - the more you do with Access, the more you discover that you can
do - a voyage of discovery.

I agree with John below re the tables - set these up and take it from there.

You just need to be sure exactly what it is that you require of the database
- what do you need the database to provide for you that you already do not
have? Think this out and set clear objectives for yourself.

From your question I assumed you were cataloguing all sorts of different
types of documentation and paper work. The first challenge is to get clear
naming and sorting categories established in your mind - get it right offline
first how you want to sort and record the paperwork - then get the data and
information recorded onto the database. Then you can work on the reports,
queries etc. that you require.

Get the data into Access first, keep it up to date and relevant, and the
rest will follow.

Good Luck

Nadia
 
N

Nadia

I will post it as a separate question - but this categorising solution below
by John highlights a problem that I am having.

With the solution below, is it possible to run a query/report to list the
categories with their complete sub category information? Example:

Category Name ......... Primary Category/Sub Category/Sub Category/Sub
Category....

Sci FI ------------ Books-Fiction-SciFi
Travel ----------- Books-NonFiction-Lifestyle-Travel
MS Access ---------
Books-NonFiction-Technical-IT-Software-Database-Microsoft-Access
Football -------- Magazine-Monthly-Sport

I can't get around this in my head - how to "pull" this information together
where the relevant "nesting" data is within the same two fields in the same
table.

As it is not possible to pre-determine how many levels of sub-category may
exist in the hierarchy, how do you query it? Would you have to write some
complex code to analyse the data?

The problem relates to a family tree database - the hierarchy is the
parent/child/grandchild...... data.

Nadia.
 
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