Microsoft Access Database

[CaptMango]

Hi,

Last year on an engineering summer placement I made a database (ish) using Excel - so really it wasn't a database at all. It was just a spreadsheet with hyperlinks in it

It was basically an excel sheet that listed all the drainage systems the company was contracted to look after. It had the location of each one, the type, the maintenance procedures, last inspection date, photos etc. I used hyperlinks to open pdf files that I made which showed a map of location, the design specification, photos. For the last inspection date I put a hyperlink in that just linked to a particular folder which then contained all the previous inspection reports. Then when a new one is added the user just clicked on the last inspection date and copied their report into the folder it opened, and then changed the date on the spread sheet.

The problem with this is there is a strong possibility someone will come along and ruin all the hyperlinks etc and its not really the right thing for the job.

Therefore I want to do this in access. Can anyone show me some good tutorials or advise me on how I can get access to do this? IE you open the document, it shows a list of all the available drainage systems with brief location type and last inspection date, you go to the one you are interested in, click on it, and then another window opens which has tabs or something which goes into more detail on location design spec etc, and the user can upload their latest inspection report or put comments in? (I hope you understood this)

Also if anyone has any standard templates for something like this (Access 2003). I suppose it would be similar to soemthing like a fixed asset management database.

I am not an IT student, I am an engineering student but I would say I am pretty advanced with computers although I've never used Access

thanks

 

[Steve2000]

It's been a while since I've even opened an Access database but I think what you are looking for here is a single database with multiple tables, and relationships set up between those tables. I made something simalar a while ago whereby you choose from the list in Table A, click the little + symbol next to it and it extends the contents of Table B in relation to the item you've just clicked.

There should be some decent guides on relationships if you Google around a bit.

 

[RockLobster]

Hi CaptMango

I've knocked something up for you, nothing fancy just to get you going. I can't finish it now because I don't have a particular feature installed for my Access 2003 so I'll finish it in work tomorrow. Email me:. and I'll send it to you.