Help With Access

[quinnques]

Hi all. I am a new user of Access and need some help to create a database for work. The database consists of information collected from different schools in both picture and text form. What I was asked to do was create a database that would direct you to photos by identifying keywords. As far as fields I do not know how I should categorize them. For example, say I wanted to pull up photos of classrooms with gypsum board ceilings, do I create a field for all ceiling types or do I create a field for the schools with that specific ceiling type? Also, how do I use access to call out those photos? Any information will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[LacrosseB0ss]

This seems a little complicated for a beginning user. I'm not entirely sure what you're asking for but here is a suggestion. Before I get to that I think your problem is not with Access itself but rather Database Implementation and/or Design. The best way to set up your database is on paper first. Write down anything and everything you want to track about a certain thing. In this case you are looking at a school which probably has an address, a principal, some kids, and ceiling materials.

Once they're all written down, you want to normalize your database. See this normalizing tutorial for more information (great tutorial). Normalizing is simplifying the data by creating new tables and linking them for cleaner data.

After going through this process, if I understand you correctly, I have this proposed solution for your database.

Table #1: School
Fields: SchoolID (address or some factor uniquely identifying it), <other required fields>, CeilingMaterial ID, Photo
Table #2: Materials
Fields: CeilingMaterial ID (use this to link the 2 tables), MatDescription (gypsum, drywall, sheet metal, etc)

And there you have it. What I'd do after that is an SQL query saying "SELECT Photo FROM Schools WHERE Schools.Ceiling MaterialID = Materials.Ceili ngMaterialID AND Materials.MatDe scription = "gypsum"";

Best advice is still check out the normalization stuff. It's not as simple as I described it up top but I've been doing it for a while. I'm also assuming you know how to create a table in Access. If I'm wrong (that happened once before so it could happen again ...) feel free to add another reply.

Hi all. I am a new user of Access and need some help to create a database for work. The database consists of information collected from different schools in both picture and text form. What I was asked to do was create a database that would direct you to photos by identifying keywords. As far as fields I do not know how I should categorize them. For example, say I wanted to pull up photos of classrooms with gypsum board ceilings, do I create a field for all ceiling types or do I create a field for the schools with that specific ceiling type? Also, how do I use access to call out those photos? Any information will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[JConsulting]

Hi all. I am a new user of Access and need some help to create a database for work. The database consists of information collected from different schools in both picture and text form. What I was asked to do was create a database that would direct you to photos by identifying keywords. As far as fields I do not know how I should categorize them. For example, say I wanted to pull up photos of classrooms with gypsum board ceilings, do I create a field for all ceiling types or do I create a field for the schools with that specific ceiling type? Also, how do I use access to call out those photos? Any information will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

you might weigh the cost of your time and effort here against what might already be a fit for your needs. Here's a link to a relatively inexpensive product that I came across googling after reading your question.
http://www.jamiessoftw are.tk/imagealbums/ia_instructions .html

I have no affiliation with this software, and there are tons more out there that may fit your needs even more than that one.

Also, you might explore the template databases that come with the MS Access install disks...and the northwind database. All precoded and easy to set up and use.
J