Which program would be best for this task?

[odahilys]

Hello everyone,

Sorry if I'm posting in the wrong section. This seemed the most proper, because I didn't see any other "general" section. Please forgive me if so, I am new to the forum!

Okay so I am presented with a workplace "problem". Currently, we have 4 different spread sheets with dozens of tabs to track personnel public information, personnel PII, two dozen different columns with training names and almost a hundred rows of people where we mark the date each person completed the training, and a vacation time sheet with all the rows of people.

Is there any way to condense, make more efficient, and pretty everything up? Using excel and very rudimentary at the moment, but I'm trying to make it all look and feel better and more streamlined. Any suggestions? I have the whole MS Suite. I thought about Access but I'm not the best at it, if someone was to point me properly I could learn it no problem.


Thanks!

Edit: Using MS 2007 in the Office but 2013 at home! Everything should be done in 2007 however

[JieJenn]

MS Access is probably the best route to go with this one since you have several Excel files, and each file has several tables. Do you know SQL? Or you can always store the tables in Access and export the data to Excel when you need them.

[odahilys]

MS Access is probably the best route to go with this one since you have several Excel files, and each file has several tables. Do you know SQL? Or you can always store the tables in Access and export the data to Excel when you need them.

Thank you for the swift response!

I agree that Access is the best route. I however am not versed in the program. I spent the weekend learning and I'm lead to believe I know enough to start down a path. I only have soft knowledge in MySQL from my days of forum administration.
We use the spreadsheets at least 20 times a day, and they always need to be readily available. Mostly we focus on one person, but sometimes we need the overall picture to see how many people have completed all required training and who is delinquent.

Given Access is the method, what would be the best path? How would I go about creating a simple to read, quick to use database with all the information required? I made a test by typing up about 20 fields for personnel tracking only, and basically had a simple table. That's as far as I went, but I'm sure there's something better in store.

[JieJenn]

Oh. You don't create a brand new tables. You just link the Excel files to your Access database, so that way all of your table is centralized in one location. MS website has some good information (for once), hopefully the link might help.

Look under Link to data in Excel section
http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/ac...#_Toc269881998

[odahilys]

Oh. You don't create a brand new tables. You just link the Excel files to your Access database, so that way all of your table is centralized in one location. MS website has some good information (for once), hopefully the link might help.

Look under Link to data in Excel section
http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/ac...#_Toc269881998

So I linked a few things, and I have pretty much most of the data linked. How would I put this to use? How do I combine the 4 spreadsheets? Is there even a purpose to doing that?

[JieJenn]

When you say combine, do you mean combine the tables into one master tables?

[odahilys]

When you say combine, do you mean combine the tables into one master tables?

Like I want to see EVERYTHING about a person, pulled from the 4 sheets. I want to see the training they have done, their personal information, and when they are going on vacation.

[JieJenn]

Do you know how to write SQL? In SQL, there is a Union statement where you can combined the tables together, and WHERE clause to specify the criteria.

[odahilys]

Do you know how to write SQL? In SQL, there is a Union statement where you can combined the tables together, and WHERE clause to specify the criteria.

As I said, I'm only familiar with MySQL in forum management, which uses the SQL coding but in specific implementation. I will pool together some information though, now that I've got some direction!