Dear Lazyweb,

[sillygoosegirl]

Anyone out there know how to use Access?

I'm trying to do some really basic things, like fill in values to one cell when another cell is changed (like you might do in Excel really easily), but I can't seem to make it happen... even after an embarrassingly large number of hours trying. Eventually I'd like to do this across a few tables and whatnot, maybe use some SQL stuff, but anything to get me going on the syntax and stuff would be great...

Comments

[nemene.livejournal.com]

Access is a database not a spreedsheet, so having calulated values based on another value is actually a very complicated task, not an easy one.

[mandyessa.livejournal.com]

I have used Access alot, and he is right, it is a database, so you can put information in and pull up reports; however, interdependent information is not neccessarily desirable in a database, usually you want to be able to pull up raw data to compare or analize. What is your goal? I would feel better telling you if you could use it to reach your goal and the easiest way to do that.

[sillygoosegirl.livejournal.com]

There are a few things I'm trying to do, but the easiest and probably most important to me is to copy data out of a template table into a line in the database. So, for example, rent is always $900 paid to Kathy with a check and part of the housing budget category, and I have that information stored in the template, so I want to be able to just enter a mnemonic of "rent" and auto populate the database based on that (leaving me only needing to type in the date). I want to actually copy the data in because even though rent is always $900 this year, it'll be something a little different next year. Some transactions will be entered completely from scratch, and a lot will have a less complete template (phone bill is the same company each month from the same account and the same budget category, but a varying amount).

[kitty-tape.livejournal.com]

On an unrelated note...

FYI, I have friended you. Because, slowly and surely, I am actually acting on that "ahh! Mudder I know! Should friend!" impulse that I am usually to lazy to act on.

(And in case you do not remember me: Erika, spent a lot of time in east junior year. Now one of the many Seattle Mudders.)