Thanks for your feedback. This has prompted me to put together an info
sheet.

Apologies for the delay. I hope you don't all think I've been rude in not
responding until now.

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

"Anne Troy" wrote in message
news:d3427$42cb1e1d$97c5108d$28276@allthenewsgroup s.com...
My poor attempt at humor. Yes, I thought Bill's explanation was way GREAT!
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com
www.MyExpertsOnline.com


"CLR" wrote in message
...
Sorry Anne, and others........I meant no dis-credit to any other
response.
It's just when I read Bill's I felt good about the explanation and the
way
he presented it and felt moved to offer my appreciation.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3




"Anne Troy" wrote in message
news:671be$42cb1950$97c5108d$27426@allthenewsgroup s.com...
I thought so, too, but didn't want to diminish anyone else's, including
my
own (by comparison) lame-o!
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com
www.MyExpertsOnline.com


"CLR" wrote in message
...
Nice response Bill.........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3


"Bill Ridgeway" wrote in message
...
It can be argued that the proper place for a database is database
management
software like Access but I use Excel extensively for this purpose
and,
at
least for me, it works well.

If you think of the old record cards, all the information on the
card
is
a
record. Each piece of information on the card is a field.

On a spreadsheet each row is a record and each column holds a piece
of
information so is a field.

It is important to design a spreadsheet not just type everything
in.
By
design I mean stop, have a cup of tea and think about what is
wanted.
This
cane be defined as input (data to be put in) and output (what you
want
to
do
with the date - including pivot tables charts etc.) What you are
doing
is
the middle bit and now you can appreciate that if you don't get all
three
elements designed properly you'll be foerever tampering with it to
get
it
right.

On the input side I would recommend that you split data as much as
possible.
For a person's name you will need a field each for
"Miss/Mr/Mrs/Ms",
First
name, Initial, Family name. For the address you will need a field
for
"Building", "DP1" (Distribution point1 - House number), "DP2"
(Distribution
point2 - Road), "Dependent locality" (locale), "PostTown",
"Postcode".
It
is easy to bundle information together but this approach ensures
that
you
don't have to unbundle it when trying to analyse date. The rest of
the
field are up to you but bear in mind my comment on splitting data.

On the output side I can't comment as I don't know the purpose to
which
data
is being put.

Hope this helps.
Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

"Kenn Holmberg" <Kenn wrote in
message
...
I am a new user, and am required to create an Excel database. Any
hints
would
be helpful. The online documents are not clear. Also, where is
the
"Field
button" ?I am using 2003 Standard Edition.