I have found that Excel has some excellent capabilities as a database.
However, it seems to me that it is not so good if you need a free text area.
For example, space to write a few notes about a particular record - perhaps a
paragraph or two. Am I right in saying this? Perhaps somebody can prove me
wrong. If so, I'd be grateful if you could point me in the direction of a
sample Excel database which uses text well!

Excel is not a database processor. It is a spreadsheet processor. There is a
great deal of difference between a database and a spreadsheet. If you want
to have a database, Access may be an option.

Tyro

"C Tate" wrote in message
...
I have found that Excel has some excellent capabilities as a database.
However, it seems to me that it is not so good if you need a free text
area.
For example, space to write a few notes about a particular record -
perhaps a
paragraph or two. Am I right in saying this? Perhaps somebody can prove me
wrong. If so, I'd be grateful if you could point me in the direction of a
sample Excel database which uses text well!

You can put notes in a cell and things should work ok.

If your notes are pretty long (more than 1000 characters), you may find that you
can't see all the text in the cell.

But you can add alt-enters (to force new lines within the cell) every 80-100
characters so you can see lots more than 1000 characters.

But excel doesn't make much of a word processor.



C Tate wrote:

I have found that Excel has some excellent capabilities as a database.
However, it seems to me that it is not so good if you need a free text area.
For example, space to write a few notes about a particular record - perhaps a
paragraph or two. Am I right in saying this? Perhaps somebody can prove me
wrong. If so, I'd be grateful if you could point me in the direction of a
sample Excel database which uses text well!

--

Dave Peterson

Nor a database processor

Tyro

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
You can put notes in a cell and things should work ok.

If your notes are pretty long (more than 1000 characters), you may find
that you
can't see all the text in the cell.

But you can add alt-enters (to force new lines within the cell) every
80-100
characters so you can see lots more than 1000 characters.

But excel doesn't make much of a word processor.



C Tate wrote:

I have found that Excel has some excellent capabilities as a database.
However, it seems to me that it is not so good if you need a free text
area.
For example, space to write a few notes about a particular record -
perhaps a
paragraph or two. Am I right in saying this? Perhaps somebody can prove
me
wrong. If so, I'd be grateful if you could point me in the direction of a
sample Excel database which uses text well!

--

Dave Peterson

I bet millions of users have used it as a container for a flat file database.

Tyro wrote:

Nor a database processor

Tyro

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
You can put notes in a cell and things should work ok.

If your notes are pretty long (more than 1000 characters), you may find
that you
can't see all the text in the cell.

But you can add alt-enters (to force new lines within the cell) every
80-100
characters so you can see lots more than 1000 characters.

But excel doesn't make much of a word processor.



C Tate wrote:

I have found that Excel has some excellent capabilities as a database.
However, it seems to me that it is not so good if you need a free text
area.
For example, space to write a few notes about a particular record -
perhaps a
paragraph or two. Am I right in saying this? Perhaps somebody can prove
me
wrong. If so, I'd be grateful if you could point me in the direction of a
sample Excel database which uses text well!

--

Dave Peterson

--

Dave Peterson

A flat file is not a database. It is a flat file. Perhaps you might want to
look into databases, especially realational databases
Tyro

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
I bet millions of users have used it as a container for a flat file
database.

Tyro wrote:

Nor a database processor

Tyro

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
You can put notes in a cell and things should work ok.

If your notes are pretty long (more than 1000 characters), you may find
that you
can't see all the text in the cell.

But you can add alt-enters (to force new lines within the cell) every
80-100
characters so you can see lots more than 1000 characters.

But excel doesn't make much of a word processor.



C Tate wrote:

I have found that Excel has some excellent capabilities as a database.
However, it seems to me that it is not so good if you need a free text
area.
For example, space to write a few notes about a particular record -
perhaps a
paragraph or two. Am I right in saying this? Perhaps somebody can
prove
me
wrong. If so, I'd be grateful if you could point me in the direction
of a
sample Excel database which uses text well!

--

Dave Peterson

--

Dave Peterson

Thanks for the suggestion.

I'd bet when people use excel as a database, it looks more like a flat file--not
a relational database.



Tyro wrote:

A flat file is not a database. It is a flat file. Perhaps you might want to
look into databases, especially realational databases
Tyro

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
I bet millions of users have used it as a container for a flat file
database.

Tyro wrote:

Nor a database processor

Tyro

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
You can put notes in a cell and things should work ok.

If your notes are pretty long (more than 1000 characters), you may find
that you
can't see all the text in the cell.

But you can add alt-enters (to force new lines within the cell) every
80-100
characters so you can see lots more than 1000 characters.

But excel doesn't make much of a word processor.



C Tate wrote:

I have found that Excel has some excellent capabilities as a database.
However, it seems to me that it is not so good if you need a free text
area.
For example, space to write a few notes about a particular record -
perhaps a
paragraph or two. Am I right in saying this? Perhaps somebody can
prove
me
wrong. If so, I'd be grateful if you could point me in the direction
of a
sample Excel database which uses text well!

--

Dave Peterson

--

Dave Peterson

--

Dave Peterson

How do you want the text to be displayed? For yourself or some other user?

I find that if I have lots of text in a cell which I cant see, I just press
F2 and the formula bar expands to reveal all.

"C Tate" wrote:

I have found that Excel has some excellent capabilities as a database.
However, it seems to me that it is not so good if you need a free text area.
For example, space to write a few notes about a particular record - perhaps a
paragraph or two. Am I right in saying this? Perhaps somebody can prove me
wrong. If so, I'd be grateful if you could point me in the direction of a
sample Excel database which uses text well!