I have a very simple spreadsheet with basically text and date data (no
numbers) for action planning.

Name Action Item ... Date Quarter Notes

Users can use autofilter and sorting to see the data. But, because for some
cells it can be a text data with many words and the cells are not formatted
to show the whole text it would be better to use some reporting functionality
with may be a form. On that form the user could choose the data from
comboboxes he/she wants to see (be sorted) and some reports similar to
Access could be shown.

Could anybody advise the way I could do it?

Thanks

In your question you allude to the best answer. Use Access. With forms and
reports you can provide the user with exactly what they want. Excel is best
suited to analyzing numeric data, which is not what you are trying to do. It
can be done in Excel but it is a whole pile of work to come up with a
solution that will never be as good as what you could do in Access. Just my
two cents...
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

I have a very simple spreadsheet with basically text and date data (no
numbers) for action planning.

Name Action Item ... Date Quarter Notes

Users can use autofilter and sorting to see the data. But, because for some
cells it can be a text data with many words and the cells are not formatted
to show the whole text it would be better to use some reporting functionality
with may be a form. On that form the user could choose the data from
comboboxes he/she wants to see (be sorted) and some reports similar to
Access could be shown.

Could anybody advise the way I could do it?

Thanks

Thanks a lot, Jim.
But, they want to enter data through the Excel spreadsheet and ask me to
create it in Excel.

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

In your question you allude to the best answer. Use Access. With forms and
reports you can provide the user with exactly what they want. Excel is best
suited to analyzing numeric data, which is not what you are trying to do. It
can be done in Excel but it is a whole pile of work to come up with a
solution that will never be as good as what you could do in Access. Just my
two cents...
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

I have a very simple spreadsheet with basically text and date data (no
numbers) for action planning.

Name Action Item ... Date Quarter Notes

Users can use autofilter and sorting to see the data. But, because for some
cells it can be a text data with many words and the cells are not formatted
to show the whole text it would be better to use some reporting functionality
with may be a form. On that form the user could choose the data from
comboboxes he/she wants to see (be sorted) and some reports similar to
Access could be shown.

Could anybody advise the way I could do it?

Thanks

In that case try to create everything as similar to a database as possible.
Do not give the users direct access to the source data (The same way you
would not give users direct access to a table, but rather would create a form
for enetering and extracting data, and reports for presenting that data) When
you create your reports extract the information that you want from the source
data sheet and present it in a seperate sheet. This gives you ultimate
control over the data. Eveything that a user can touch a user can break. You
will possibly have problems with concurrency when two users want to use the
spreadsheet, and Excel is not great at helping you here. You can use the
shared workbook feature but this is a far cry from perfect.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

Thanks a lot, Jim.
But, they want to enter data through the Excel spreadsheet and ask me to
create it in Excel.

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

In your question you allude to the best answer. Use Access. With forms and
reports you can provide the user with exactly what they want. Excel is best
suited to analyzing numeric data, which is not what you are trying to do. It
can be done in Excel but it is a whole pile of work to come up with a
solution that will never be as good as what you could do in Access. Just my
two cents...
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

I have a very simple spreadsheet with basically text and date data (no
numbers) for action planning.

Name Action Item ... Date Quarter Notes

Users can use autofilter and sorting to see the data. But, because for some
cells it can be a text data with many words and the cells are not formatted
to show the whole text it would be better to use some reporting functionality
with may be a form. On that form the user could choose the data from
comboboxes he/she wants to see (be sorted) and some reports similar to
Access could be shown.

Could anybody advise the way I could do it?

Thanks

Thank you very much Jim again.

They want to enter the data directly itnto the spreadsheet. You are right it
can cause some problems but it still can be Ok. The sheet has been created
exactly as a database table. So, I should get any data from there.

But, my problem is I don't have any idea how to create reports from that
data/spreadsheet. Is there any features for report creating in Excel?
You've mentioned I could extract and present that data on a different
spreadsheet.
How could I do this?

Thanks,

Alex

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

In that case try to create everything as similar to a database as possible.
Do not give the users direct access to the source data (The same way you
would not give users direct access to a table, but rather would create a form
for enetering and extracting data, and reports for presenting that data) When
you create your reports extract the information that you want from the source
data sheet and present it in a seperate sheet. This gives you ultimate
control over the data. Eveything that a user can touch a user can break. You
will possibly have problems with concurrency when two users want to use the
spreadsheet, and Excel is not great at helping you here. You can use the
shared workbook feature but this is a far cry from perfect.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

Thanks a lot, Jim.
But, they want to enter data through the Excel spreadsheet and ask me to
create it in Excel.

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

In your question you allude to the best answer. Use Access. With forms and
reports you can provide the user with exactly what they want. Excel is best
suited to analyzing numeric data, which is not what you are trying to do. It
can be done in Excel but it is a whole pile of work to come up with a
solution that will never be as good as what you could do in Access. Just my
two cents...
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

I have a very simple spreadsheet with basically text and date data (no
numbers) for action planning.

Name Action Item ... Date Quarter Notes

Users can use autofilter and sorting to see the data. But, because for some
cells it can be a text data with many words and the cells are not formatted
to show the whole text it would be better to use some reporting functionality
with may be a form. On that form the user could choose the data from
comboboxes he/she wants to see (be sorted) and some reports similar to
Access could be shown.

Could anybody advise the way I could do it?

Thanks

Alex,

If you would like - send me your workbook.
Send a description of what you want and I'll build it for you...
[I have been building report type excel workbooks for years]



--
steveB

Remove "AYN" from email to respond
"Alex" wrote in message
...
Thank you very much Jim again.

They want to enter the data directly itnto the spreadsheet. You are right
it
can cause some problems but it still can be Ok. The sheet has been created
exactly as a database table. So, I should get any data from there.

But, my problem is I don't have any idea how to create reports from that
data/spreadsheet. Is there any features for report creating in Excel?
You've mentioned I could extract and present that data on a different
spreadsheet.
How could I do this?

Thanks,

Alex

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

In that case try to create everything as similar to a database as
possible.
Do not give the users direct access to the source data (The same way you
would not give users direct access to a table, but rather would create a
form
for enetering and extracting data, and reports for presenting that data)
When
you create your reports extract the information that you want from the
source
data sheet and present it in a seperate sheet. This gives you ultimate
control over the data. Eveything that a user can touch a user can break.
You
will possibly have problems with concurrency when two users want to use
the
spreadsheet, and Excel is not great at helping you here. You can use the
shared workbook feature but this is a far cry from perfect.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

Thanks a lot, Jim.
But, they want to enter data through the Excel spreadsheet and ask me
to
create it in Excel.

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

In your question you allude to the best answer. Use Access. With
forms and
reports you can provide the user with exactly what they want. Excel
is best
suited to analyzing numeric data, which is not what you are trying to
do. It
can be done in Excel but it is a whole pile of work to come up with a
solution that will never be as good as what you could do in Access.
Just my
two cents...
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

I have a very simple spreadsheet with basically text and date data
(no
numbers) for action planning.

Name Action Item ... Date Quarter Notes

Users can use autofilter and sorting to see the data. But, because
for some
cells it can be a text data with many words and the cells are not
formatted
to show the whole text it would be better to use some reporting
functionality
with may be a form. On that form the user could choose the data
from
comboboxes he/she wants to see (be sorted) and some reports
similar to
Access could be shown.

Could anybody advise the way I could do it?

Thanks

Thank you Steve, I've sent you that workbook.

"STEVE BELL" wrote:

Alex,

If you would like - send me your workbook.
Send a description of what you want and I'll build it for you...
[I have been building report type excel workbooks for years]



--
steveB

Remove "AYN" from email to respond
"Alex" wrote in message
...
Thank you very much Jim again.

They want to enter the data directly itnto the spreadsheet. You are right
it
can cause some problems but it still can be Ok. The sheet has been created
exactly as a database table. So, I should get any data from there.

But, my problem is I don't have any idea how to create reports from that
data/spreadsheet. Is there any features for report creating in Excel?
You've mentioned I could extract and present that data on a different
spreadsheet.
How could I do this?

Thanks,

Alex

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

In that case try to create everything as similar to a database as
possible.
Do not give the users direct access to the source data (The same way you
would not give users direct access to a table, but rather would create a
form
for enetering and extracting data, and reports for presenting that data)
When
you create your reports extract the information that you want from the
source
data sheet and present it in a seperate sheet. This gives you ultimate
control over the data. Eveything that a user can touch a user can break.
You
will possibly have problems with concurrency when two users want to use
the
spreadsheet, and Excel is not great at helping you here. You can use the
shared workbook feature but this is a far cry from perfect.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

Thanks a lot, Jim.
But, they want to enter data through the Excel spreadsheet and ask me
to
create it in Excel.

"Jim Thomlinson" wrote:

In your question you allude to the best answer. Use Access. With
forms and
reports you can provide the user with exactly what they want. Excel
is best
suited to analyzing numeric data, which is not what you are trying to
do. It
can be done in Excel but it is a whole pile of work to come up with a
solution that will never be as good as what you could do in Access.
Just my
two cents...
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Alex" wrote:

I have a very simple spreadsheet with basically text and date data
(no
numbers) for action planning.

Name Action Item ... Date Quarter Notes

Users can use autofilter and sorting to see the data. But, because
for some
cells it can be a text data with many words and the cells are not
formatted
to show the whole text it would be better to use some reporting
functionality
with may be a form. On that form the user could choose the data
from
comboboxes he/she wants to see (be sorted) and some reports
similar to
Access could be shown.

Could anybody advise the way I could do it?

Thanks