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#1
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Multiple references
I'm struggling with designing a spreadsheet. I am cataloging quotes referred
to in various speeches and organizing them by topic. My columns look like this: Topic Quote Original Reference LDS Reference My problem is two fold. First when I have the same quotation referenced by two different speakers. Duplicating the original reference seems redundant but is it necessary for recording the raw data. The second problem is when a quote covers multiple topics. If something refers to both pride and weakness. I can't put both topics in the same cell and filter for pride because it records pride, weakness as a single entry. I am expecting this to get to over a thousand quotes and need my design to support that much data so having three topics columns is a pain. Is that the only way? I've been through tutorials and looked everywhere and am still in a quandry. Do I just record everything separate and then use various sorting methods and pivot table to interpret the data? HELP!!!! |
#2
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Multiple references
It's seductive to use Excel for things like this, since Excel offers a
familiar and comfortable interface. However, you are describing a problem that really MUST go into a database - think MS Access. Within the database you would have (at least) 3 tables: one for the quotes' text, one for the key words, and one for the citations/references. Common between the three tables would be a column that uniquely identifies each quote - call it QuoteID. So, the main Quotes table would have columns for: QuoteID, QuoteText, OriginalReference The KeyWords table would have 2 columns: QuoteID, KeyWord The References table would have (at least) 2 columns, QuoteID, LDS_Reference With these tables you add a unique quote once to the Quotes table, add as many distinct keywords as you need to the Keywords table, and cite it as often as appropriate in the References table. It is a simple matter then to find every quote sharing the keyword pride, or that is marked with both pride AND weakness "Christine Thackeray" wrote: I'm struggling with designing a spreadsheet. I am cataloging quotes referred to in various speeches and organizing them by topic. My columns look like this: Topic Quote Original Reference LDS Reference My problem is two fold. First when I have the same quotation referenced by two different speakers. Duplicating the original reference seems redundant but is it necessary for recording the raw data. The second problem is when a quote covers multiple topics. If something refers to both pride and weakness. I can't put both topics in the same cell and filter for pride because it records pride, weakness as a single entry. I am expecting this to get to over a thousand quotes and need my design to support that much data so having three topics columns is a pain. Is that the only way? I've been through tutorials and looked everywhere and am still in a quandry. Do I just record everything separate and then use various sorting methods and pivot table to interpret the data? HELP!!!! |
#3
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Multiple references
Thank you.
I was afraid of that answer but I think you are right Christine "Duke Carey" wrote: It's seductive to use Excel for things like this, since Excel offers a familiar and comfortable interface. However, you are describing a problem that really MUST go into a database - think MS Access. Within the database you would have (at least) 3 tables: one for the quotes' text, one for the key words, and one for the citations/references. Common between the three tables would be a column that uniquely identifies each quote - call it QuoteID. So, the main Quotes table would have columns for: QuoteID, QuoteText, OriginalReference The KeyWords table would have 2 columns: QuoteID, KeyWord The References table would have (at least) 2 columns, QuoteID, LDS_Reference With these tables you add a unique quote once to the Quotes table, add as many distinct keywords as you need to the Keywords table, and cite it as often as appropriate in the References table. It is a simple matter then to find every quote sharing the keyword pride, or that is marked with both pride AND weakness "Christine Thackeray" wrote: I'm struggling with designing a spreadsheet. I am cataloging quotes referred to in various speeches and organizing them by topic. My columns look like this: Topic Quote Original Reference LDS Reference My problem is two fold. First when I have the same quotation referenced by two different speakers. Duplicating the original reference seems redundant but is it necessary for recording the raw data. The second problem is when a quote covers multiple topics. If something refers to both pride and weakness. I can't put both topics in the same cell and filter for pride because it records pride, weakness as a single entry. I am expecting this to get to over a thousand quotes and need my design to support that much data so having three topics columns is a pain. Is that the only way? I've been through tutorials and looked everywhere and am still in a quandry. Do I just record everything separate and then use various sorting methods and pivot table to interpret the data? HELP!!!! |
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