With Word, you can only have a table in the document, so it is very easy to accidentally delete work. Like wise with PowerPoint.
I could have used Excel, however, it is mainly designed for creating spreadsheets. I cannot identify a Key Field in Excel.
The other benefits and advantages of using Access is that I can create searches and extract information that I require from my database, at basically a click of a button.
Overall, Access is a very simple and easy to use program that will allow me create the best possible database.
Analysis of the problem: In order to deal with the problem, I have had to think about what needs to be in the database, how the database will be used and what I intend to be able to get out of the database.
- Information that’s going to have to be in the database:
- The Names of products in the store cupboard
- How many there are in stock
- Where they were bought from
- The suppliers telephone number
- What price are (new)
- How long it takes to deliver
- What the product code is
- The location of them
- The Min Quantity
- The Max Quantity
- The Re-Order Quantity
- How the database will be used:
- It will be used by the head of drama, possibly other staff, and the chief technicians
- It will be used to monitor what stock is in the store
- It will be used to alert people when stock is short
- It can be used as an itinerary of all the products that the Technical team have
- What do I want out of the system:
- To be able to clearly see the information stored in the system in a clear table
- To have the opportunity to display the information in a well set out form
- To be able to print records of stock, as well as the whole system
- To be able to search the system for certain records
- To be able to alert the user of low stock
- To be able to create queries to search the system
- To be able to create reports to display information
Information that I am going to have to collect:
In order to fill in my Database, I am going to have to acquire the following information:
- The Names of products in the store cupboard
- How many there are in stock
- Where they were bought from
- The suppliers telephone number
- What price are (new)
- How long it takes to deliver
- What the product code is
- The location of them
- The Min Quantity
- The Max Quantity
- The Re-Order Quantity
To acquire this information, I am going to have to use the store itinerary that is in the store cupboard, and then update this list to what we have now. I will also have to gather the prices by looking through suppliers catalogues.
Back-up Procedures: When I am creating this database, it is important that I do not loose the work that I am working on. To do this, there are a number of things that I can do:
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Use an online data- backup program. This is a very good way of backing up data, as your computer automatically connects to a special server, and creates a backup of everything that you have saved. People who have subscribed to the service can only use this.
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Save to floppy disks. This creates another hard copy of the database, however, they are not very large, so cannot store large databases.
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Save to CD-R’s. By saving a copy of the database to a CD-R, then you again get another hard copy of the database. CD-R’s can save larger files than floppy disks.
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Save to Zip-Drive. This is similar to saving to floppy discs, but can save larger files again.
The methods that I am going to use to back-up my database, is save to CD-R’s. This way, I can be sure that there is a hard copy of my database, in case something goes wrong with my main pc.
Keeping My Database safe: When some databases are built, it is important to keep the information safe, in order to prevent unauthorised access. For my database, I will set a user password, which means that only people with a password will be able to open it. To do this, I did the following steps:
File: Open
Now, in the “Tools” menu toolbar, you can select:
Now when you open the Database, the following message appears:
And you can
enter the
password
Designing the table: