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I am a Newbie completely to Access 2007. I want to create a database to keep track of my Associates attendance and production. Please hlep me I am almost in tears trying to figure out exactly how to work Access. I have read a few books but I am still lost..........Please someone help me find my way.:mad:
 
access is a do-it-yourself program. unless you start with a template, you're on your own. it is not like any other program where you start off with something on the screen. there is absolutely nothing when you start access. there is nothing anyone can do to help you if you read and still dont understand what it is about. I would suggest maybe hiring someone to do it.
 
when i first started out, i picked up a copy of "Microsoft Access 2000 for Dummies" for 50c at an op shop. read it without skipping anything (even if i thought i already knew it), did ALL the exercises (even if i thought they'd take too much time) and then started by putting together a few tables.

then i cried.

then i found this forum :)

if you need help, please be specific about what you have already done, what problem you are having (try to present just one at a time) and what you have tried in order to fix the problem you're having.

e.g., "i can't make this database, can you help" will not get you far but:

"i have xxx table and yyy table and i want a query that picks out any records that are only zzz... i've tried blah but it didn't work and i can't find anything in google using the keywords blah or bhle. can anyone point me in the right direction?" is much better.

;)

good luck with your project. we look forward to helping you to become proficient in access :)
 
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Agnieszka

Thanks for the tips!!!

So I have created a database with the following tables
Employee
Employee id
Last name
First name
Address
City
State
Zipcode
Home Phone
DateHired

For my Attendance Tracking i have created 3 tables in order to track my associates attendance
Floating holiday
EmployeeID
Floating holiday---in put date it was taken
Unplanned Excused
EmployeeID
Unplanned#1-in put each was taken
Unplanned#2
Unplanned#3
Unplanned#4
Unplanned$5
Unplanned#6
Unplanned#7
Unplanned#8
Unplanned#9
Unplanned#10

Unexcused
It is in the same format as the unplanned

My Production table is

Production
EmployeeID
Week1---input associates production
Week2--"" ""
Week3--""
and so on until i have reached 52 weeks

So am I on the right track? Where I am kind of getting confused at is all my tables related just by the employeeID or do I need to set up my tables in a different manner so that I don't have the employeeID in each one of the tables?
 
So am I on the right track? Where I am kind of getting confused at is all my tables related just by the employeeID or do I need to set up my tables in a different manner so that I don't have the employeeID in each one of the tables?

you definitely need to read up on normalisation. at the moment, it looks like you've not normalised your data (table structure) to the ideal extent.

i've a few links in my signature that will help you.

a quick tip for normalisation: if you have fields called the same but with a number after it (like: Surname, MyField#1, MyField#2, MyField#3) it would suggest that you need a separate table for MyField.

This new table would have a minimum two fields: MyFieldID and MyField. then, the "MyField#1, MyField#2..." etc become RECORDS in this new table, rather than fields.

i know it's a little confusing. it's something that people new to relational databases, like access (as opposed to flat-file databases, like excel), find especially difficult to get their head around (and i should add 'myself included when i was starting out') - hence the prominent links in my signature for normalisation. the images help :)
 
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I would suggest that you might like to set up one table ( as you already have)It would contain the details for each employee. Another table with type of work or leave that they are on or work they are doing


A third table could collect the data that you are trying to record
eg

Employee id, date ,start_time, finish_time, work_type, comment

employee_id and work type come from the other tables,

This would allow you to collect what you need , if I understand you correctly

Hope that helps
Geoff
 
i should have specifically answered your EmployeeID question - wherever you want to relate a record from one table to your employees, you will need to include the EmployeeID. the idea of the EmployeeID is that you don't have to write out all the employee's details in every table in every record - instead you just put the one ID.

(e.g., "1" vs "Mr. Harry John Ferris, 12/2356 Unit Drive Alabama USA").

The idea here is that "1" will always be Mr Ferris, regardless of whether he changes is address, see.

This was a rather simplistic example, but it holds true for other things - the point being that the PK ID ought to always be autonumber, in case other parts in that record change (a Miss A could get married and become a Mrs B - she's still the same person, and her records are still hers, and her PK ID will remain unchanged, but if you use Employee Name as your PK what would you do about Miss A?).

one very good example is when ISBN standards changed from ISBN-10 to ISBN-13: i don't think anyone thought it would ever change, it was soooooo standard. but it did. and if you used autonumber ID, you'd be fine - but if you use ISBN as your primary key you'd be stuffed b/c you'd have to change it not only at the PK site, but in all the FK sites too, so that access (or other relational DBs) could still tell that it was the same book, but just that the standard reference to it had changed.
 
Employee table looks good, just get rid of the spaces in the field names (I made a few other changes).

tblEmployees
EmployeeID
EmployeeLastName
EmployeeFirstName
EmployeeAddress
EmployeeCity
EmployeeState
EmplooyeZip
EmployeeHomePhone
DateHired

For your attendance, I am not really sure what you are trying to do with those three tables, but here is how I would do it.

tblAbsenses
AbsenseID (primary)
EmployeeId (foreign)
AbsenseDate
Excused (boolean)
Requested (boolean)
Reason

For production, I definitely do not think you want to count out to 52. Dont think of a table as a spreadsheet.

tblProduction
ProductionID (primary)
EmployeeID (foreign)
ProductionDate
Quantity
Other
 

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