Storing Addresses

[blueboy2001]

I am currently designing a contacts database for my business and need some advice on how to store addresses.

As I see it, I can either use a single field and carriage returns, or multiple fields which for some records may leave some blank fields.

The data will be used to perform mailmerges and will also be output to a contacts directory and I would be looking to display the address both horizontally and vertically. Is there a simple way of manipulating a multi line field so that it can be displayed on a form across the page on one line in a report?

 

[databasedonr]

I'd suggest you use multiple fields, and depending on your application, and address table. How many addresses do you need for each contact? Home, Work, Cottage, Pied-a-terre? If you only need one, then I guess you could get away without a separate table....

I always use fields like:

Address1
Address2
City
Prov/State
PCode
Country

which works for most addresses: example

Unit 47
121 Main Street
Toronto
ON
M7W 1E4
Canada

To display them on a single line is dead easy using contatenation, ex.:

=[Address1] & " " & [Address2] ... etc.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I concur with databasedonr

MailMerge, if you specify it IN THE WORD TEMPLATE, can automatically suppress and re-align addresses even if one of the fields is blank. (Like, no apartment number 'cause the address is a single-family residence, e.g.)

Look into the formatting options IN WORD HELP to figure out how to do this. Access just supplies the data here. WORD is doing most of the work, so that's where you'll go to find the options for output.