New software for DBZ

[DanDBZ]

Hi,

My name is Dan and i am an electrical estimator who builds tenders on a spreadsheet (which was built from MrExcel a long time ago).

I am looking at upgrading to something like a desktop app and have heard that Micro access can do what i am after. I have an excel file that has over 500,000 rows of data that i am trying to access on a screen. i have many ideas and want to know if someone is happy to help build this with me? i can provide a wire frame or scope if required?

Dan

 

[Micron]

One of the most important concepts for you to grasp may be that Excel based thinking will be a detriment to your progress. Basically, worksheet data is assembled in columns whereas database data is arranged in rows, so you pretty much need to forget what you know about Excel for this. The idea is to identify the entities of the business at hand and create a table for each, which is another way of saying the db needs to be normalized.

So, not sure what level of help you're looking for vs how much you're able to do yourself. This can be a rather large effort for communicating in a forum, or someone could step up here and offer something they've already created for your type of business. I think you should write a narrative on the nature of the business, avoiding jargon as much as possible. I really recommend doing this outside of this thread (Word or Notepad) then dumping the text into your thread. Remember that your words will be all we've got to go on at first, so taking a day or more and going back to reflect on how it reads might help. There might be a model here that looks like what you want, provided you understand the way it is presented.

I also have a lot of design related links on normalization, naming things, primary key fields, autonumbers etc. if you aren't up to speed on good db design.