On Mon, 28 May 2007 03:57:06 -0600, "Albert D. Kallal"
wrote:

In addition to what I posted, the question becomes how normalized you want
your data to be.

Further, do you have provisions for the actors in movie? Do you want to be
able to search by actors?

The normal approach here is to import the data, and then decide if you want
to re-form the data to multiple tables. or, if you just want to keep your
simple data as you have.

My data is not simple. The main view sheet looks at about twelve sheets
for its compilation.

Each "table" (sheet) is comprised of a single ID column (field) and some
data, like title or such. That would be quite normalized if I were to
import each of those tables into access as separate tables, no?

All I would have to do presumably is tie them all together with the ID
field, which is the unique identifier for each.

It is not clear if you have "repeating" data for a single dvd (by repeating,
I mean "many" actors can be attached to one movie).

I intend on incorporating an actors list for each title as well. In
that table, each actor would have a list of ID numbers associated with
each film he or she has appeared in. So, it would be a "many to one".
Problem is that I knew how to set up such relationships in Paradox quite
easily, as I was used to the API, and interface for construction of the
database app.

In Access, I am lost on this. I tried once to create some relationships
and got a crash, so I am thinking of making a spreadsheet that is just a
small sample of my current massive workbook, and getting it going with
that, then filling in the data later.


if you just have a plain
Jane flat file without any repeating data, then the import is easy.

I had no problem importing excel sheets into tables in access. I did
have a problem with my main view sheet because it was oriented vertically
on a field by field basis, instead of across like most sheets, and access
puked on that import.

The thing I am having a problem with is that access wants to put its own
ID field in front of mine, and making the relationships between tables,
and finally, form construction to view all the data one "film" record at
a time. I can add the search features later.

If you
have "repeating" data for a single dvd, then more efforts in design will be
needed.

No. Each title has a single ID number, and several pieces of data to go
with it, like UPC code, sound, aspect, etc.

The actor's table will be the only place where a given ID number will
be repeated many times.


As for the link to the image field, I would actually just leave that as a
normal text field. You can then place a image control on the form..and it
will display the image for you.

Yes. Something that in excel required a visual basic macro as the
images float over fields (cells), not in them.


Take a look at the sample. And, if you want to get fancy, you could have the
data base pull the data from the IMDB (so, you can have a list of actors
etc. for your DVD's, but don't have to type them in).

I have a complete database. I have a complete actors list and
directors list. I just need to piece them together in access, and am
having a hard time getting started with it. The crash/lockup was one
thing, so I'll start with a concatenated set of films instead of my
entire spreadsheet when I go to establish all the relationships, which is
where it crashed last time.