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Access 2007 Database to inventory, catagorize, and search by keyword

Hi,

I am a member of a Church and have been given the priveledge and responsibility of maintaining a plethera of recorded Sermons and Events stored on CD's and DVD's. I have a system of keeping them organized and catagorized physically, but I am in great need of a method that can be used to INVENTORY the CD's and DVD's.

I know Access has the potential to do what I need it too. But i know nothing about it. What I'm looking for is a "Database" that allows me to make an organized inventory of the sermons By: Date, Speaker's Name, Sermon/Event Title, Catagory, and also a place for making notes about the disk.

Then most importantly it would need to have the ability to be "searched" by keywords. Like if I want to find all the sermons/events by a particular 'speakers name' then I can just search by that persons name and it pulls up all related entries.

I know there must be tons of different methods of making this happen, so I'm not bound to using Access, I just figure its something that could be free and convienent because I own it already.

Thanks for input and IDEAS!

zbox

frankytee

its critical that you get your db relationship and table design correct.
given your info you can use this as a starting point.

table: tblPreacher
fields:
PreacherID (Primary Key) -auto number if you want
PreacherFirstName
PreacherLastName
..plus address details etc

table: tblSermon
fields:
SermonID (PK) -auto number if you want
PreacherID (Foreign Key)
Title
SermonDate
Category
MainBook --genesis, mark, etc
MainChapter --1, 2 etc whatever
MainVerseStart --9 etc whatever
MainVerseEndt --21 etc whatever
FlagDVD yes/no field to indicate whether burn to DVD etc
FlagCD yes/no field to indicate whether burn to CD etc
... etc

table: tblSermonDetails
fields:
SermonDetailID (PK) -auto number if you want
SermonID (FK)
Keywords -put one keyword per row
...etc

relationships
tblPreacher to tblSermon is 1 to many (ie one preacher has many sermons)
tblSermon to tblSermonDetailsis 1 to many (ie one sermon has many keywords)

after you have your table design you can then begin designing your forms etc where you do your data entry etc

zbox

ASKER

I want to aknowledge that I am reading your comment. However, please give me some time to understand it. I will play with Access a little bit this week and see what I come up with using this info. In the meantime, if there is anything else I should know, please comment.

-first time Access user,

zbox

zbox

ASKER

I've done some research and I understand your comment a little better. You're right. I need to make tables first then forms and so forth from there. I think the hard part for me is going to actually be the relationships between the tables later on. anyways I'm not sure how much more you can help, I am going to need some great training video tutorials!

any recommendations for Access 2007 tutorial videos that show making a database START to FINISH??

peace

frankytee

your best bet would be to simply google, try below.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2525282/Access-2007-tutorials?query2=access%202007%20tutorial%20.doc
http://inpics.net/tutorials/access2007/basics.html
http://databases.about.com/od/tutorials/Tutorials.htm
http://www.computer-training-software.com/microsoft-access-2007.htm
or go to a good bookshop and browse on of those "learn in 21 days" books. they should cover the basics.

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frankytee

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zbox

ASKER

wow, frankytee you hit it on the money. Well said and good advice. I feel confident about getting started with Access2007 now and cant wait to explore those links you posted a little deeper.

I learn by seeing so much better and pick up things very quickly, so this should be all I need until I get to the deeper things like table relationships. Thanks again EE!

zbox

zbox

ASKER

You were very helpful, thank you. Also your first comment makes more since now after reviewing the links with tutorials!

peace

zbox

frankytee

thanks, you're welcome.
also the best way to learn is to practice, experiment and make mistakes (create an "access tips" folder and document any unexpected or hard to remember things you come along)
make sure you make several backups of your db as you develop so you can always roll back to a particular time or version.
the tutorials and good books will give you a good guideline but you'll be amazed how much you'll pick up by experimenting and also this site.