Okay, with the help of a very friendly expert on here, I solved one very pressing problem, but, as with most things it seems, once you get one thing solved, you simply have to improve on that, find a "better" way, and so, that's what I'm here for.
This is my issue, I'll start with the background information.
I have a fairly simple access DB which my shop uses to track the current statuses of certain peices of equipment. Currently this is only around 15 pieces. I did not create the database, it was a microsoft template and I simply change the forms and reports and added some buttons to the forms to fit my needs so that the gui and reports would display information relevent to our purposes. As far as all the actual internal DB workings, I didn't really change those. I'm not much of an expert when it comes to access and I wouldn't even know where to begin as far as that would go, that is, changing all the names of the tables to fit actual fit what I'm using them for and so on, because I know to change a name in one place, means I have to go to all the other places, and anyhow, wayy to much for me, and besides, the db seems to be working, perhaps not in the best way it could, but for our current needs it seems to be doing pretty good. Anyhow, if you want to take a look at the DB, I've posted it here: http://www.armysoldiers.net/System%20Stats.mdb/ The way the DB is used is that each "system" has a record, editable via the main form. An individual from our shop simply opens the form and enters in the required information and goes to the next record, the next system. Statuses must be recorded on a daily basis. We don't, however, simply add a new record each and day we enter the statuses for each system, we just overwrite the prior days record, changing only the information which has actually changed. If nothing changes, then the record simply stays the same. Thus, we should always only have an amount of records equal to the number of systems we currently have.
Now to the problem / Request: Currently we are archiving each daily status via an automated export of a "complete systems status" report in a .snp format at the click of a button. The user enters all the statuses, clicks the button, the report is saved, automatically with the filename being the current date and time. I certainly owe that implementation to an expert on here and it is a much better system then we did have, which was nothing at all.
I'm looking for the next level, however, an improvement on that, something different. After setting up the current exportation of the report, I realized that would work great if we only had to go check out the status of a certain peice of equipment on a specific date, but if we want to actually see a "running log" of the statuses for a peice of equipment, that would be impossible. I was thinking of some sort of exportation to an excel workbook, but there were too many variables associated with that. I'd need each individual record of the one table to each export to a different sheet and I'd need it so that each day when the "button" which would control this action is pressed, all the current records are exported to this spreadsheet, into there corresponding sheets, without overwriting the previous days entries but simply added to the next available row, so that it would be a running log. Oh, and I'd also need it so the table headings weren't added to the workbook every time but only the actual record entries, because each sheet in the workbook would already be formatted with the headings. Workbook: http://www.armysoldiers.net/System%20Stats.xls/ and only certain columns from each of these records need to be exported not all of them, though I could live with all if need be.
Anybody with ideas on how to implement something like the above, or any other system that would create a "running log" type archive for this DB please respond. I don't care if it has anything at all to do with excel, if it can all stay within access, that'd be great, I was just trying to figure out anything I could think of with my limited knowledge and experience with these programs. And yes, I did type LIMITED, so any help given needs to be with the understanding that I'm as wet behind the ears as they come. I'm not a VB programmer, or DB administrator. I can fumble around with the programs, I know where to actually enter the VB code if you had some, but what it does, I couldn't tell ya, so, basically, you'd have to treat me as if I've never even opened these programs before. I realize this is probaby all a lot of work, I'm in no Super Rush, as I at least have a system going now that will work for now, but I would love to see some sort of change soon.
A bit of added information: I've already tried to link a table to a workbook, a suggestion made by the expert who so graciously helped with my current setup, but apparently access only links from excel TO access and not the other way around. If it did go the other way around, my problem would be solvable in like ten minutes, as anything added into the main table in the DB would automatically be added to the workbook, though then I'd still have to figure out how to get each record to save only to a specific sheet, but anyhow, it doesn't work anyhow, so not a problem..LOL
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