Computer user booking form (2000)

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I help at a training centre where we have 16 machines which are available for people to book for any length of tim from 1 hour to al day. Students can undertake a number of different courses. Todate, we use a paper form grid giving computer number down the side and time along the top into which we write the student and their course.
Technology catches up with us and we want to computerise the booking sheet, allowing us to highlight an area of the form to indicate the start and end time along with the computer number and then to type the student name and course ID into this box to be saved to a database.
I’ve looked at a few ideas, but nothing really seems to offer me what I need.
I need expandable data entry fields, but can’t find a way to allow the sizes to change for each record – I tried usng .top and .width to set them, but to no avail. Is there another way I shoudl aproach this?
I did look into using Outlook, but the calendar only allows 5 or 6 (can’t remember now) “appointments” to coincide – no way to view the others, though you can add more.
To summarise – each appointment will need details of student, course, start time, end time, the computer (from 1-16) they are using.
Any help, guidance or change of jobs gratefully considered
John

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I need expandable data entry fields, but can’t find a way to allow the sizes to change for each record

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[/indent]I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you’re trying to do here. What does the control size have to do with anything? The student ID (not name, please) and the courseID would NOT go into the same field anyhow, they would go into two separate fields. If you’re trying to store them in a single field, you need to rethink your table structure. The underlying structure should not be a reflection of the way the screen looks. If you try to design that way, you will wind up with a virtually unmanageable database where you can enter data all day, but will have a terrible time getting it back out in any kind of meaningful form.

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Charlotte
Imagine a grid which has columns for the time of day and rows for the computer number. On a piece of paper we can draw arrows stretchng from the start time to the end time and write the name and course against them. This is what I meant by being able to vary the size of the data entry fields (and yes I know it is student number).
As the other response said, doing this on a spreadsheet would be simple, but I need the data to analyse.
I’ll pick up the thread which was pointed to, but if any one has another suggestions, or knows of a package which would allow me do this then please let me know.

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Either forget the graphical representation or use a graph to report on it. You’re trying to make Access behave like project, and it isn’t equipped for it.

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Not the answer I was looking for!!
I guess I’ll have to look at a slightly different approach to this – keeps me off the street I guess
Thanks for your time

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I found the attached database on the Internet somewhere a couple of years ago. I kept copy because I thought it was a very clever database. You might well be able to adapt it to your needs, if not, it’s still worth a look at.

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Thanks Rupert – looked at the download and it seemed to at least address some issues – unfortunately, it doesn’t work!! No matter what dates I choose, it refuses to understand that anyone has booked a slot.
I’ll drop an email to the developer, in the hope that he still used compuserve.
Thanks again

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I’ve got an idea what the problem might be. So before you contact the developer, have a look at the attached Access 97 version. I converted it from Access 97 to Access 2000, and I probably changed the dates from the American format to the UK format. This might explain why you’re experiencing problems with the dates.

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I think I have just the thing for you.
Its too large to post here, so send me your mail address and I’ll send it.
Have a look at my attachment on post ” DString ”
Dave

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Due to copywrite etc associated with this software, I can only send you the link to the program.
I bought this some 18 months ago and found it to be of extreme value.
I am only just getting around to developing it for our needs.
I think it exactly what you need.
We have a similar kind of booking procedure (Paper Format) to organise our fleet of courtesy cars.
Heres the link.

http://dataspherellc.com/product.asp

Post further questions if you want more advise on this product.

Dave

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I don’t think you’d want to use text boxes to create a graphical representation of the bookings. A question on this subject has come up before and nobody came up with a really satisfying solution. See the thread starting at Post 132012.

Your situation seems relatively simple. Perhaps an Excel spreadsheet is a better solution. You could mimic the paper booking form in the cell grid. Of course, you won’t have the benefit of having the data in an easily analyzable table.

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Not an entirely perfect solution…but why don’t you use MS Exchange / Outlook? You would set each computer up as a resource?

I might be oversimplifying the solution, but it also might prevent a lot of hassles?

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