I have a client list of 2000 names on excel. Should I stick with excel or go to access.Which has more options?

Question

I would like to break down the clients info by date of birth, who has children, religion,towns they live in..You get the point for target marketing.Excel seems to be a spreadsheet for numbers or accounting..Any suggestions for other programs like access

Answer 1

Excel has database capabilities that can do many of the things you want. Simply, you be sure the bits you want to filter by are in their own column and then you sort on that column and your data rises to the top or bottom, or at least is grouped together in your list somewhere.

Then you re-sort on whatever else you want and to go back to the original order, you undo, or you copy the data to another sheet before you sort. Remember if you have changes to your data you will have to discard the copy and re-copy and re-sort again.

Access will do this with more efficiency and your different orders or filtered sets are not duplicated but rather instructions (in queries) about how to sort or filter.

With 2000 names, you have the luxury of using either application. If your data grows and you anticipate going past 66,000, you should get in to Access now, instead of trying to learn what to do in Access later. Access is limited only to available space on your hard drive, but Excel has only 65,536 rows.

An advantage to Access is all the assistance it can give you keeping your data consistant while you enter it. You can check the state code against a list of allowed codes and reject data-entry errors. It can be made to check for 10 digits in a phone number, etc. etc.

Good Luck with your data.

Answer 2

Access is a database. Study of database can get quite involved. If you have OfficeSuite Pro you can script between Excel and Access.

Excel is capable of lookup tables whereby it forms a new "view" of a much larger spreadsheet of data using its internal macros.

Either way, a db or a spreadsheet, or scripting so that the two modules can exchange ... we're talking a little more advanced stuff than what the Help files are going to give you. If I were you, I'd wander down to a Barnes and Nobels, grab a couple of Access Books, and have a cup of coffee. See if the database end makes sense. One of the books might have THE recipe you're looking for.

Either module will export whatever work you have. No wasted effort on what you've done.

Answer 3

Use Outlook and setup and export to Access ensuring that you check the sync option which will keep it up to date. I would also recommend using Plaxo which will work with Outlook and keeps your contacts details up to date automatically I cannot recommend thtis software enough. If you prefer to stick with Excel then there are quite a few data formulae available for you to use. If you need help just ask....

Answer 4

I think you can use MS Access or Outlook or even better Act! Outlook and Act! Will let you sync. with PDA. I use Act!, and it will let you customize based on your need. Only problem is tech support sux (so does MS) and professionals are $$$. It's easy to customize if you have time and some pc experience. search for act!, you will able to find the website to download trial version.

Answer 5

access has got too many options,, and u wont need them all,,,
but if u are good at computing,,, then u shud go for it,,

as of now,, xl is good enough,,,,
but frankly,,,, access is a good software,,, ask someone to build a database with all the names u've got in xl,,,

hope this helps..
thanx

Answer 6

You should considering getting some a little more powerful. Have you ever seen http://www.act.com/ ?