Auto complete in a database

[Speicher]

As mentionned in other threads, I am involved in cataloguing several hundred Art books at a Resource Centre.

We, my co-volunteer and I, are making good progress with the database. It is very repetitive and time-consuming to enter the publisher's details. Some are straightforward eg, Heinemann and Blacks. Some are much more complex names. This is because they may be produced at a small studio in a small town, in smallshire.

So instead of typing, for example, the Orange Studio, Ardingley by Henlode, Chommondley, can I set up auto complete in a column in the database? I tried to find auto-complete in the Word Processing Package on the same computer without success.

I do not think there would be hundreds of publisher's names needing to be on the auto complete list, but it would speed things up considerably.

I had thought about just putting Orange Studio, and then at the end, doing a "Find and Replace" function to put the proper name in. I prefer the details to be accurate for each book that has so far been catalogued. We had considered using a bar code reader for the ISBN number of the book, but this was rejected because of the cost and a few other factors.

Your suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[Carwash]

Well to start with, what sort of database system are you using?

 

[Speicher]

My apologies.

As soon as I posted the topic, I thought, someone is going to ask me that. I phoned the Resource Centre and they have said it is Office Access 2007.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

I've not had to muck with either office 2007 or with autocompleting in a database, but what I'd do is fill it in on a spreadsheet first and then paste it into the DB [if it'll let you].

As far as I can remember, OpenOffice (free!!) autocompletes in both the word processing and the spreadsheet package without you needing to muck with settings anywhere (it learns from what you type).

Office 2003 you can manually set autocomplete for Word at least, but it's in one of the submenus. From what I've seen of Office 2007 I wouldn't even know where to start helping you!

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

If you're having to type the same stuff several times it should really be moved into a lookup table and referenced... just imaging when that Publisher changes name/address.... nice updating job to be done.

Database normalisation is the term you need to start knowing more about... me thinks the database design you have at present is no good!!

 

[Speicher]

Part of the problem is that here, at home, I am using the Access Application that is part of Windows 95. Old, I know but ok for what I would do at home.

I have found "auto-correct". That appears to be for commonly mis-spelt words, rather than completing complex words.

 

[Speicher]

Sharkybloke, Database normalisation? I will need to look that up.

When you write that the design we have currently is no good, is that because of the way it is set up, or the package we are using?

I am doing this work, four hours a week, as a Volunteer, at a "non-profit making" resource centre for Art and Crafts, with an emphasis on recycling and being eco-friendly. This means that money for a new package is unfortunately non-existant.

The person who set up the database wanted it to be as simple as possible, for a variety of reasons. Once the several hundred books are entered, it is very unlikely that more books would be added in any great quantity.

Part of the reason for doing this voluntary work is to put into practice my computer skills learnt on a course. My colleague is even less computer literate than I am. This is in no way, critical of your suggestion Sharky, but more of an explanation of why the process needs to remain fairly simple.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Sharkybloke, Database normalisation? I will need to look that up.

When you write that the design we have currently is no good, is that because of the way it is set up, or the package we are using?

I am doing this work, four hours a week, as a Volunteer, at a "non-profit making" resource centre for Art and Crafts, with an emphasis on recycling and being eco-friendly. This means that money for a new package is unfortunately non-existant.

The person who set up the database wanted it to be as simple as possible, for a variety of reasons. Once the several hundred books are entered, it is very unlikely that more books would be added in any great quantity.

Part of the reason for doing this voluntary work is to put into practice my computer skills learnt on a course. My colleague is even less computer literate than I am. This is in no way, critical of your suggestion Sharky, but more of an explanation of why the process needs to remain fairly simple.

Bold 1 - Bit of both, really, but then I use a "proper" database package for my work (yes, there's snobbery in the world of databases too! )

Bold 2 - The setup you have doesn't sound very simple if you are constantly repeating stuff... normalisation is just a process whereby you move repeated stuff into a different table and then just reference the data. So, in your case you'd have a table of "Publishers" and on your main form that you are entering books into you'd have (perhaps) a dropdown list of all the Publishers in the system (with a way to add a new one if required) to select the correct one from. Then, if any details about a Publisher change you only have to change it in one place (the Publishers table) and any other records simply reference this table and the changed record so see the updated info immediately.

If you *have* to work with the current setup then you'll have to suffer the repetition thing or, as the Doctor suggests, use something more userfriendly for data entry/repetition and import ot from there... but then that's just a whole new can of worms to play with...

 

[rh100]

Just incase you dont find the answer, then Quick Phrase might do the trick, enter all the long stuff into quickphrase which sits on the taskbar, then use hotkeys for each phrase or right click and select the text you want.

http://www.typingmaster.com/individuals/quickphrase/ The free version is limited to 20 phrases apparently.

 

[Davidc]

If its publishers names and the like then use dropdowns. They're there in Access 2003 so no doubt also in 2007.

 

[meenaghman]

Hm.. anyone got an Iphone or Android. . barcode scanning apps abound that can scan in music / books etc into a db. eg something like "my collection" app for android.

 

[gaz]

Surely your database has been designed incorrectly if you have to do this!
Publisher should be in it's own table and thus only entered once.

As someone else has said, updating the database will now be a pita!

 

[Firestorm]

i would suggest creating a seperate table for the publishers and then use a dropdown based on that table

it may work out easier to create a form for inputting the data rather than keying it straight into the table.

 

[Speicher]

Thank you to everyone for all your helpful suggestions on this.

Unfortunately it is two voluntary workers doing the data input for the books in this small reference library. We need to include the details of the publisher so that if a book is damaged or is lost, then we can try to find a replacement copy. I would guess that lots of the books are out of print, or are obscure /foreign publishers. Some of them are very old, and the name of the original publisher may have changed.

If we were approaching this with any funds whatsoever, yes we might ask for a much better system or application, and a bar code reader.

I can see that on a very large database of several thousand books, changing the details of the publisher would be a PITA. However, I estimate we are talking about seven hundred or so books, and we have already entered the details of at least one third of those. I think my colleague and I will plod on as we are. We are gradually speeding up our rate of input. We are reimbursed with tea or coffee and biscuits. We were asked to take part in a cake tasting session one week, so the work is not too onerous.

I think I will try auto-correct for some of the longer names of Publishers. Then the example I cited in the OP could be entered as TOS, and "corrected" to The Orange Studio. Fortunately I can touch type fairly quickly.

So, as mentionned, thank you for your help, but in this instance we are operating on a very small scale. If we receive further donations of hundreds of books, I will let you know.

 

[thomas]

Definitely normalise this database. It's really easy to do, but you might need to spend a little bit of time reading up on it.

You'll be able to use your current data if you do normalise it.