ELECTRONIC FILE MANAGEMENTby Debbie Young

Electronic what?

Electronic File Management…what is it?

Let’s take a look.

You may hear words like Field Record Table

What is the relationship between these?

How does this help us manage our data?

A Table by the Window?

Imagine you are dining out at a fine restaurant. The table is set with dinner plates, silver, napkins, glasses…Should you reach across the table to grab a fork? Which glass do you use?

Excuse me, that’s my glass…

Of course, you know that each person has their own place setting at the table!

The parts of your place setting are related to you… Your fork Your napkin Your plate Your glass

So, what’s my point?

The pieces of your place setting (fork, knife, plate) are like pieces of information, or “fields” of data, in a record.

Your place setting is your “record”. Your database record contains information related to you!

And, much like your place setting, your database record is held by a “table”.

Data

Within a record, the pieces of information, called fields or columns, may include things like First Name Last Name Phone number SSN Street Address City

Pulling It All Together…

Unless you are dining alone, there are usually place settings for several people.

Similarly, a database is designed to hold records for many people – there is a record, or row, for John, for Jim, etc.

Those records are stored in a table.

Follow along.

Next I’ll demonstrate how to set up a basic table in Access.

Imagine...you and your niece sell handmade quill boxes and black ash baskets. Business had grown tremendously since some of your items were featured on a friend’s web site. You need to move your customer records from paper to an electronic database...click on the link below.

http://www.screencast.com/t/ZjdhM2QxNzU

Give it a try...

Now you do it. Click the words “Student Database”, below, to open a sample

database. Create a new table. Name your fields (Last Name, First Name, Phone, etc.) Define each field type – make them all “text” for now. If you get stuck, just minimize the database and navigate back

here. Hit the “save” button when you are done. You can review the demonstration by clicking “Review”, below.

Review

Student Database

Let’s Review…

A table holds records. Each record, sometimes referred to as a row,

contains pieces of information related to one individual or subject.

The pieces of information (like last name, first name, address, etc.) are called fields or columns.

A table contains many records and each record contains fields.

Check for Understanding

These are two examples of aA. FieldB. RecordC. Table

Your answer is incorrect. Click here to Review before trying again.

Review

Try Again

CORRECT!

Check for Understanding

This is an example of aA. FieldB. RecordC. Table

Your answer is incorrect. Click here to Review before trying again.

Review

Try Again

CORRECT!

Check for Understanding

This example shows a list ofA. Table NamesB. Customer RecordsC. Field Names

Your answer is incorrect. Click here to Review before trying again.

Review

Try Again

CORRECT!

Are you ready to move on?

If you feel comfortable with creating a table, and naming and defining fields

If you would like to review everything If you would like to see another database

demonstration

click here.

click here.

click here.

Let’s make another table.

I’ll demonstrate how to set up a basic table. This table will list some of the baskets that you sell...

Data entered. What’s next?

Let’s take a look at two ways we can make our data more useful and more accessible. Sort Filter

Sorting

Have you ever wanted to find a name in the Phone Book? It’s easy, right?

Names in the Phone Book are alphabetized, or sorted, by last name, then first name. How can we accomplish this is our electronic database?

What if we don’t care about our records being alphabetized by name? Maybe we want to sort by city or state?

Let’s Sort

Follow along as I show you some ways to sort data in our table...click on the link below.

http://www.screencast.com/t/Mzg2NTQyMmE

Now you try Sorting...

Click the words “Student Database” to open another sample database; now open the table “Customers”. Try to sort the Last Name column in “ascending”. Now sort it “descending”. Do you see it change? Now sort the city or state. If you want to, you can

sort the last name again. Close the database when you are done. Does it ask

you if you want to save the changes? Click “no” and close it. Let’s understand why...

“Save changes to design?”

When you entered data (name, address, city, state) into your table, it “saved” as soon as you entered it.

In Access, you do not need to click “save” to save the data you enter.

On the other hand, when you sort or filter data, you are changing the “design” of your table.

You will always be asked if you want to save the changes to your design. Usually you can answer “no” because it probably doesn’t matter how it is sorted, and, saving a “filter” can make data appear to be missing when you come back to it later.

Click “review” to review sorting. Review

Filter

Finding a name that is alphabetized in the Phone Book may be easy, but what if you weren’t sure of the name?

What if you only knew the first few letters? Or only knew the first name?

How about if you wanted ALL the names in a certain city?

This is when a technique called filtering is extremely useful.

Let’s Filter

Follow along as I show you some ways to filter data in our table...click on the link below.

http://www.screencast.com/t/ODkwOGQ1M

Now you try Filtering...

Click the words “Student Database” to open another sample database; now open the table “Customers”. Apply a filter to look for records from the City of

Lansing. Do you only see “Lansing” records? How many do you have?

Now “unfilter”. Play with it...apply the filter to other fields. When you are done, close the table and database.

Remember: do not save changes.

Check for Understanding

This example shows records that are

A. Entered incorrectlyB. Filtered by State:UtahC. Sorted by City

Your answer is incorrect. Click here to Review before trying again.

Review

Try Again

CORRECT!

Check for Understanding

This example shows records that are

A. Filtered by Last NameB. No longer validC. Sorted by customer ID

Your answer is incorrect. Click here to Review before trying again.

Review

Try Again

CORRECT!

The End

Great Job! You have completed this portion of Electronic File Management.

For additional resources check out Read, Judith and Mary Lea Ginn. Records

Management 8e. South-Western Cengage Learning. 2007.

South-Western web site at http://read.swlearning.com

ARMA International at http://www.arma.org/