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Automatic document creation. How?
Target:
Primavera is primarily known as the ultimate SCHEDULING program. The word "schedule" doesn't appear anywhere on that page. It's nonsense. It's all marketing jargon. It drives me out of my mind.
-superboyac (May 18, 2011, 09:32 AM)
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+1
Yeah... The ability to communicate is pretty rare. :(-Renegade (May 18, 2011, 09:47 AM)
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that's because it's written by world leading experts...
superboyac:
Primavera is primarily known as the ultimate SCHEDULING program. The word "schedule" doesn't appear anywhere on that page. It's nonsense. It's all marketing jargon. It drives me out of my mind.
-superboyac (May 18, 2011, 09:32 AM)
--- End quote ---
+1
Yeah... The ability to communicate is pretty rare. :(-Renegade (May 18, 2011, 09:47 AM)
--- End quote ---
that's because it's written by world leading experts...
-Target (May 18, 2011, 05:39 PM)
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;D nicely done!
JohnFredC:
I spent 15 years of my professional life making my entire living as an independent Access developer so please bear with me.
No offense intended to anyone here, but those who poo-poo Access probably haven't used it professionally. EDP staffs hate Access because skilled developers can create in 6 weeks what they quote management will take up to a year or more in SQL Server/Oracle (but only if management will approve additional staff ;) ).
If you need: password sign-in, boiler plate texts and objects, input validations, progress/completion management, score tracking, custom user interface that looks like a unique application, perhaps a kiosk mode, reporting and statistics, simultaneous mixed data stores, export to other tools... then Access can be your "man". And if your deal is web, an Access application can even auto-generate boiler plate web page components and post websites (though not my personal expertise).
Some of my sites have had 15 simultaneous users on a shared Access backend on a server w/o problems. Other sites use SQL and Oracle back-ends.
Users don't need to know they are using Access:
Automatic document creation. How?
If your deal is to collect, use, and report data, esp. in the business workplace, don't discount it for your project without a thorough look-see.
superboyac:
JohnFredC, thanks for the input!
As an experienced Access developer, do you think my initial idea was a good one? If I input all the elements of the book into Access: questions, answers, solutions, diagrams...as tables and all that, can I then create a report which would look like the sample that is shown on our website? I don't see why not, but every time I ask someone who I think knows Access, they look at me like "Why the hell would you do it that way?"...anyway, please take a look at the sample of our book below, and I'd appreciate any comments:
http://www.compleximaginary.com/
JohnFredC:
2superboyac
do you think my initial idea was a good one?
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Indeed I do! 8)
If I re-state the obvious in the following, please pardon me. But the obvious is often forgotten and IMO deserves restatement ad naseum.
After turning pages, perusing your book in the viewer at that link (assuming here that the page-turning viewer itself is not part of your project) I can say unequivocally: yes you can use Access to reproduce the book as either an interactive user interface for a person to take the exam with, or as a published document (that is, on paper), or any other output you conceive. The beauty of Access is that it is ONE tool that can do all of what you need, efficiently.
But understanding what you need is crucial.
If I input all the elements of the book into Access: questions, answers, solutions, diagrams...as tables and all that, can I then create a report which would look like the sample that is shown on our website?
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Yep.
The design, implementation, and distribution of the book is a relatively trivial task. Step back a bit from the presentation of the book itself (though obviously that is your end-product) and observe that the book (design/layout, publishing channel, what-have-you) is not the real asset, but only derivative from the real asset.
Instead, as you apparently already understand, the book (however it is distributed: print or electronic) is actually just one view (of many possible views) into a "sea" of data. That data is the texts, the rules, the diagrams, the organization, the answers, the formatting, etc. This data is your asset, not the printed book. All processes and systems associated with collecting, maintaining, and expressing this mass of data are costs. Your goal should be to minimize these costs while at the same time leveraging the asset (the question data) into future opportunities.
What you need are routine tools and processes for collecting, managing, editing, connecting, presenting this data. Address these tasks first, then you can slice and dice the data into a book (or books), as a website, as executable tests, as anything your little heart desires.
An application (or applications) for managing the data behind your book (oh and incidentally, preparing the book itself) sounds like a fun, straight-forward, Access project. Access supports solutions that could run on a single disconnected workstation of minimal spec, to a full-blown groupware environment with shared data on a server... or both at the same time. No other tools or expertise (beyond Access and VBA) needed. Very cost effective and, might I add, future-proof, because you can always migrate the data, process, and gui to some other system, either all at once, or piece-meal.
A caveat is that such applications and data structures need to be properly designed to work as effectively as I describe. But that is a requirement of any solution environment, not just Access. The systematic structures of data and tasks are independent of the tools you use to instance a solution.
Who is your user?
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