Normalising Database but unsure how in this case

griffo

Board Regular
Joined
Apr 19, 2004
Messages
142
Hi there

I'm trying to create a database that will ultimately serve as the source for mail merging Word documents.

So far I've got a table for Companies, Positions and Policies&Procedures, with appropriate Primary Keys. They look something like this (scaled down)

tblCompany (PK CoID) Fields - CoName, CoAddr1, CoAddr2, CoPhone etc
tblPositions (PK PosID) Fields - PosCoName, PosTitle
tblPolicies&Procedures (PK PPID) Fields - PPCode, PPName, PPDescription

What I was hoping to avoid was having to create a Table for each Policy&Procedure, as this number will grow continually over the next 6 months or so as we get different things finished. Other users of the system won't necessarily know how to create a table/form/query etc (unless there is an easy way to create a table and subsequent through a form that I haven't come across before).

To illustrate, lets say I have 2 forms: Annual Leave and Sick Leave.

On the annual leave form, there will be 3 mail merge fields - CompanyName, 1stAuthoriser (fed from PosID) and 2nd Authoriser (fed from PosID, but different to 1stAuth).

On the Sick leave form, there will be 2 mail merge fields - CompanyName and AuthorisedBy (fed from PosID).

Is there some way I can structure my database to capture these differences without having to create separate tables for each form - bearing in mind the ultimate outcome is to mail merge to a Word doc with the data source being a query that isolates one company in the recordset?

My first attempt at a table to capture this looks something like:
tblPPDetails (PK PPDetailID) Fields - PPID, PPMergeFieldName, PPMergeFieldValue

Am on the right track, or do I need to have a table for each form?

Thanks
Griffo
 

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There is a good chance I am misreading what you are saying, but you seem to have the idea right. You most certainly don't want your users creating their own forms/tables/queries. You can create a form for users to enter new Policies and Procedures as they are updated as well as remove outdated policies. All of that would be done in the P&P table you suggested...your design seems fine.

I guess where I am lost is why you are using the forms for the mail merge. Although I haven't done it personally (I generally do my merges from Word and call the query in Access), you could have one form for all of your mail merges with command buttons that start each merge that you want to do. I don't know how many you are talking about but if it is only a couple, this method should work fine.
 
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