First attempt at constructing a database. I have no formal training and am having quite a time as you might imagine. What I am attempting seems as though it should not be as difficult as it has turned out.
Situation.
I work in a newly formed shop at my place of employment, that is tasked with the logistics of several hundred chemicals. Simply put I issues and place orders for chemicals. The problem which I wish to streamline is this; with so many chemicals, all of which have more than 1 designation (MIL SPECS., Manufacturers #, my company's number, etc...), how can I create a database which will cross-reference all the designations.

I have eight fields that I require.
Chemical
Company part #
Manufacturer part #
Stocking Location
BMS #
MIL SPEC.
Other
Keyword

For instance, someone approaches me in need of a certain chemical of which I am unfamiliar. I would like to enter the information given me into a field, push enter and have all the cross referenced information pop up. Example, Joe Schmoe knocks on my window in need of MIL-3-33. Problem is we do not stock our chemicals by MIL SPEC. So I need to enter MIL-3-33 in the "MIL SPEC" field and have the COMPANY PART # and STOCKING LOCATION pop up.


I am using MS Access.
Any ideas? Is this more complex than I probably think?

Since you have no repeating data (using the chemical name itself as the key), it might be easier for you to do this in a spreadsheet and use 'Find' when you need something. Later when your needs increase (i.e. you want to do a inventory control operation) then you can export the data and create a table to incorporate into a database.

I do not use Access, but I would venture that you should be able to create a single table and use the built-in search features (Ctl-F, maybe) to accomplish the same thing.

That is what I ended up doing. Is there away to protect the data though. The way it stands now anyone of my fellow employees can change the information. Can I put a password on the info?

I don't use Access, as I said, but most desktop database products have security features and they should be listed in the help files - then again it is made by Microsoft

Another alternative is that you can restrict the location of the table by setting the appropriate rights for the folder where it is located. You can do this if you have admin rights to your machine and are running XP or Win2000. Otherwise, have your network admin give you access to a private folder on the the server.

If your co-workers need access to the data, but you don't want them changing anything, set the folder rights to read-only for them.

Hope this helps,

Mac

It does. Thank you.