I'm looking to do something excel based for work as access isn't option (not available to low end users).

I've got a spreadsheet formatted with several nice pages etc etc ... but what i want to do i because the file will be used by 70 or so users output to a csv file as i think it'll make export/import quicker ... is this the best option?

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If so, i need to output to a shared drive where i would prefer the user has no input or 'need to know' where its been dumped i.e.:

file1 filename = T:\Global Share Dir\Tracker\<date>\<application.username>-file1.csv

Is it poss where the <date> dir doesnt exist to have the first exporter to create it?

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I'll have loads more questions probs after these are answered so thanks in advance for any help...

D

Perhaps it would depend on who is importing/exporting, and I assume they all have Excel. I distribute files to about 80-100 people and use only Excel files. I have found the consistency is better than csv for importing/exporting (i.e. number formats as numbers not text, etc.). Personal opinion, not hard evidence, although the csv files will lose much of any formatting, and csv files can contain only one worksheet.

I know what ya saying ...

Current method is a non-standardised excel file which users print off and then someone manually collates em ... which i thought was ludacrous (i've only been in the job for a month or so) ... not only that but other paper forms being used

What i was aiming for was a standardised file nothing huge, say about half a meg, but stored on the users home directory which when used outputs 4/5 csv's. The on a daily basis the collation spreadsheet imports all data by teams. So instead of 80 users x 500Kb xls, per day, i was thinking 80 x 2Kb csvs ...

Main probs is i've never used vba to use csv's before so was researching but keep managing to screw up lol . Most of the data is standard numerical but there are some currency and text formatted numbers (8 digit order no.s some with multiple leading zeros) ....

Can ya gimme any pointers or know any good sites i can peruse to borrow ideas ?

I have found excellent advice and help at this site:

http://www.ozgrid.com/forum/

Cheers