I have a very small business that I keep track of inventory and sales using 
an Excel spreadsheet.  I have Access 2002  available and I've been wanting 
to learn enough Access to develop a database and move from Excel.  In doing 
some studying I've been looking at the sample Northwind Traders database 
that comes with my version of Access and I think that it would be just what 
I want for my little business.  My questions to the group are, would it be 
legal and how hard would it be to just change the company info and use that 
database?  Obviously, I'd have to back out most of the data but would that 
be difficult?  Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! TIA!

I may be wrong about this, but I think that (a long as you don't try and sell 
the results) you are free to use the Traders DB as much as you want if it's 
for your own use.  The idea of the Traders DB is to show you what can be done 
and give some samples of methods and possible code solutions.

Can I make one suggestion.  If you are just starting to the learn access now 
- learn to use the vista version, at least this way you will be (almost) sure 
of MS support for the next years.

Good luck

-- 
Wayne
Manchester, England.



"Gary" wrote:

> I have a very small business that I keep track of inventory and sales using 
> an Excel spreadsheet.  I have Access 2002  available and I've been wanting 
> to learn enough Access to develop a database and move from Excel.  In doing 
> some studying I've been looking at the sample Northwind Traders database 
> that comes with my version of Access and I think that it would be just what 
> I want for my little business.  My questions to the group are, would it be 
> legal and how hard would it be to just change the company info and use that 
> database?  Obviously, I'd have to back out most of the data but would that 
> be difficult?  Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! TIA!
> 
> 

"Gary" <gary@under-1-roof.com> wrote in message 
news:uZAyDdHiIHA.4740@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> My questions to the group are, would it be legal

The north wind sample ships with every copy of MS access. You are absolute 
free to do with that sample whatever you please to do so. I should point out 
that it's kind of a lame example, and it's missing a lot of things, but it 
is a good idea place to get some basic ideas of how to do things. You'll 
rapidly find out that there's a lot of pieces and bits missing in that 
sample (such as inventory used amounts don't update).

> and how hard would it be to just change the company info and use that 
> database?

It is very easy to change the company information. As for modifying the 
designs of the application, how long it takes you to learn that stuff is a 
question in terms of saying how long does it take you to learn music? You 
can learn to play a bit of music in a week. You can also spend five years 
learning to play music. And, I know lots of people have been working at 
their music sklls for 10+ years.

Learning the software develpumet process is much the same as learning music. 
It isn't hard skill, but it does take time. I know a tremendous amount of 
people who've taken music lessons, I don't know actually very many that make 
a living playing music. I have to say software's almost near identical in 
this conceptual ideal.

Only you can decide at this point in time if it's beneficial for you to 
invest a lot of time to become pro efficient at using MS access. After these 
baby steps are how most of us started down this road.

On the other hand if you're busy person try to run your business, I would 
suggest that you purchase a system like "simply accouting", or one of the 
other many applications that integrates things like purchase orders, 
inventories, payroll etc. Keep in mind that some of these systems have 
millions of dollars worth of developer time invested, and you can often 
purchase these systems for what one day of a professional developer will 
cost.

In a sense your question of how difficult this task is is asking the same 
question is how difficult is it to learn play music? it's not really that 
hard, and tons of kids in school to learn music all the time. It's really a 
question of how much time you want to invest to learn this new skill.

Perhaps you might save more for your company by buying a home dentist kit, 
and a dental drill. Or perhaps you take an auto Mechanic course and start 
working on your company vehicles to save money. Or, in this case you learn 
to modify this piece of software. The time and efforts to get good at any 
these endeavors is all about the same. I know some people that have a 
squeaky door, and have to call in a carpenter. I know other people that will 
ripe the whole door out and build the door from scratch in their garage when 
the door starts to creak and make noises. So the question herein is the kind 
of time you want to invest to obtain the skills needed here, and how much 
your time is worth.

If the northwind sample does most of what you what, then you may not have to 
modify the northwind example much it all. However in my experience that 
sample is a very weak and is a very simplistic sample, and your unlikely to 
be able to run much of your business off that sample without extensive 
modifications.

I think you'd be far better of to purchase somthing like simply counting or 
other small business acctouing packages that also has things like sales 
management and inventoried built in.

on the other hand the reason why a MS access is such a popular tool is 
because you can build applications and customize things for your specific 
business needs. I think if your business needs are not special or specific, 
then go out purchase one of those general packages.

I suggest you spend a few days playing with that sample and access. You 
should purchase a few books on MS access, as you just can't approach this 
whole process by trial and error.

I don't want to discourage you in any way here, and there are tons of 
secretaries, accountants, small business owners etc. that have built 
applications that are extremely useful for their business in MS access, and 
they have done so without any kind of formalized training.


-- 
Albert D. Kallal    (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
pleaseNOOSpamKallal@msn.com

Wayne, thanks for the quick reply!  The reason that I'm thinking of Access 
2002 is basically because I'm cheap!  I have 2002 and I don't want to spend 
the money to upgrade to 2007 unless I know that it'll be worth the cost. 
I'll think about it, though.  Thanks, again!
-- 
Gary
Visit Lucy & Gary and do the jigsaw puzzle at
www.under-1-roof.com/PuzzlePage.html


"Wayne-I-M" <WayneIM@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:85FD44B9-6564-4C89-85ED-D87776F52EEF@microsoft.com...
>I may be wrong about this, but I think that (a long as you don't try and 
>sell
> the results) you are free to use the Traders DB as much as you want if 
> it's
> for your own use.  The idea of the Traders DB is to show you what can be 
> done
> and give some samples of methods and possible code solutions.
>
> Can I make one suggestion.  If you are just starting to the learn access 
> now
> - learn to use the vista version, at least this way you will be (almost) 
> sure
> of MS support for the next years.
>
> Good luck
>
> -- 
> Wayne
> Manchester, England.
>
>
>
> "Gary" wrote:
>
>> I have a very small business that I keep track of inventory and sales 
>> using
>> an Excel spreadsheet.  I have Access 2002  available and I've been 
>> wanting
>> to learn enough Access to develop a database and move from Excel.  In 
>> doing
>> some studying I've been looking at the sample Northwind Traders database
>> that comes with my version of Access and I think that it would be just 
>> what
>> I want for my little business.  My questions to the group are, would it 
>> be
>> legal and how hard would it be to just change the company info and use 
>> that
>> database?  Obviously, I'd have to back out most of the data but would 
>> that
>> be difficult?  Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! TIA!
>>
>> 

Hi Albert!  Thanks for a very comprehensive and thought-provoking reply!

Just a little more background.  The business is my wife's and I'm retired 
and help her a bit with the books.  I've actually tried a number of programs 
and even went so far as to buy couple.  (I haven't tried the Simply 
Accounting since it looks like it's more geared toward Canadian businesses 
and we operate primarily in the U.S.) Many of the programs that I've tried 
were good but none did everything that I wanted.  Most offered to customize 
their programs but that was usually for a fancy fee.   I thought that I 
might be able to build off the Northwind database without having to start 
from scratch.  I do have a few books that teach Access so I have a little 
knowledge, but just a little.
-- 
Gary
Visit Lucy & Gary and do the jigsaw puzzle at
www.under-1-roof.com/PuzzlePage.html



"Albert D. Kallal" <PleaseNOOOsPAMmkallal@msn.com> wrote in message 
news:O$1D%23rHiIHA.4712@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> "Gary" <gary@under-1-roof.com> wrote in message 
> news:uZAyDdHiIHA.4740@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
>> My questions to the group are, would it be legal
>
> The north wind sample ships with every copy of MS access. You are absolute 
> free to do with that sample whatever you please to do so. I should point 
> out that it's kind of a lame example, and it's missing a lot of things, 
> but it is a good idea place to get some basic ideas of how to do things. 
> You'll rapidly find out that there's a lot of pieces and bits missing in 
> that sample (such as inventory used amounts don't update).
>
>> and how hard would it be to just change the company info and use that 
>> database?
>
> It is very easy to change the company information. As for modifying the 
> designs of the application, how long it takes you to learn that stuff is a 
> question in terms of saying how long does it take you to learn music? You 
> can learn to play a bit of music in a week. You can also spend five years 
> learning to play music. And, I know lots of people have been working at 
> their music sklls for 10+ years.
>
> Learning the software develpumet process is much the same as learning 
> music. It isn't hard skill, but it does take time. I know a tremendous 
> amount of people who've taken music lessons, I don't know actually very 
> many that make a living playing music. I have to say software's almost 
> near identical in this conceptual ideal.
>
> Only you can decide at this point in time if it's beneficial for you to 
> invest a lot of time to become pro efficient at using MS access. After 
> these baby steps are how most of us started down this road.
>
> On the other hand if you're busy person try to run your business, I would 
> suggest that you purchase a system like "simply accouting", or one of the 
> other many applications that integrates things like purchase orders, 
> inventories, payroll etc. Keep in mind that some of these systems have 
> millions of dollars worth of developer time invested, and you can often 
> purchase these systems for what one day of a professional developer will 
> cost.
>
> In a sense your question of how difficult this task is is asking the same 
> question is how difficult is it to learn play music? it's not really that 
> hard, and tons of kids in school to learn music all the time. It's really 
> a question of how much time you want to invest to learn this new skill.
>
> Perhaps you might save more for your company by buying a home dentist kit, 
> and a dental drill. Or perhaps you take an auto Mechanic course and start 
> working on your company vehicles to save money. Or, in this case you learn 
> to modify this piece of software. The time and efforts to get good at any 
> these endeavors is all about the same. I know some people that have a 
> squeaky door, and have to call in a carpenter. I know other people that 
> will ripe the whole door out and build the door from scratch in their 
> garage when the door starts to creak and make noises. So the question 
> herein is the kind of time you want to invest to obtain the skills needed 
> here, and how much your time is worth.
>
> If the northwind sample does most of what you what, then you may not have 
> to modify the northwind example much it all. However in my experience that 
> sample is a very weak and is a very simplistic sample, and your unlikely 
> to be able to run much of your business off that sample without extensive 
> modifications.
>
> I think you'd be far better of to purchase somthing like simply counting 
> or other small business acctouing packages that also has things like sales 
> management and inventoried built in.
>
> on the other hand the reason why a MS access is such a popular tool is 
> because you can build applications and customize things for your specific 
> business needs. I think if your business needs are not special or 
> specific, then go out purchase one of those general packages.
>
> I suggest you spend a few days playing with that sample and access. You 
> should purchase a few books on MS access, as you just can't approach this 
> whole process by trial and error.
>
> I don't want to discourage you in any way here, and there are tons of 
> secretaries, accountants, small business owners etc. that have built 
> applications that are extremely useful for their business in MS access, 
> and they have done so without any kind of formalized training.
>
>
> -- 
> Albert D. Kallal    (Access MVP)
> Edmonton, Alberta Canada
> pleaseNOOSpamKallal@msn.com
>
>