Business Application Packages (11)
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Last time: Using Databases
» Queries combining multiple tables
» Mail Merge – expanding documents with query results
» Practical – Seminar confirmation letters
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This week:
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Wrap-up of Database and Mail-Merge
Mock examination
Mail-Merge with Spreadsheet data
Presentation Graphics
Getting reports out of Excel – Pivot tables etc.
Completing practicals
Business Application Packages: Week 11
1
Relational Database Terms
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Tuple
Row
Red names are the formal ones, Blue are what we’ll use
The whole thing is a Relation or Table
53730
28719
53550
79632
51883
36453
Jones Bill W 1
Blanagan J E 1
Lake Mary
0
Rubble Barney 1
Smith Tina
0
Thomas John 1
Prime Key
Business Application Packages: Week 11
03
05
07
11
03
08
100355
101039
090952
011152
091150
110961
044
172
044
090
044
044
73
43
02
11
73
02
20000
18000
11000
50000
21000
12000
Domain
Column/Field
2
Redundancy in Databases
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One of the goals of a database is to reduce redundancy
» If you store a piece of information in two places,
– it wastes space
– and creates the risk that the copies will get out of step
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Most business records do involve redundancy:
Emp#
120
122
222
310
355
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Name
Jones
Marx
Able
Enson
Spoto
Salary
20000
17500
21000
30000
29000
Project
x
y
y
z
x
Completion
021125
030119
030119
020922
021125
Need to get rid of this by going to Third Normal Form
Business Application Packages: Week 11
3
Reducing Redundancy
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One approach is to look for functional dependency
between fields:
» Emp# and Name
» Project and Completion date
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Can then split these between separate tables
» As we did with Delegates and Seminars
Employees
Emp#
Name
Salary
Project#
Business Application Packages: Week 11
M
1 Project
Project#
Completion
Project Name
4
Using the Database
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We often want a view of chunks of the original large
table, complete with redundancy. But…
» Usually only selected rows
» and often only a selection of columns
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So we only need to ask the DBMS to reconstruct a
small part of the conceptual “joined” table
» Still saves space
» Guarantees integrity of data
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With Access, we used Queries to do this work
» SQL is the underlying language for selection/sorting
» You can inspect the SQL generated by Access by using
the View menu
Business Application Packages: Week 11
5
Extracting Access Data
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Access is a cheap but powerful database tool
» Lets you do most of the things expensive relational
database packages can do
» Has a standard interface (ODBC) to communicate with
other programs
» If you need to upgrade to (say) Oracle or SQL Server,
ODBC helps with the migration
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Microsoft encourages use of Crystal Reports to display
data from Access
» Maybe that’s why the Report facility in Access is below
the standard of the rest of the package
» If you want to generate multi-page reports, Mail Merge
may be a feasible alternative
Business Application Packages: Week 11
6
Handling Customer Orders
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As we saw, most businesses need tables for:
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Customer records (name, address, contact, customer-ref)
Orders (customer-ref, order-ref, date)
Order items (order-ref, product-ref, quantity)
Products (product ref, description, price)
Another example might be to confirm orders by letter
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Each letter must be correctly addressed
Must list all items included in the order
Information is scattered amongst the tables
Make query from order items and orders to show
all orders placed today;
– each item to contain customer-ref and product description
Business Application Packages: Week 11
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Practice Examination
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Goal of exam is to measure parts of the course not
covered in the assignment – mainly
» Using Access, including building queries
» Mail-merge with Word and Access
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A practice paper is on the Business web-site at
http://cmg.wkac.ac.uk/courses/bs1009/bs1009me.doc
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(copy attached to the hand-out)
Starts easy, gets progressively harder
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Simple modification of data in the database (be accurate)
Mail-merge from an existing table
Mail-merge from new query built on a single table
.. And from query working from two tables
Business Application Packages: Week 11
8
Mail-Merge from Spreadsheet
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All you really need for Mail Merge is tabular data
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Can come from a Database Table
Or an “on the fly” table like an Access Query
A spreadsheet
Even data from another Word document
(easy with tables, hard otherwise)
An example is sending out exam results
» There is a suitable data source in:
http://cmg.wkac.ac.uk/courses/bs1009/mailmer2.xls
» Create a Word document as basis for the letter, then open
the spreadsheet as Tools/Mail Merge data source
» We are interested in rows 3 to 23, columns A to M
– Set Print Area to select this range ( to bypass Word97 bug)
Business Application Packages: Week 11
9
Mail-Merge from Word Document
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The same exercise can be done purely within Word
» Make sure your data is in a table
(can handle non-table data, but it’s hard to get right)
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Create a Data Source document
» An easy way is to Copy the data from your Excel sheet
» When you paste into Word, it will create a table
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Now create a Master document to use the data
» Probably best to start from the example built before
(saving under a new name)
» Go through the Mail Merge routine as usual
Business Application Packages: Week 11
10
Presentation Graphics
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You should have covered PowerPoint with Mike Davies
Many tools are common to all Office Applications
Example: the drawing tools
» Generate vector graphics in your files (fairly economical)
» Standard “autoshapes” for arrows, flowcharts
» Also text boxes and “callouts”
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Some hints
» Start with a text box – easy to change into any autoshape
» But it’s hard to add text to most other drawing objects
» Use “No Fill” to avoid obscuring objects behind shape
(filling with white looks similar, but obscures them)
» Don’t rely on fill to hide things, it fails on some printers!
Business Application Packages: Week 11
11
Excel Database Practical
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This work all uses the Data pull-down menu
» Instructions in BS1009wB.doc
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To create and manipulate a list of books
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Open an Excel worksheet and enter the field names
Type given list of books under the field names
Sort the records on different fields
Filter the records by various criteria
Use a pivot table to display and summarize the data
Business Application Packages: Week 11
12
So far we’ve covered:
Introduction to the role of IT in Business
» Operational, Production, Decision-support
» Communications and how to get your point across
» Internet publishing
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Word-processing
» Fonts, Styles, Spell-checkers, Tables
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Spreadsheets
» “What if” models, Excel functions, Graphical reporting
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Composite documents – putting things together
Database
» Purposes; types; flat file versus Relational databases
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Mail-merge
» Driving Word from databases, spreadsheets and tables
Business Application Packages: Week 11
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What Else do you Need?
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There’ll be more about managing Information in the
course, but this module is the last “skill-based” one
Let’s try to list any areas omitted:
» For example:
– Graphics packages (CAD, image editors)
– Multimedia – building/editing sound and movie clips
– PC maintenance and enhancement
– Fax
– Statistical packages
– Accounting packages
– Other applications of what you already know
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I’ll cover any burning issues next week
Business Application Packages: Week 11
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