Access 2010 Student Database template help

Question

I am tasked with creating a database for prospective students for our high school. I am currently using the Access Student template which allows me to input information such as address, contact and so on. But, is there a way to attach files to certain student profiles? I would like to scan in their applications.

Also, Is there a way to add more fields to the student file so I can keep track of the forms they have and have not turned in?

Thanks!

Answer 1

1.  But, is there a way to attach files to certain student profiles? I would like to scan in their applications.

2.  Also, Is there a way to add more fields to the student file so I can keep track of the forms they have and have not turned in?

1.  You could add an attachment field to the table, but I would suggest adding a text field in which the path to the file can be stored.  You'll find an example of how you can open a dialogue to browse to a file and gets its path, and how to open or print the file, as Browse.zip in my public databases folder at:

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=44CC60D7FEA42912&id=44CC60D7FEA42912!169

Note that if you are using an earlier version of Access you might find that the colour of some form objects such as buttons shows incorrectly and you will need to  amend the form design accordingly.  

If you have difficulty opening the link copy its text (NB, not the link location) and paste it into your browser's address bar.

This little demo file uses an unbound form, but can equally well be applied to a bound form in which the path can be inserted into a bound control in the form.

2.  If you are thinking of having separate fields for each form then stop right there.  That would be very bad relational database design and you'd soon encounter problems.  The form names or whatever should be stored in a separate table.  You then have to model the many-to-many relationship type between students and forms which you'd do with another table which resolves the relationship type into two one-to-many relationship types by having foreign keys StudentID and FormID, each referencing the primary key of the Students and Forms tables.  Other non-key columns can be added to this table to represent attributes such as the date a student received the form, the date it was turned in etc.