1) False.  My version of Outlook Allows inclusion of 3 addresses with each
entry (Office, Home, Other).  You can mail merge these into any type of
document, label, or envelope in Word.

2) Its not fair to objectively call Access difficult, its just not as easy
as the alternatives.

I can't resist guessing at your project.  If all you really need is to
create and maintain a mailing list, you can do this by using Access to store
the addresses, and Word to create and print the labels using merge
documents.

The requirements for doing this are pretty straightforward.  The designer
needs a basic grasp of databases in general. "What do the terms field and
key mean?" that sort of thing, and how searches and sorts are done, so the
resulting database has the correct structure.  Then, all you need is a
beginner to intermediate MS Office book.  Setting up Word can take a little
trial and error (where does apt# go on the label) but you only need do it
once, and from then on running labels is pretty automatic.  Lots of Office
books give step by step instructions for doing a mail merge from an Access
database into a Word labels template.

The only hard part is figuring out how to construct your database to make
filtering, sorting, searching, and editing as painless as possible.  Since
this is subjective to the user's preferences, its harder to learn from a
book, than say, from a class.  Failing to plan for these features is the
single biggest source of questions I get from friends, "Can you help me sort
on zip?" or "How do I find the new members only?"

If you don't have any interest or aptitude for databases, the clearest path
to take is to 'borrow' a database from somewhere else. The Contacts folder
in Outlook is such a database.  It allows easy maintenance and easy label
printing, but the quickest way to sort the entries is to create several
contacts folders, and drag entries into each folder according to your sort
preference. Then you print or merge only one folder at a time. That is not
nearly as flexible and
powerful as things you could do in Access, but it can be made to work.

There are lots of freeware mailing label programs on the web.  Download a
few and see if any work for you.  Or, get an Access tutorial, either from
the 'net or from a book that comes with a companion cd.  Then create in Word
your own labels to your specifications, but use the database that was
provided as part of the tutorial.

3) Adult continuing education classes are a ready source of talent;
Instructors are typically employed during the day doing what they teach
during the evenings.  They often have a sizable list of past and present
coworkers and / or students who are capable and willing to take on an extra
assignment.
Tom Turak

-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Bruzas [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 3:13 PM

3 quick questions.

1) Outlook doesn't have the capacity to capture snail mail addresses
and create mailing labels. It's mostly for email addresses.  TRUE or FALSE

2) Microsoft Access is easy to learn and one doesn't need to hire a pro
to help them set up a database.  TRUE or FALSE

3) If someone wanted to hire an Access pro, where would they look?

Laura Bruzas
[log in to unmask]

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