CRAFTS.MDB is a database of Crafts-related information on 
books, videos, authors, magazines, suppliers, events, guilds, 
publishers, and software (there is also an articles table, but 
it has no information to date).

The database was developed for the CRAFTS forum on CIS, and the 
numerous ASCII text reports produced by it are uploaded to the 
forum at regular intervals.  (See the enclosed FORUM.TXT for 
information on the CRAFTS forum.)

The database forms feature combo box embedded subforms (using 
a technique developed by John Viescas) which allow information 
to be drawn from one linked table and stored in another.  On 
the Books and Videos form, for example, you can select the 
author from a combo box which displays Author IDs from the 
Authors table, and the selected author name is placed in the 
BookAuth table, linked to the main Books and Videos table by ID.

Embedded subforms (of a more standard type) are also used to 
add new authors, specialties and publishers on the fly.

There are many queries and reports designed to create ASCII 
text reports for upload to CIS.  These reports (if printed) are 
very plain in appearance, but on-line they look pretty good.  
At some point I may create regular print reports for the 
database, but so far I have just used them for the forum 
uploads.  


This database was designed by Helen Feddema, author of Inside 
Microsoft Access (New Riders Publishing), and contributor to 
Access Advisor and Smart Access magazines.

