I help run a new private school for dental assistants, and we are having to keep all of our information manually. How do I write a program to keep up with student information, grades, transcripts, payments etc. I don't know where to begin. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

You should look into Microsft Access as one possible program which you can easily write for yourself.

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Originally Posted by girl_scout_111

I help run a new private school for dental assistants, and we are having to keep all of our information manually. How do i write a program to keep up with student information, grades, transcripts, payments ect.? I don't know where to begin. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

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I agree with Forest's recommendation for using Microsoft Access. It would be perfect for your needs. You would still need to learn something about how to use it. You may be able to find templates that will help give you a start.

You may also consider paying a consultant to build it for you if you need it quickly.

Hi pal
U wanted to store all those details and retrive when ever you need them , so there may be changes needed to the info anytime so u can blindly make the changes ,this may effect other data. I advice you to learn oracle,sql which solves your problem. Through this u can control your database

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Hi,
Your best bet, for the sake of time and convenience, might be to call a local computer store/sales in your area.
Talk with them over the phone, and find out if they handle this type of program, even doing it with Access (which does take considerable time in learning how to set up and use). Some of the MS Access manuals are about 1 1/2 inches thick!
Find out what they would charge to set it up for you. They could then help you with it, hands on learning, and be there if you need to call them for help later; which I'm sure, you will.
Many pharmacies, doctor's offices, hire someone to help them with this, and keep up the maintenance with it.
Best of luck.

I have to comment on some of the recommendations here.

First, the recommendation to learn Oracle is both overkill and not very applicable. Oracle is a great database engine for large scale applications. The type of application you require is considered a small workgroup application. Also Oracle is a database engine, not a database development platform. You would have to use some other product to build a front end to your data.

Second, The type of specialized application you refer to would not usually be available in local computer stores. If you want to purchase a generic application for this purpose your best bet would be to look at education administration trade journals. Vendors of specialized apps like you need would adveretise there.

Third, I strongly disagree that Access takes "considerable time in learning how to set up and use". One of the best things about Access is that it can be used on many levels. It has wizards and templates that can make things simple. I've seen some very nice applications developed by novices with little or no programming involved. I question how much experience with Access the person making that recommendation has. For me, I've been an Access Developer for close to 10 years. It matters not how thick a manual is. Most manuals are designed to be references. To be used to look up a function or command or process when you need it. They are not designed to be tutorials.

Another factor here is you may already have Access if you have Office Professional.

The question is whether you want to create something on your own, buy a canned program or have someone build a custom program for you. Since you posted in the Programming (not the Software) forum, I assumed you want to build your own. One other point, Access is one of the most heavily supported apps around. There are loads of 3rd party books and several websites, devoted to supporting Access users. One of the best of the latter is utteraccess.com.

If you do decide to build your own, I'm sure we can help with specific questions.

I'm going to disagree with the general trend here and advise you to hire a web developer to work something out using Apache, PHP, and MySQL that will run on your intranet. Granted this might sound like overkill, but it will make things much easier in the long run if you ever want to add the capabilities for students to access grades/change personal information. While you could start with Access using a closed DB system means you will have a harder time if your school ever wants to add web capabilities, startign out by doing the job right means your system will be much more extensible in the long run.