As we approach the holidays, folks are checking their contacts data twice. Access is a great tool for this.  You can use the powerful customization tools to make a contact list specifically for your needs, whether it's for details about them (their birthday, their dog's name), or your business with them (their last order, your last call).  Let me show you how in this short video using a free Contacts Database template from Office. com.

If you are looking for step-by-step instructions, the copious notes are listed below. Try Access for free with a 90-day trial of Office 2010.

I'll admit it, for most of my business life if I needed to do something in Access, I would... find the one person in the office who knew how to do it. Now at Office, I've dabbled in it and happen to have Chris and Steven down the hall who are crack experts on the product (which is good, for us since they are Office.com Help Writers for Access). Chris Downs made the how-to videos and Steven Thomas (no relation, honest) digs deep with the instructions below.

--Doug Thomas

Prepare customized labels with Access for your customers

Your customers are not all the same. That's why you're using Access - to keep track of the differences so you can treat your customers like the good people they are. When you need to contact your customers, sometimes you only want to involve a certain set of them. Or, sometimes when you're preparing to send something to everyone, you want to make sure that you don't send something that is inappropriate for one of them.

The videos that come with the Contacts Database template give you a lot of great information about getting started, and about adding fields to tables and forms so you can collect the extra information.

Let's take Doug's analogy of being in the food business and you've added a field and used it to store your customers' allergy information. You're going to deliver edible bouquets to all your local customers - bite-sized bits of fruit and petit-fours on skewers, dipped in chocolate or yogurt and artfully arranged in a basket they can keep to remember you by. Queries and reports can help you stay organized to make sure the memory is pleasant for everyone.

First, you'll create some queries that group your customers according to allergies. That way you can customize the bouquets per group.

Then, you'll create a report for each group. The reports make labels for the baskets so you can see what kind of goodies go in them and where to deliver them.

Create queries to divide your customers into groups

First group - no allergies

1. Open your contacts database and click the Create tab.

2. In the Queries group, click Query. A new query opens, and the Show Table dialog box appears.

3. On the Tables tab of the dialog box, double-click Contacts to add it to the query, and then click Close.

Add output fields

The Contacts table now appears in the query design area, in the space above the grid. But the query won't return any results unless it has at least one output field. There are a couple of things you can do to add output fields to your query, depending on what you want included in your results.

· If you want all the fields from the table to be included, including new fields that get added to the table later on, double-click the asterisk (*) at the top of the list.



· If you want all the fields included, but not any fields that get added later on, double-click the top of the table in the query design area - the part that shows the name of the table. This selects all the fields, so you can drag them to the grid all at once.


· If you want to include only some of the fields, double-click each field to add it to the grid. (You can also drag the field to the grid if you prefer.)

· If you add a field by mistake, select that field in the grid and press DELETE. (This only removes the field from the query grid - you could add it right back if you wanted to.)

You are creating the query to deliver the right kind of goodies to each of your customers, so your output fields should include whichever fields you need to be able to make the delivery: Name and Street Address, and be sure to include the postal address - so you can use Bing maps to print out directions.

1. In the query design area, resize the Contacts table to make it easier to find the fields you need to add.

2. Double-click the following fields: ContactName, Address, City, ZIPPostal.

Add a criteria field

Here's where the query really starts working for you. Remember how you added fields to your Contacts table so you could track special information? You use those fields in a query to make criteria - such as dietary restrictions - that help you limit the query results. A criterion evaluates the data values of one field, and the outcome of that evaluation determines whether to include the record in the query results. Office.com has an article with lots of examples of query criteria.

1. Add the Allergies field to determine which group each customer belongs to. Remember, you can double-click the field or you can drag it to the grid.

2. Down in the query grid, find the Allergies field that you just added. Although you are using this field to limit results, you still want it to show up in the query results, so it can be part of the report that makes labels. Make sure the checkbox in the Show row is selected.

3. The Criteria row is just below the Show row. To use it, you enter an expression that you want to compare to field values. So, if you want your query results to include all your customers who do not have an allergy (that you know of), you enter Is Null in the Criteria row under the Allergies field. (Is Null is an expression that means "value is not known". It won't show up on the label).



4. Run the query to check the results: On the Design tab, in the Results group, click Run.

5. If the results are what you expect, save the query and name it NoAllergies.

Now that you've got the first query made, there's no need to do the next one from scratch - just save a copy of the first query and go from there.

Second group - allergic to eggs or gluten

The petit-fours are real cake - full of eggs and flour. You'll have to create labels to make sure these customers only get fruit bites in their bouquet.

1. In the Navigation Pane, right-click the NoAllergies query and click Copy.

2. Right-click the top of the Navigation Pane and click Paste.

3. Name the query NoCake.

4. Right-click the NoCake query and click Design View.

5. In the query grid, in the Criteria row of the Allergies field, enter eggs.

6. To add a second criterion, you can use the Or row - it's below the Criteria row. In the Or row of the Allergies field, enter gluten.



7. Run the query to check the results; if everything looks correct, close and save the query.

Create the reports

I'm sure you have plenty of your favorite printable mailing labels on hand, and they are compatible with Microsoft Office.

First report - no allergies

1. In the Navigation Pane, select the NoAllergies query.

2. On the Create tab, in the Reports group, click Client Reports, then click Labels.

3. On the first screen of the Label Wizard select the label product that you have, then click Next.

4. On the second screen, if necessary because your labels are on the small side, adjust the font size, then click Next.

5. On the third screen, under Available fields, double-click ContactName to add it to the label, then press ENTER.

6. Under Available fields, double-click Address, then press ENTER.

7. Under Available fields, double-click City, then press ENTER.

8. Under Available fields, double-click ZIPPostal, then press ENTER.

9. Type Allergies:, then press ENTER.

10. Under Available fields, double-click Allergies, then click Finish.

11. Your labels open in Print Preview. Make sure everything is lined up according to your printer's specifications, and print away!

12. Save and close your label report.

Second report - allergic to eggs or gluten

Once again, now that you've made the first report, the second is just a few modifications away from being ready.

1. In the Navigation Pane, right-click the Labels NoAllergies report and click Copy.

2. Right-click the top of the Navigation Pane and click Paste.

3. Name the report Labels NoCake.

4. Right-click the Labels NoCake report and click Design View.

5. Press ALT + ENTER to open the Property Sheet - unless it is already open.

6. Click the drop-down arrow at the top of the Property Sheet, and select Report. (It was probably already selected, but just to be sure...)

7. In the Property Sheet, click the Data tab.

8. Change the Record Source property from NoAllergies to NoCake.

9. Voila! Ready to print. In the Navigation Pane, right-click the Labels NoCake report, then click Print Preview.

10. If everything looks good, print the labels.

11. Save and close your label report.

Now you're ready to stick those labels on the baskets, and may the edible bouquet making begin!

--Steven Thomas