NEED HELP! With electrical material list...

[Nate769]

So I have been trying to get my project done for a a week now, and still can't get it under control.

Basically I am trying to build an electrical material ordering/inventory list. Something that can act as an "electronic" version, but be printable for binders for those workers who do not have a computer or technical knowledge.
I have attached a "Working" spreadsheet of what I have so far.

What is included is on the first sheet is the sheet that will be printable, or act as the electronic sheet that can be submitted to the office. The second sheet is an UNCOMPLETED database or "Master List". It will be around 4 times larger, I have just been trying to get everything working before I continue on with the database.

So what my plan is, on sheet 1 just under all the fill-able boxes, I want to be able to select a pull down menu that will be able to select from a few different options, and generate a list directly under it. Preferably something that would generate in 2 columns so it will fill the page to be printable.
So for example select the pull down menu, and it gives "Residential House Supplies" as an option. When I select that option it would fill the list in the table directly underneath, with items that would be chosen from the master list that would be used on a House. (This of course would be pre-selected upon completion of the spreadsheet) For another example have a pull down list called Commercial Hospital, it would then generate a list of all the items a commercial hospital would need from the master list. Again user defined.

The other thing I want to be able to do is have off to the side of sheet 1 (but stay out of the printable area) a search function. So for example I would search for 4" PVC and it would pull up a list with everything that matches that name. So anywhere from straps, to connectors, to LBs. Then from there be able to click on it and it would enter the item AND MATCHING SKU# to the pre-generated list. This is just for the simple reason that sometimes on certain jobs there could be 1 or 2 things we would not normally use on every job, but needed it on this one. Or if the simple click is to difficult, just a copy and paste will do.

I am such a noob at all this, and upon taking on this project I thought it was going to be a breeze, boy was I wrong. So I am coming to you professionals for help! I was questioning the use of access to build the database, but I have never used access in my life so I have no idea what I am doing. And also if anyone has a better idea on how to put a pull down calendar in the date boxes, please tell me too!

IF you have any suggestions to make things easier please don't hesitate to say so, I am always open to suggestions.

Thanks for the help in advance, I feel pretty stupid when it comes to VBA and such.

[abousetta]

Hello and welcome to the forum,

What you are asking is not impossible, but very time-consuming and it really comes down to a series of tasks to be accomplished in Access or through vba in Excel. My best advice to you would be start with a good book on vba (if you want to stay in Excel) and use this project as a learning project; asking questions along the way about specific items you are having trouble with. On the other hand, you might get lucky and someone is willing to assist, but in my experience when it is a project rather than a specific question, free forums are of little help. Having said that I wish you the best of luck with your project.

abousetta

[Nate769]

I appreciate the insight.

I am still soo stumped on this project, I don't even know where to start. I can program a PLC with 100s of output and inputs but when it comes to this I am soo lost.

I have tried playing with pivottables, but the real issue I am finding is that when I filter each of the columns it filters all the other columns as well. Sorry guys, I am just lost. I think overconfidence in myself to build this is the right thing to say...

[shg]

You database sheet should be one monolithic list with a column for each field, e.g.,

Type (Fixture, EMT, Connector...), SKU, and Usage

The Usage column hight have R for residential, C for commercial, H for hospital, so a given entry might be RC, or HRC, or CH. Then you could filter for "Contains"