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Microsoft Access is an excellent tool to assist with data entry for a survey project. With Access, you can create a simple data entry interface that not only looks like your survey, but also includes features to reduce data entry errors and still make the process go fast.

Many people enter survey data (or data from chart reviews) directly into Excel or SPSS, or worse: directly into an Access table instead of an Access form. This is spreadsheet doom! Entering data directly into a spreadsheet is fraught with problems: it yields higher rates of data entry errors and data anomalies, many of which you won't uncover until you start to analyze the data and find yourself wondering why Larry Smith's survey was entered twice; why some zip codes have 3 digits and some have letters; and why the female gender has been entered four different ways: "Female", "F", "girl", and "Beyonce." It's also very confusing to have to figure out how someone who answered, "No, I didn't attend the orientation" was somehow able to answer in great detail a follow-up question about what they liked most about the orientation - the orientation that they supposedly didn't attend.

These errors will add to your project hours of tedious data cleaning and investigating. If you're doing both the data entry and data analysis, you have only yourself to blame. But if someone else is doing the analysis, don't be surprised if they stop responding to your emails when you ask for their help on another project. Save yourself the headaches by making a great Access database from the start. Keeping reading to learn how ...

This is Part II of a two-part tutorial on how to create a survey database in Access. Part I introduced the sample project, survey, and how to set up the tables. Part II picks up where Part I left off, and walks you through how to set up your data entry form.

If you have an Access database with a list of contacts and emails, watch this tutorial to learn how to add a form so you can email them and (optionally) include an attachment.   

Do you have some completed Word forms and need to export the data to an Excel spreadsheet? Here's how!