I am putting a finding aid into Access and would really like to be able to create and EAD instance. IT would streamline things considerably. However, I am far from being a programmer and I am still a neophyte when it comes to EAD. Would a newby like me be able to use the tool without crashing the network? :-) Thanks. Barbara Austen Project Archivist Connecticut State Archives 231 Capitol Ave. Hartford CT 06106 (860) 757-6509 [log in to unmask] >>> [log in to unmask] 04/11/02 10:50AM >>> As much as I love NoteTab, I've been searching for a way to speed up the box/folder list process, as well as provide an interface that removes the need for an in-depth knowledge of EAD for data entry. Here at NLM we've developed an Access2000 tool that speeds up data entry and spits out an EAD instance via the Report function. We took much of the high level encoding operation from Alvin Pollock's tool. Where we diverged was using Perl to do the box/folder markup. Here we used some Visual Basic so both high-level and container-level description could be performed in a single tool. We do not have Perl expertise at our beck and call within our operational division, so institutional culture also played a role. I still use my batch files in NoteTab to parse and convert to XML and HTML, however. The tool is very basic at this point and is not designed to incorporate image groups or the vast array of optional EAD elements (I still plan on using NoteTab for fine tuning when necessary). On the other hand, the tool accommodates 95% of our needs. It even handles a 600+ box collection quite easily, that we imported from Excel. So, if anyone would care to test drive this thing and give me feedback, I'd be happy to share. I will prob. have to e-mail it, since we don't have anonymous FTP access here that I'm aware of. Right now the tool is 4 KB and you'll probably need an intermediate understanding of Access if you really want to play with it. John P. Rees Associate Curator, Modern Manuscripts History of Medicine Division National Library of Medicine 8600 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD. 20894 (301) 496-8953 Office (301) 402-7034 Fax [log in to unmask]