I feel this is a really good beginners guide: http://www.functionx.com/sqlserver

At one point in the guide it says "Another technique used to perform data entry consists of importing already existing data from another database or from any other recognizable data file. Microsoft SQL Server provides various techniques and means of importing data into Microsoft SQL Server."

I saw that a Microsoft Excel document can be used. Does this document have to be in any particular format? Ideally I would love to be able to grab the data from my excel spreadsheet, insert it into my database, and then be able to show this data to users from the web page. Anyone have any experience in this?