Hi,
appologies if this has been brought up before. I am a student and need to create a pet shop website where you can buy pet products. Creating the site I have no particular problem with, and can create a DB easily. I don't have to have DB in the site, but felt it would be good to have something with stock levels in it. This way, if a product is selected and is not in stock the customer is notified, or it shows the stock amount in the product description.
What I would like to know is;

Can I link straight to a spreasheet to show the information. Example I create all the details and the stock levels is shown by linking to the relevent cell in the Excel spreadsheet or does it need to be connected to a DB
How is it set up just on a local computer. The site will be uploaded onto the local intranet and so will the Db or spreadsheet.
I have been trying to set it up using a Access DB I created, but cannot get the testing server to work. The problem I think I am having is on the URL prefix - what would go here.

I am using MX on XP Home

Any other information needed to help me I can give, and any help given would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Liam