Excel and pg - Mailing list pgsql-general

I've to deal with a volunteer pet project and I wouldn't like to get
crazy fighting with the idiosyncrasies of Access but still I've no
time to build up an interface that will be enough user friendly to
overcome the resistance of something new.

So I thought just to use Excel 2003 as the front-end to postgresql,
everything on Windows XP.

I'm not any more (if I have ever been) comfortable with MS Office
stuff and Windows.
I know using postgresql is like using an elephant to fight a
microbe here, but still since I'll have to write the business logic
and I don't want to spend hours understanding why I can't make a
join or what is the equivalent of coalesce etc... I'd like to know
if I'm getting into more trouble just to set the things up.


I'd like to know if:
- it is possible to "load" in an Excel sheet a table (view, query
  result) coming from postgresql and to use those data to do further
  computation/presentation work on Excel? I think the rough path
  should be use ODBC (OleDB?) Do I have to install anything more
  other than postgresql?
- can postgresql load data from an Excel sheet? Or Excel write data
  to postgresql from an excel sheet? dblink?
- am I going to incur in any localisation problem if the Windows
  stuff is localised in Chinese? I see I can chose the "language to
  be used during installation". I'd prefer localization to be in
  English but still let people that will use the front-end to use
  Chinese. What about the encoding (client/server)?
- are there tools to make backup/restore very easy even for
  "point&click" kind of users?
- anything that a non "desktop" oriented guy like me have to realise
  before promising to put up something that will have to be used by
  "desktop/GUI" people? I can't think about anything else other than
  backup they will have to deal with once they see their data in
  Excel and they can backup/restore easily.

thanks

BTW I saw a lot of nice things on the pg package for Windows...
especially for debugging that I'm not sure I can find for Linux or
can be as easily installed as with Stack Builder:
- debugger
- Tuning Wizard
- replication solution (I wonder if it is easier to have a working
  solution with aptitude or Stack Builder)

--
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it