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Re: Filemaker and Access



I agree with Tim about all the basics of Access. If your initial (Rbase) database was well-formed it will be fairly simple to "move" it into Access and continue on, once you've built the necessary queries, forms and reports. Working with poorly defined legacy data is a nightmare. If you have time/money/help, start over.

Also, the help utility in Access is (I grudgingly admit) formidable and excellent . . . once you understand the lingo. It is context sensitive, and has been a lifesaver for me.

The power of Access is wonderful if you know what you're doing. And you can suffer the microsoft version changes. Other good sources of information are "The Access Bible" books, O'Reilly's books, and Woody's Access Watch newsletter and web site.  Good luck, whatever you choose!

Katherine A. Hayes
Niels Bohr Library, American Institute of Physics

>>> Tim Vitale <tjvitale@IX.NETCOM.COM> 02/16 11:28 AM >>>
Filemaker is much easier to learn and use.  Access is much more
difficult, has the standard MS proprietary problems, but has many more
functions and can be adapted to many, many, more applications/uses.
Access is significantly harder to learn.  Not the least of which, is
that by the time you need "that function you learned" to do when you
imported data you've forgotten how to get there, or whatever, because
you had to learn so many other things.  The Access wizards are
fundamentally for business uses, not academic functions.  Some can be
worked around, other are beyond frustration and its easier to learn the
step by step method.

If you have interns to teach you, its your "excellent" good luck!

I'm using Access now, go figure.  Both will import text delimited files
and build a basic database for you.  This is the good news for your DOS
data.  Data entry can be directly to the worksheet or you will build
data entry templates and enter from there.  Doing this in Filemaker is
easier and cleaner.  Access will do the same, but because it has vastly
more functional, it is more difficult to do.  The wizards will help you
build a contact database, or something along that line.  Learn the step
by step method, you'll understand more in the end.  Access has a
problems entering multiple drop down menu item into the same cell,
without writing your own Visual Basic script.  I haven't gotten there
yet.  I pick the first one from my menu, add a coma, and type the second
and third myself (dumb, but workable).

Access has only 4 tech support calls per purchase of the full MS Office
package.  After that it is $195-295 per call, or some equally formidable
protocol.  My memory of Filemaker, is that is that tech support is
unlimited, but that was some time ago (1.5 years) and I haven't been
back since starting to use Access.


Tim Vitale
Preservation Associates
510-594-8277

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