Hi Will, I have found Access to be a powerful and relatively easy DB to work with. Both Kerry and William's comments are well put. I have easily imported dBase and other DBs into Access, but remember to set up your columns and headings exactly per those of the imported; for example, if column 1 of the imported reads Street_Name, Access might not accept Street Name (without the underscore). Also remember that computers count from 0 (zero) rather than 1, but that end-user S/W may account for this and decide to count from 1. My own string scale program, developed in Visual Basic 6 with an Access embedded DB , is able to import everything I had saved in PScale, but I had to make sure that the columns and headings were identical. This may not be required in the hands of a more skillful practitioner, but it was the only way I could get things to work. RE elegance I suggest that you set up two DBs, a functional "plain dude" for quickest use and to get it online ASAP, and a second to play with; i.e., use the second (what I call the "sketch pad" and which should contain much less imported data) to try out ideas of elegant "front end" functionality. When you think you have achieved something pretty cool take the ideas to the active and working DB, but only then after having saved it with a new name. And take it one advancement at a time. That is, begin with raw functionality so you have something useful; don't mess with it until you are fairly sure you won't screw up the plain dude, and even then save the spiffy one with a new name. Eventually it will all come together, but avoid making big changes to your working DB until you have debugged your revised ideas on your sketch pad trial and error DB. And Kerry is quite right,"database dev on any level (can be) to be both frustrating and addictive". Be careful and have fun. Nick Gravagne, RPT _____ From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Kerry I've found database dev on any level to be both frustrating and addictive. Good luck and have fun. Kerry Kean www.ohiopianotuner.com <http://www.ohiopianotuner.com/> _____ From: William Monroe [mailto:bill at a440piano.net] I found it fairly simple to construct a basic database that served my modest needs. Setting up the company, entering fields, etc. - all pretty intuitive even before the hindsight. .. I'd say that is the greatest foible of Access - having a comprehensive enough understanding to make your DB elegant, rather than just functional. William R. Monroe SNIP For those of you using Access, did you find it particularly difficult to build your databases? Any foibles I should know about? The usual - the good, bad, and ugly. Thanks in advance for whatever you wish to share. Will Truitt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090518/e0857453/attachment-0001.htm>
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