Will, I have been using Access since 1996. I can't tell you how many people have tried to get me to use designer databases and none of them is as versatile or stable as access. Like you, I think Access will be around for a long time, or what ever Microsoft replaces it with will work with there platforms. I just got two computers for my wife and myself from Dell and that is pretty middle of the road, but it works every day with no excuses. William ----- Original Message ----- From: William Truitt To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 10:05 AM Subject: [pianotech] Microsoft Access info To the list: This mail is directed to those of you who may be using Microsoft Access as your database for your piano business. I am contemplating the changeover from Lotus Approach 97 (yeh, it's that old!), as I have recently learned that even the most recent versions of Approach will not run in 64 bit Vista. I cannot assume that Lotus will continue to support Approach into the new operating systems, as Lotus Smartsuite has largely gone by the wayside. My home computer died a couple of weeks ago, and I replaced it with the beast I am writing to you on (HP with AMD Phenom Quad Core, 8 GB RAM, 750 GB hard drive, 256 MB ATI Radeon video card, and a 20 inch HP monitor; running 64 bit Vista Home Premium - all for $730 from Staples!!). So far, no problems loading most of my old programs on, although I doubt PScale will run on it (haven't tried yet). It is pretty fast - 64 bit Internet Explorer loads in a little over a second. Drivers are still being written for it though, as FLASH won't run on it as the 64 bit version is not available yet. For those of you who may be contemplating a new computer purchase in the near future, it is astounding how cheap everything is once you get away from the bleeding edge of technology. The machine at the shop is a 4 ½ year old Compaq Windows XP machine. It' starting to get a little flaky, so the handwriting is probably starting to get on the wall. I need to be proactive before this machine dies and my database software becomes an orphan. Hence my consideration of MS Access. I'm running MS Office 2003 on that computer, so I should be able to buy Access as an upgrade for a little over $100. 12 or 13 years ago I designed my own databases in Approach. A fair amount of work, but not particularly hard. I was able to convert my files and import them into Approach from Symantec Q & A. I will want to build new databases in Access and import the data from Approach. I have been able to find out that Access can import data from Dbase IV, which is the format used by Approach (Or at least they say it is possible, the proof is in the pudding). It is likely that, by the time I replace this shop computer, most everything will be running 64 bit Vista. So I will need to plan for a database that runs on that platform. At home, I have MS Office 2007 (without Access). It loaded with no problems, as did my file transfers. 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/20090517/49a5b366/attachment.htm>
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