models

[Greg Newell]

Brad,
         Thanks for the offer of the delimited manufacturers' list. I'd 
love to take you up on that.
         My reason for choosing Filemaker was twofold. First, and most 
important was the fact that my younger brother works on this quite a lot in 
the OSU language department. He will be my first call when I can't figure 
out how to do something. Secondly it is very robust and much easier, or so 
I'm told, to use than the other contenders in it's similar category. If 
you've ever looked at PTBiz you will have seen what I hope to do with this 
database. Since PTBiz was built on MS Access and is proprietary I have no 
way of extracting information in the way I want and / or of customizing the 
database to the way I want to use it. While most offerings could do what 
you ask of it below I am requiring something a bit more. Filemaker sees 
itself as an application builder as much as it is a database. Based on this 
and my brother's prodding I purchased it. I'm also told that it is very 
robust for building web applications as well. We'll see.
         I'm most curious is a information set is available describing the 
available models from each manufacturer. Especially
historically!

best,
Greg


At 12:10 AM 6/7/2005, you wrote:
>Hi Greg,
>It doesn't need to be that complicated.  Unless you really must have an
>encyclopedic, dynamically-driven application which includes all
>possibilities as 'choices'.
>If you require yourself to create an entry for every possible model for
>every manufacturer, you'll never leave the house.
>Just have separate 'drop down' fields for BRAND, MODEL, etc. unless you want
>to delve into creating relational databases and customized user interfaces.
>
>I have simple drop down lists for Brand, Type and Model. I've found that the
>drop down list is most helpful for manufacturer and type ... i.e.   Steinway
>Baby Grand
>Then I just enter data for model and serial.  If you want, I could send you
>a delimited text file of the manufacturers I've collected for the past
>several years. It could make the start easier.  Then, you just add
>manufacturers as you need to.  I've also collected drop downs for many of
>the other common fields.  With a little surfing, you can almost always find
>a list of cities, zip codes, states, etc.
>
>Do you already have a database started?  Or are you starting from scratch?
>Why Filemaker? (Just curious).  There are many contact management
>applications that can slice and dice info, create marketing groups, manage
>tasks/calls/appts with very little set up required.   For example  Goldmine,
>ACT!, SalesLogix....even Microsoft Outlook can do much of what you need for
>piano service management.  (Depends on what you are trying to accomplish
>with it.)
>
>I have found ACT! to be a tried and true app for this, although I'm always
>checking out alternatives.
>You can create as many fields as you wish; formatted however you wish;
>import/export existing data to hearts content; easily create customized
>reports/invoices/letters; export to mail merges; automate MapQuest links for
>contacts; send it all to a PDA; etc.
>
>SQL, Microsoft Access and Filemaker are certainly more powerful databases,
>but if you are just managing contacts/tasks/calls/meetings...your needs are
>more in the 'front end' user side of things...not in the engine room.  Plus
>there is so much available to interconnect with other applications and
>machines.  It becomes more practical to use existing stuff rather than build
>your own.    ( I guess that's why I own every Spurlock jig there is!)
>
>
>Best regards,
>
>Brad Smith, RPT
>www.smithpiano.com
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Greg Newell [mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net]
>Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 11:18 PM
>To: pianotech@ptg.org; MPT
>Subject: models
>
>
>Greetings fellow list members,
>          I am beginning to develop a Filemaker Pro database and I need to
>populate a pull down list for piano model.
>
>best,
>Greg
>
>Greg Newell
>Greg's piano Forté
>mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives

Greg Newell
Greg's piano Forté
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net