Hi. I’ve been using Apple Works 6, particularly the data base function for about 5 years now. The database function is no longer part of Work’s present day equivalent iWork.
As I’m upgrading to leopard, I think now’d be a good time to find a substitute for trustworthy old Apple Works before I find it no longer runs!
Ideally a piece of software that opens the Apple Works database, and if possible, software that runs on a pc as well - will excel do this? I’d prefer though, something not microsoft based. Bento?
Any ideas people?
Thanks
Has anyone tried the new mini database app from FileMaker called Bento?
I’m keen to find out if it does offer some of the DB features of AW. I’ve been looking for a sensible non-Microsoft replacement for simply ages. I run a small database to print mailing labels, and that’s all I use AppleWorks for - if Bento can do that, my transition to Leopard will be virtually instantaneous.
For your purposes Bento should be fine, Heather. I’ve had a quick play
and it seems quite flexible, but it is definitely aimed at the home
user more than business. Filemaker is the business end and I still use
Filemaker 7 quite happily on Leopard for my “job’s” database
(compatibility issues are only with web integration, I believe). When
I feel brave enough I’m going to try transferring it to Bento, via
a .csv export, but an initial test shows some tweaking will be
necessary to fields for sequential numbers and the like.
David: Filemaker Pro is very easy to use - but expensive. Bento is
easy and well worth the money if you only need simple databases. You
will be able to export your data from AppleWorks, but you’ll need to
redo the layout to your preferences. Take a look at the Demo:
Colin
On 26 Jan 2008, at 11:00, Heather Kavanagh wrote:
Has anyone tried the new mini database app from FileMaker called
Bento?
I’m keen to find out if it does offer some of the DB features of AW.
I’ve been looking for a sensible non-Microsoft replacement for
simply ages. I run a small database to print mailing labels, and
that’s all I use AppleWorks for - if Bento can do that, my
transition to Leopard will be virtually instantaneous.
Sometime around 26/1/08 (at 06:00 -0500) Heather Kavanagh said:
Has anyone tried the new mini database app from FileMaker called Bento?
Not personally, but I know that in general it is at least as capable
as AppleWorks. You should just grab a demo and give it a try,
remembering that it wil be different - so don’t penalise it just
because it doesn’t behave exactly like AW.
Note that it is highly unlikely to import AppleWorks databases;
you’ll almost certainly need to export data in some delimited format
(tab-and-return is usually safest), make the equivalent database
structure with logic in Bento, and import your data to that. But
start by making a few test database things from scratch, exploring
simple things one at a time. Then progress to bigger things, and then try remaking your current database structure if it seems right
for you.
David, I’m afraid the Excel thought is really not a good idea. Not
unless your database is really simple. Excel can be used for
basic database tasks, just like Word can be used for basic DTP tasks.
It is NOT what it is good at. And its friendliness and usability
sucks enough with the stuff it is good at… do you really want to
suffer through the pain of making it do something harder?
In total agreement Keith - I’ve bee forced to use it on a couple of
occasions - and secretly transferred the data to Filemaker to make
life easier for reporting!
Colin
On 26 Jan 2008, at 11:24, Keith Martin wrote:
David, I’m afraid the Excel thought is really not a good idea. Not
unless your database is really simple. Excel can be used for
basic database tasks, just like Word can be used for basic DTP tasks.
It is NOT what it is good at. And its friendliness and usability
sucks enough with the stuff it is good at… do you really want to
suffer through the pain of making it do something harder?
Sometime around 26/1/08 (at 09:25 -0500) Heather Kavanagh said:
I will probably download the demo and give it a go at importing the
csv from AppleWorks
One thing to consider: if your database’s text content contains any
commas… best not use csv (comma-separated) output.
Exporting to csv wraps text with commas in double quotes. Text with
double quotes gets wrapped in more double quotes. It’s horrible, but
seems to work. This isn’t from any documentation, but from examining
concocted csv dumps when scripting the conversion of a csv file
upload into an HTML table.
David
–
David Ledger - Freelance Unix Sysadmin in the UK.
HP-UX specialist of hpUG technical user group (www.hpug.org.uk)
email@hidden www.ivdcs.co.uk
Sometime around 27/1/08 (at 08:36 +0000) David Ledger said:
Exporting to csv wraps text with commas in double quotes. Text with
double quotes gets wrapped in more double quotes. It’s horrible, but
seems to work.
Ugh, and good. Thanks for that David, at least it isn’t as fragile as
it could have been!
