Una base de datos fácil de usar Luego de un largo tiempo de esfuerzo por dominar Access, My Data Base es una brisa de aire fresco. Fácil e intuitiva de comprender y usar, además de tener numerosos formatos prehechos, puede armarse una base Custom. Los formatas de entrada de datos son totalmente editables, pudiendo incorporarse, modificar campos o agregarlos aún después de agregar datos. Los formatos de reporte para impresión son personalizables, con numerosas formas de sort y filtrado para ajustarlos a variadas necesidades. Con algunas pruebas y pocas consultas a un útil help, pude armar una base de datos con trabajos de investigación médica para un Comité de Bioética, que funciona sin fallas hasta ahora. Estoy agradecido a la solución que me ha brindado. En mi criterio, muy recomendable.
Excellent flat field data base I got this data base to keep track of financial accounts at home where I do an annual update of what is in each account, and also to make simple financial reports as volunteer treasurer in an organization I am in. It does both of these jobs very well. I'm going to take a little time here to describe the difference between a data base and a spreadsheet and give some background so skip this if old hat to you.
When modern computers first came out in the '80's there were lots of data base programs. I had an Atari ST with a "Data Manager ST" program that did lots of relatively simple things well (like the jobs above). But somehow, spreadsheets like Excel and dedicated complicated financial programs, like Quickbooks, seem to have taken over and simple data bases are just not common anymore. Instead, we have huge data base programs like Access and Paradox which are very powerful but way too much for the home user. In particular, these newer data bases are "relational" in that you can build up a master data base file and then build all kinds of tables off the master data base. When something changes in the master data base then all the offspring tables are updated. Neat but not easy to master and way too complicated for simple tasks IMHO.
An advantage of a data base over a spreadsheet like Excel is that when you enter information in a spreadsheet you have to go column by column, cell by cell. In a data base each "record" consists of "fields" which show on a data entry form for each record. For instance, if you were to make a data base of your baseball card collection, each card would be a "record." The record is then broken down into separate "fields" for player's name, team, position, etc. When you enter data for each card the data base presents you with an entry form page where you fill in labelled blanks for each field rather than filling in cells of a crowded spreadsheet. This may not sound like a lot, but it makes data entry much more pleasant and easy I think.
When you are ready to print out your collection the data base lets you configure a report with columns and which looks very much like a spreadsheet, or you can print out individual records as in mailing labels.
The weakness of data bases is math related. You don't don't see the results of mathematical operations until you print the whole report (My Data Base lets you do a print preview on screen which shows this). In keeping track of financial accounts, you can sort by a given field (like "retirement accounts") and then when the report prints you can tell it to do a subtotal on that field, and up to 2 other subtotals, along with a grand total. Again, this is available in print preview. You can do filtering and sorting on the data.
The only real weakness I've found in My Data Base (and hence 4 stars rather than 5) is that while it lets you do calculations with field data, it does not let you use the results of that calculation in any other field. The Data Manager ST program from years ago could do that, so I would expect that here.
But there is a tremendous amount of flexibility built into My Data Base and it makes customizing your data input and output a pleasure. It makes setting up a data base from scratch relatively easy, including layout of your fields in a well formatted input page. You have good control over the font appearance and layout in output as well.
It imports and exports data from Excel and other programs well if you take a little time to set it up right. For instance, I had a spreadsheet I wanted to import from Excel. If I did that into a blank My Data Base there was no way to get the format of the fields correct (text vs. numbers etc.). My Data Base created fields for the incoming data, but the format was wrong. In the data base, once the format of the field is defined you can't change it. So the work around was to first create My Data Base fields in the correct format with the same names as the columns from Excel, and the same order. The import then went perfectly.
The point here is to give some idea of what this program can do. It comes with some canned data bases like address books and recipes. But the real power is building the data bases yourself. The program is much more powerful and richer than the promotion would indicate. Unless you are using only the precanned applications, be prepared to spend considerable time customizing, especially if you are playing around with subtotals and math in the fields, but I think you will find that you can master many tasks with this program and be delighted with the results. I have been.
Easy Easy Easy This software is easy to use and does everything I need it to do without alot of complicated steps.
My database is a simple database that you can use to create lists, labels easily import and export files, keep track of birthdays, holidays, special notes and much more.
My Database is GREAT for simple databases I bought this database, because one aspect of my job entails keeping about 30 different records updated simultaneously and scheduling several different people to do different jobs at different times in different places. We also needed to be able to generate form letters.
The person working here before me had been using Excel, but that was a little overwhelming for me, because I wanted to just see one record at a time, which is not possible with Excel. Also, I wanted something where I could add the 30 or so files each year into the same database for tracking purposes from year-to-year, which the old Excel spreadsheets floating around would have made difficult.
So I did a little research on databases. I didn't need anything fancy; I had used Microsoft Access at another job, and felt that it was not as intuitive and probably had more features than I needed. Plus, in reviews I read of more recent versions of Access, people complained a lot about its stability. For me, I just wanted to find something inexpensive and simple that could keep things organized, give me flexibility to customize the database, and that could merge information into Publisher or Word.
This program fits that bill perfectly!
It is SO user-friendly, that I didn't even need to read the instructions. I just started to play with it, and designed my own custom database, and had a lot of freedom in what it did and what features I chose to use. I think I only consulted the help menu twice.
I could insert numeric, text, notebox, etc, fields into the database. When generating reports or exporting the database to other programs, I can choose only the fields I want to use in the database (or all of them) and export that to a .csv file that merges nicely with Publisher. They built in a lot of flexibility in how to create reports and how to adjust their appearance. It only takes minutes to figure out what to do. It is very intuitive.
I recommend this for people who need a simple database. I am not sure how it would hold up if it has several files in it, however. Also, the user interface is not flashy. There are background images to choose from that are very ugly. But I didn't care about making it look flashy--for me, I just wanted it to be useable.
Just one word of warning: A friend of mine who is a software engineer said that it is important to frequently back-up this type of database program on a separate drive (a flash drive, etc.) because it is prone to having files become corrupt when the database is too large.
This has NOT happened to me, but I am heeding his advice and thought I would pass it on to readers.
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