Hi John, That's a good question. It depends on how complex your needs are although having said that, I can't imagine a situation that could not be handled with either program. If you already have Access you'd still need to either design something from scratch - YIKES - or purchase a ready-made product like PianoDB and adapt it to your needs (in which case I'd be happy to send you my PianoDB adaptation from which you can customize further). If you already have FM 7, then you can download mine and see if that works for you and customize as you like. I think FM 7 is easier to create something from scratch than is Access although there are several things in FM that I have yet to figure out. I learned a lot about Access from Ken Hale's work. Having a product to customize is much easier than working from a blank page. Let's put it this way. If I were doing anything complex, I'd never attempt to go from scratch in Access (it is not all that friendly with the typical cryptic error messages like "sorry, you can't do that. Error 2435. For help on this problem, pray"), but I would at least try it in FM. One thing I like about PianoDB is that it is not a stand-alone product and therefore requires that Access be installed. This sounds like a disadvantage, but it allows you total control and you can customize to your hearts desire. Chris's ExecuKey might be a good alternative, but I do like to customize things and I don't know if ExecuKey will allow that. Well, I suspect that things are less clear than before, but I hope not. Alan > From: John Baird <jbairdrpt@insightbb.com> > Reply-To: <jbairdrpt@cs.com>, "College and University Technicians > <caut@ptg.org>" <caut@ptg.org> > Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 07:38:08 -0500 > To: "College and University Technicians <caut@ptg.org>" <caut@ptg.org> > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Database > > Hi Alan, > > In Kansas City this summer you said that you had pretty much settled on > this Filemaker database, although for many years prior you had used the > Access database. I believe Ken Hale's PianoDB is required for the Access > database you were using. > > At Millikin University we are using a simple MS Access application, that > I wrote, which leaves a lot to be desired. If we were to move up to > something better, would you suggest the Filemaker program over the > Access? Filemaker seems to be your preference, and no doubt you have > continued to refine it. > > John Baird > > Alan McCoy wrote: > >> Hi folks, >> >> FYI. Scott Thile has created a CAUT Resource page on the CAUT site >> (http://www.ptg.org/caut.php/resource.htm). The first resource (of what I hope >> will be many, diverse resources) that is free for the taking is a database >> that I created for my use here at EWU in managing the inventory and my time. >> This is a Filemaker 7 database. Once downloaded, you'll need to unzip the >> files and then you'll need Filemaker 7 to use it. The companion Readme is a >> separate file you can download and read that has some brief comments and >> instructions about the database. >> >> Alan >> >> >> -- Alan McCoy, RPT >> Eastern Washington University >> amccoy@mail.ewu.edu >> 509-359-4627 >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives >> >> >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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