Building a database

[danielturner]

Hello I am relatively new to the mac world and brand new to databases. I run a business and on my old computer (a pc) I used Microsoft access to build a database to store and update client information and keep track of daily attendance, but mac doesn't have access.

So is there a program I can use to build a database to use on my mac. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Dan

[Randy B. Singer]

The Macintosh has a bunch of database programs available for it.

On the low end there is:

NeoOffice (free)
NeoOffice Home
(This is a free office suite very similar to Microsoft Office. Since it is free, you may want to give this a try before any of these others.)

Bento
Personal Database and Organizer Software | Bento 3

EagleData (free)
EagleData

FrontBase (free if you forego support)
http://www.frontbase.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/FrontBase

Panorama Sheets ($40)
Panorama Sheets -- RAM Based Database for Speed and Flexibility

iList Data ($70)
Welcome to iList Data

iDatabase ($20)
iDatabase, Database for Mac and iPhone - Organize and catalog information | Apimac

iData ($70)
iData3.com

Valentina
Welcome to Valentina

Papyrus (an office suite that includes a database)
Papyrus OFFICE (English) - R.O.M. logicware GmbH

SuperCard
Introducing SuperCard 4.7 - Now Even More Power and Ease of Use


On the high end there is:

FileMaker Pro
Database Software | FileMaker

Panorama
http://www.provue.com/panorama5.html

4th Dimension
http://www.4d.com/products/4thdimension.html

Omnis
http://www.omnis.net/products/studio...etail=overview

Helix
http://www.qsatoolworks.com/1product/helix60.html

Fileability's Xbase £40
a database program that features templates, table views or automatically generated form views, a built-in word processor for reports, form design, and tabs. It also includes regular expressions, numerical validation, 12 data types, an API for scripting via JavaScript, and more.
Fileability › Xbase

___________________________________________

Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting
___________________________________________

[[DT]]

Nice post by Randy!

I'd like to offer one other free option, Open Office:

OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

The included DB product looks pretty decent, shares a few UI elements with MS Access and can open Access DBs as well (I only did this to review some data, so I'm not 100% on the level of compatibility).

It has the ability design forms and reports too, so I'm assuming you could build a decent application wrapper around your database design.

[Randy B. Singer]

Nice post by Randy!

Thank you! That is very nice of you to say.

I'd like to offer one other free option, Open Office...

OpenOffice and NeoOffice are almost identical. Both are based on the open-source OpenOffice codebase from Sun, originally from Star Office.

Actually there are about a half dozen competing "Projects" working with the OpenOffice codebase to create a Mac native port. Others are GoOo, StarOffice/Mac and LibreOffice. (All of which are free, except for StarOffice.) Of these, OpenOffice/Mac is the best known, and ironically the least advanced.

NeoOffice is currently the most advanced. NeoOffice has implemented more features for the Macintosh:
NeoOffice 3.1.1 Feature Comparison - NeoWiki

...and in most instances is faster.
NeoOffice Performance Comparison - NeoWiki

For the future, you should keep an eye on LibreOffice, as it is likely to have a greater rate of development than any of these others. LibreOffice is a new fork in the Open Office development field, which, unlike all the others, is being backed by some heavy hitters such as BROffice, Google, Novell and Red Hat. In short order this project should eclipse all of the other Open Office projects.
Home » LibreOffice

The first release version (i.e. non-beta) version of LibreOffice was released a couple of weeks ago. it is extremely impressive, but I've been playing with it, and it crashes constantly. It is not quite ready for prime-time. But with a beautiful interface, and about 90% of Microsoft Office's features, at some point in the near future when LibreOffice is made stable, just about all of Microsoft Office's customers will never need to pay for MS Office again!

___________________________________________

Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting
___________________________________________

[[DT]]

Fantastic info! I'm going to track down Neo and keep an eye out on Libre. We use MS Office (Winders©) under Parallels, but sometimes it's nice just to fire up a native OSX app if you don't need some kind of specific compatibility.

You know you should write a book ...





... oh, wait.


(Thanks [again], have a terrific rest-of-the-weekend).

[Randy B. Singer]

Fantastic info! I'm going to track down Neo and keep an eye out on Libre.

Sorry, I should have given citations so that you can check out everything that I mentioned.

NeoOffice - free
NeoOffice Home

GoOo - free
Your Office Suite

LibreOffice - free
Home » LibreOffice

Oracle Open Office (aka StarOffice) - (Commercial)
Oracle Open Office | Applications | Oracle

Enjoy!

___________________________________________

Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
OS X Maintenance And Troubleshooting
___________________________________________

[chscag]

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