Database to import Windows based Lotus Approach?

[Bridgebuster]

Is there such an animal? My database needs are minimal and would prefer free or open source app to fit my retirement income.

 

[RadDave]

Is there such an animal? My database needs are minimal and would prefer free or open source app to fit my retirement income.

Hello - I'm using Apple's Numbers (the spreadsheet app of their Office Suites, others are Keynote and Pages) - according to this Apple Support Article, Excel or text files can be imported into Numbers - I've never used Lotus so you'll need to investigate its 'export' options and possibility of using Excel as an intermediary?

After retirement about 2012 I transition from a Microsoft world to Apple - had a bunch of 'personal' databases in Access (not much in Excel) and ended up doing CSV (comma separated variables) for getting my files into Numbers. Let us know your results - may help others. Dave

Import an Excel or text file into Numbers on Mac​

You can import Excel spreadsheets, as well as delimited or fixed-width text files into Numbers. If you import a delimited or fixed-width file and your table doesn’t look right, you can adjust import settings.

Note: You can’t adjust import settings after you edit the imported table.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Lotus Approach was purchased by IBM in 2008 and rolled into another product. As far as I know there was never a compatible Macintosh version, nor is there a Macintosh translator that would allow one to open an Approach database directly in a database application for the Macintosh.

Over the years I've been asked many times if X database could be opened in a Macintosh database program. The answer is both encouraging and discouraging. The thing is, most database programs will allow you to export your raw data in some sort of standardized format. Something like plain text that is tab delimited to separate records and items. (However, I suspect that you no longer even have access to the original program to do an export of the database into a standardized format.) In theory, you should be able to create a form in a Macintosh database program with all of the same fields that existed in the original database, and do a simple import, and Bob's Your Uncle.

But it's not that simple. Such an import usually takes some manual tweeking, or, even better, a handmade script to move everything over quickly and more precisely.

But then you get to the problem that with Approach we aren't talking about a flat (plain) database, we are talking about a relational database, which will make transferring data from one program to another quite a bit more complex.

An added complication is that you don't want to spend any serious money on this. While there are a lot of database programs for the Macintosh (I can give you a long list, if you like) there are no free, or even any inexpensive relational database programs. Relational database programs are high-end.

So, if your database needs are "minimal", as you state, I can suggest one or more free, very nice, flat database programs, such as this awesome one:

Symphytum (free)
http://giowck.github.io/symphytum/
(Allows you to easily create your own forms for data input via drag and drop. Automatic synchronization across computers is built-in, and it is cross platform - both Mac and Windows)!

But none will import your existing Approach database in an automated fashion, and you may not be able to move your data into it AT ALL unless your Approach database is extremely simple, is in a standardized format, and you can massage it manually to make things work. This all doesn't sound very likely unless you have a programming background.

 

[Bridgebuster]

Hello - I'm using Apple's Numbers (the spreadsheet app of their Office Suites, others are Keynote and Pages) - according to this Apple Support Article, Excel or text files can be imported into Numbers - I've never used Lotus so you'll need to investigate its 'export' options and possibility of using Excel as an intermediary?

After retirement about 2012 I transition from a Microsoft world to Apple - had a bunch of 'personal' databases in Access (not much in Excel) and ended up doing CSV (comma separated variables) for getting my files into Numbers. Let us know your results - may help others. Dave

Thanks brother. I'll give it a shot.

 

[MacBiter]

Try LibreOffice and see if the database component will open Lotus databases - if so, LibreOffice would then be able to Save them as Excel, and could then be opened in Numbers.

 

[Bridgebuster]

OK, thanks. That sounds easy enough.