Approach 96

Approach is one of the high points of SmartSuite. 'Power combined with ease of use' may be the most hackneyed claim in software marketing, but the cap does fit Lotus' desktop database. Approach is crammed full of features. It is a relational system, which means that you can set up efficient databases which tie together related bodies of data and keep duplication to a minimum. The data can even be stored in non-Lotus databases. In our ScreenCam, we painlessly hook up an imaginary magazine's subscription department's FoxPro database - which contains data on the number of back issues left in stock - with Editorial's Access database of articles that have run in back issues. The result? Readers can call asking when a particular piece of software was reviewed, and order the correct issue immediately. A good set of form design tools, integrated macros and a scripting language make it easy to design robust, capable applications. Team computing features enable several people to work with a database. Sophisticated reporting tools manipulate data in a wide variety of ways, so you can extract maximum value from stored information. Ian Sharpe looks at many of Approach's features in this month's Working with SmartSuite HandsOn tutorial on the other CD. And don't forget you can save yourself over £263 upgrading to SmartSuite Millennium Edition through PC Plus' exlcusive offer. The key to designing databases that will save you time is a good design. Before you start throwing fields at forms, you should have a clear idea of what kind of information you need the database to give you. This should help you decide what information you actually need to store. While it's always a good idea to make a provision for future expansion (adding a spare field for a Euro tax that doesn't exist yet or leaving room to enter 'hydrogen powered' or 'electric' in a database of car makes), nothing is more frustrating for your poor data-entry clerk than entering endless fields that he or she knows will never be used. When you first open Approach you'll have the choice of opening an existing file or creating a new one using SmartMaster. At the lower left is a button which launches the Tour, a fast way to familiarise yourself with the program. Even if you've used a database before, a good place to start is with a SmartMaster template. Select a template that comes close to what you are trying to accomplish. Here we're choosing the survey SmartMaster, so we can quickly build an employee survey. Click OK and SmartMaster will create a new database for you, complete with forms and reports which you can then customise for your own peculiar needs. The SmartMaster template has the rather dubious category 'Ethnicity' as one of its fields. Changing it to something more interesting, however, is just a question of clicking the Design button on the toolbar and changing the selections. Creating the questions that will be asked is even simpler, since these are stored as records in the database. Once you are happy with the basic design of your questionaire, it can be reused again and again with different questions. In this case, perhaps different versions for the staff and management would be appropriate. To further customise the look and function of your database, start playing with the appearance of your forms. Adding fields to forms is as simple as dragging and dropping from the field list. Select Design View, right-click on any object on screen, choose Object Properties from the context menu, and you have full access to colour, font, alignment, borders and more, as well as the chance to hang more advanced features, such as macros, from the object. Happy designing! Product details Contact: Lotus Developement Tel: +44 (0)1784 455445 Fax: N/A Price: £293 Serial Number: N/A Limitations: None Uninstall: Yes - Add/Remove programs in Control Panel System requirements: Windows 95 or 98, NT 4 or later, Pentium, 16Mb RAM. Faster processor and more RAM recommended. 40 Mb disk space used (typical install) WWW: http://www.lotus.com/ E-Mail: N/A