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TAWUG Disk No. 69 (SHK)
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DB.SUGGESTIONS
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.txt
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AppleWorks Document
|
1988-05-01
|
11KB
|
178 lines
O==========================================|====================================
IMPROVING D A T A B A S E LAYOUT
Cliff Nation
MWith just a little extra effort one can improve the layout of their DataBase
files 100 - 1000%.
Much of the improvements can be done to your current files with NO problems.
JSome changes may require that you modify the data in your files slightly, O
Mwhile other changes will require that you spend 10-20 minutes re-configuring 1
your on-screen layout and your printing layout.
KWhile reading this file I will be going from the easier suggestions to the N
Lmore involved ones. Suggestions will be located between lines of hyphens. J
HWhen reading this material locate the line of hyphens at the top of the F
screen so that you may see the entire Suggestion screen at one time.
KFor an example I will use a simple family oriented database which contains M
Kinformation on one's family. Information to be included in your data base P
Nwill be: last name, first name, initial, relationship, birthday, birthplace, L
address, city, state, zip. Other information could be easily substituted.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BASIC DATABASE: NO FRILLS
Last Name: Nation When first learning to set up aN
First Name: Derrick data base this is how most of themN
Initial: A look. Information is hard to see.N
Relationship: Son Many improvements could be made. L
Birthday: May 29 1976 J
Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri ONE: First Add several extra O
Address: 1234 Colorado Drive Categories (the importance of theseE
City: Denver will be discussed later).
State: Colorado
Zip: 80010
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Name:
First Name:
Initial:
Relationship:
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:K
1: If you are new to DataBases addM
2: 5 or 6 extra categories until youI
3: become more comfortable usingP
them. Add about 3 if you have been C
using them for a while.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last.Name.....: NationL
First.Name....: Derrick TWO: By simply adding a period M
Initial.......: A to the end of your category name,M
Relationship..: Son either when setting them up or byK
Birthdate.....: May 29 76 using Open Apple-N and doing itK
Birthplace....: Kansas City, Missouri later, information is now much L
Address.......: 1234 Colorado Drive easier to read. This suggestionM
City..........: Denver alone will improve your databasesG
State.........: Colorado immensely, don't you think?
Zip...........: 80010M
1: THREE: I like to insert periods L
2: between each separate word in myN
3: categories also, Ex. Last.Name....N
First.Name...J
(If you have UltraMacros, thisL
allows you to skip to the end ofF
the category name quickly)
JFOUR: Whenever you have a category which contains a date, if you include P
NDATE in that category name, AppleWorks will format your information for you. O
MIn our example by changing Birthday....... to Birthdate..... efficiency <
is improved, also formatting of dates is now standardized.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last.Name.....: Nation FIVE: By going into the SingleK
First.Name....: Derrick Record Layout screen we can useL
Initial.......: A Open Apple-L (layout) to add theJ
next improvement, which is to M
Relationship..: Son separate similar information intoO
different sections. First off, putO
Birthday......: 29 May 1976 the cursor on the 3 (cursor must beO
Birthplace....: Kansas City, Missouri on the first letter of the CategoryO
name) then use Open Apple-DownArrowI
Address.......: 1234 Colorado Drive to move the category down theO
City..........: Denver desired number of spaces. Go up toN
State.........: Colorado the first letter of the next cate-M
Zip...........: 80010 gory and move it down, and so on.M
Doing this improvement allows forN
1: quickly scanning your records fromJ
2: the single record format using:
3: OA-Down Arrow.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last.Name.....: Nation SIX: Using the method discussed in L
First.Name....: Derrick FIVE, use OA-Right Arrow to moveI
Initial.......: A those extra categories to theL
bottom row and to the far right.J
Relationship..: Son This gets them out of your way@
until you need them.
Birthday......: 29 May 1976'
Birthplace....: Kansas City, Missouri
Address.......: 1234 Colorado Drive
City..........: Denver
State.........: Colorado
Zip...........: 80010
1: 2: 3:
NAt this time lets discuss why you need those extra categories. If you set up N
Lyour data base without those blank categories, then decided that you wanted L
to add an extra category to your database, something like Telephone#.....4
you would be creating some problems for your self.
HAll the layouts you had created will revert back to AppleWorks' default P
Nvalues!!! All of your Printing layouts would also revert back to AppleWorks' L
JDefault values!!! So, before adding categories to data bases you already J
Hhave, weigh these consequences, is it worth all the time to go back and M
Kredefine all the values that you want to have for your printouts and other
layouts.
IBUT, by having some blank category names you could simply do an OA-N and P
Nrename 3 to Telephone#..... and none of your layouts would be disturbed.
J(You may be asking yourself "Is three or six blank categories enough? If J
Hthree or six are good, then 10 or 20 would be even better!" I say "Who P
Nknows"? Seriously though AppleWorks does have limits. You are limited to 30 M
Kcategories. And if you have too many blank categories they will limit the (
space for data entry. So, Experiment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
KSEVEN: By using the OA-L methods discussed above you can move each or any L
Jcategory around on your screen. You could move the name section into the O
Mmiddle of the screen; you could change places between the address categories M
Kand the birth information categories. Whatever makes you happy. Whatever
works for you.
YOUR DATA BASE SCREEN NOW LOOKS LIKE THIS:
Last.Name.....: Nation2
First.Name....: Derrick,
Initial.......: A
Relationship..: Son
Address.......: 1234 Colorado Drive
City..........: Denver
State.........: Colorado
Zip...........: 80010
Telephone#....: 123-4567
Birthday......: 29 May 1976I
Birthplace....: Kansas City, Missouri
1: 2:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last.Name: Nation EIGHT: Here is a similar but D
First.Name: Derrick different layout format.I
Initial: A Instead of periods after the L
category names, spaces have beenM
Relationship: Son inserted before each name to evenO
out the columns. Try both formats.N
Birthday: 29 May 1976 Mix both styles together as in theM
Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri next example. Anything is legal.
Address: 1234 Colorado Drive
City: Denver
State: Colorado
Zip: 80010
1:
2:
3:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last.Name.....: Nation ,
First.Name: Derrick ,
Initial: A ,
,
Relationship..: Son ,
,
Birthday......: 29 May 1976 ,
Birthplace....: Kansas City, Missouri ,
,
Address: 1234 Colorado Drive ,
City: Denver ,
State: Colorado ,
Zip: 80010 ,
,
1: ,
2: ,
3:
To see the actual databases, review the database files:
DB.TEST.1
DB.TEST.2
DB.TEST.3
LIf you experiment with your databases, you will make them look much better, J
Hand they will be more meaningful to you. Information will be easier to 7
locate and read, for you and others who use them too.
Live long and prosper.