My Data Base

by Avanquest

Product Features

• Select from 20 different databases and 70 assorted reports - sure to meet your business or information needs
• Import data from any of the more popular databases, or let simple wizards guide you through data entry
• Simple contact management tools for tracing important phone numbers, emails and addresses
• Print database information directly to labels, envelopes, Rolodex cards&more

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000VYK0U
• Item model number: 2737
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 31, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,853 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #31 in Software > Business & Office > Database
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

With MyDataBase an all-purpose data manipulation&organization is right at your fingertips!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Database is GREAT for simple databases, May 1, 2007

By 

jobert (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Data Base (CD-ROM)

UPDATE: ARGH! The warning I printed in the last sentence on here came true for me: it deleted all of my information on one of the databases I created. I am glad I had a backup. But I will NOT be using this database program any longer, and will search for a new database program with my fingers crossed.

Amazon will not let me change the number of stars, but if I could, I would give it 2.

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I bought this database, because one aspect of my job entails keeping about 30 different records updated simultaneously and scheduling several different people to do different jobs at different times in different places. We also needed to be able to generate form letters.

The person working here before me had been using Excel, but that was a little overwhelming for me, because I wanted to just see one record at a time, which is not possible with Excel. Also, I wanted something where I could add the 30 or so files each year into the same database for tracking purposes from year-to-year, which the old Excel spreadsheets floating around would have made difficult.

So I did a little research on databases. I didn't need anything fancy; I had used Microsoft Access at another job, and felt that it was not as intuitive and probably had more features than I needed. Plus, in reviews I read of more recent versions of Access, people complained a lot about its stability. For me, I just wanted to find something inexpensive and simple that could keep things organized, give me flexibility to customize the database, and that could merge information into Publisher or Word.

This program fits that bill perfectly!

It is SO user-friendly, that I didn't even need to read the instructions. I just started to play with it, and designed my own custom database, and had a lot of freedom in what it did and what features I chose to use. I think I only consulted the help menu twice.

I could insert numeric, text, notebox, etc, fields into the database. When generating reports or exporting the database to other programs, I can choose only the fields I want to use in the database (or all of them) and export that to a .csv file that merges nicely with Publisher. They built in a lot of flexibility in how to create reports and how to adjust their appearance. It only takes minutes to figure out what to do. It is very intuitive.

I recommend this for people who need a simple database. I am not sure how it would hold up if it has several files in it, however. Also, the user interface is not flashy. There are background images to choose from that are very ugly. But I didn't care about making it look flashy--for me, I just wanted it to be useable.

Just one word of warning: A friend of mine who is a software engineer said that it is important to frequently back-up this type of database program on a separate drive (a flash drive, etc.) because it is prone to having files become corrupt when the database is too large.

This has NOT happened to me, but I am heeding his advice and thought I would pass it on to readers.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent flat field data base, July 7, 2007

By 

Oregon1974 (Hillsboro, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Data Base (CD-ROM)

I got this data base to keep track of financial accounts at home where I do an annual update of what is in each account, and also to make simple financial reports as volunteer treasurer in an organization I am in. It does both of these jobs very well. I'm going to take a little time here to describe the difference between a data base and a spreadsheet and give some background so skip this if old hat to you.

When modern computers first came out in the '80's there were lots of data base programs. I had an Atari ST with a "Data Manager ST" program that did lots of relatively simple things well (like the jobs above). But somehow, spreadsheets like Excel and dedicated complicated financial programs, like Quickbooks, seem to have taken over and simple data bases are just not common anymore. Instead, we have huge data base programs like Access and Paradox which are very powerful but way too much for the home user. In particular, these newer data bases are "relational" in that you can build up a master data base file and then build all kinds of tables off the master data base. When something changes in the master data base then all the offspring tables are updated. Neat but not easy to master and way too complicated for simple tasks IMHO.

An advantage of a data base over a spreadsheet like Excel is that when you enter information in a spreadsheet you have to go column by column, cell by cell. In a data base each "record" consists of "fields" which show on a data entry form for each record. For instance, if you were to make a data base of your baseball card collection, each card would be a "record." The record is then broken down into separate "fields" for player's name, team, position, etc. When you enter data for each card the data base presents you with an entry form page where you fill in labelled blanks for each field rather than filling in cells of a crowded spreadsheet. This may not sound like a lot, but it makes data entry much more pleasant and easy I think.

When you are ready to print out your collection the data base lets you configure a report with columns and which looks very much like a spreadsheet, or you can print out individual records as in mailing labels.

The weakness of data bases is math related. You don't don't see the results of mathematical operations until you print the whole report (My Data Base lets you do a print preview on screen which shows this). In keeping track of financial accounts, you can sort by a given field (like "retirement accounts") and then when the report prints you can tell it to do a subtotal on that field, and up to 2 other subtotals, along with a grand total. Again, this is available in print preview. You can do filtering and sorting on the data.

The only real weakness I've found in My Data Base (and hence 4 stars rather than 5) is that while it lets you do calculations with field data, it does not let you use the results of that calculation in any other field. The Data Manager ST program from years ago could do that, so I would expect that here.

But there is a tremendous amount of flexibility built into My Data Base and it makes customizing your data input and output a pleasure. It makes setting up a data base from scratch relatively easy, including layout of your fields in a well formatted input page. You have good control over the font appearance and layout in output as well.

It imports and exports data from Excel and other programs well if you take a little time to set it up right. For instance, I had a spreadsheet I wanted to import from Excel. If I did that into a blank My Data Base there was no way to get the format of the fields correct (text vs. numbers etc.). My Data Base created fields for the incoming data, but the format was wrong. In the data base, once the format of the field is defined you can't change it. So the work around was to first create My Data Base fields in the correct format with the same names as the columns from Excel, and the same order. The import then went perfectly.

The point here is to give some idea of what this program can do. It comes with some canned data bases like address books and recipes. But the real power is building the data bases yourself. The program is much more powerful and richer than the promotion would indicate. Unless you are using only the precanned applications, be prepared to spend considerable time customizing, especially if you are playing around with subtotals and math in the fields, but I think you will find that you can master many tasks with this program and be delighted with the results. I have been.

November 2009 Update: I've continued to expand the use of this program as indicated above. Only one caution I'd add is this: When you save your file do not use periods in the file name itself in addition to the period prior to the extension. This fouls up the ability of the program to read its files. A data base program like this creates something like 4 support files every time it saves a file and they all get fouled up if there is an extra period in the file name. Since I found that out early on I've had no stability problems, enjoy the program and find it very useful.

May 2011 Update: The program has continued to be useful as described above.

January 2012 Update: I had the need to import a fairly messy Excel sheet the other day and it caused the Data Base to crash even though I had set up columns to match the fields in Excel. What I found worked was to cut and paste the Excel columns needed into a fresh Excel file and then the import worked fine. Users may find this technique useful with a tough import.

I've also had the need to create a custom output form that required the feature of removing dead spaces horizontally and vertically. For instance, if you are doing a simple address label, you might have a second address line or not depending on the particular address. What you want is to remove the blank line when there is no second address line and push the remaining lines up so there is no blank line. That is the vertical case. The same is true horizontally if let's say you leave 20 characters of space for the first name but the first name only has 3 characters. You'd have a lot of empty space horizontally. The technical name for removing these dead spaces is, I believe, "concatenation." This program has a very elegant way of achieving concatenation. When you've place your fields in the form, go to the Insert menu and select "Alignment Box." This allows you to draw a box around the fields you want to have the dead spaces removed from. Then like magic all the horizontal and vertical dead spaces are removed when you print each of the labels or forms. Very neat. You can use multiple alignment boxes in the same form. I used this to make a 3 column telephone list with the name information in the first column, address info in the second and contact info in the 3rd. The program continues to surprise me in how much it can do.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to Learn Database Program, October 14, 2010

By 

JCK - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Data Base (CD-ROM)

My database is fantastic. I have used this program extensively and it is so easy to learn and use. There are many ready made templets for the home and business or you can create your own or modify the templets to your needs. There are so many things you can use this program for, it makes printing labels a breeze. I even used it to make numbered tickets for events. This is a must have program for the PC (does not work with Mac)and there is a later version called "My DataBase Home and Business." This program is the best..... better than "ACT" or "File Maker Pro." .... better than anything I have ever tried.