★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ QUICKFILE|Amtix) ★ |
| Quickfile | Applications Bureautique |
The first point to examine about any database is how long a field can be. As long as a piece of string, or will more than 40 characters do it an injury? Masterfile from Campbellsoft handles large text files very well, mostly because it is so flexible in the way it can display files and fields. You can for, example, enter an entire address in one field and still have it displayed on one line. But if you want to perform cross file or field calculations then Masterfile cannot help. This particular area seems to be the strength of Quickfile. Getting on and in Setting up a file works very well. Once you have selected the option the program asks for the name of the file to be created. The next stage is to enter the number of fields that you want, the maximum being 18. The program suggests that the length of data in each of the fields is kept under fifteen characters, this is because the window which displays the fields only occupies the left-hand three-quarters of the screen, so any field wider than the window has to wrap round onto the next line making the display very untidy. If you wanted to keep an address then you would assign the house name to one field, street to another and so on. That method is manageable, but it can eat up the field allowance. The record design stage terminates with the computer asking if you want any of the data to be calculated from data in other fields. This is potentially a very powerful option. You could set up a stock record with three fields, quantity, unit price and stock value. The stock value could be calculated by the program, from the other two fields. Quickfile allows formulas to include the four basic operands as well as percentages, although you are restricted by only being able to use two fields to make up the third. But if there are some fields to spare and a little care is exercised, it's possible to build up a complex multi-field formula by putting temporary results into one field, which can then be used to supply data for another. Once the file is designed, entering data can begin — a very straightforward operation. The computer writes the field name in a little box at the bottom of the screen and then waits patiently until a decision is taken as to what to put in it. Each field is presented in turn until a record is complete. Any fields that rely on their contents being calculated from other fields fill with data as soon as the source data has been supplied. If a mistake is spotted after ENTERing a field then you have to wait until the rest of the record is complete when the computer asks Tnis record OK Y/N. A N response is greeted with Another Record Y/N. The logical types among us might be tempt-ea to say 'no, I want to correct the last one first'. Well the logical ones would be wrong. Answering yes results in the incorrect record being presented, except that now it's blank and the entire record must be entered again. This may seem a rather clumsy way way correcting mistakes but it really isn't too bad. The alternative course is to stop entering data and return to the main menu, and then on to the REVIEW section which allows the editing of individual fields without having to obliterate the entire field. Cut And Run —The Editor Mode At some stage you may want to alter the design of the records in a file. Quickfile offers a degree of record editing power. The names of fields may be changed and, if any are calculated, change the formula. Extra fields can be added, up to the maximum of .18 but only one at a time. If you wanted to add two fields to a record, then the file is saved out and reloaded before adding the second record. Files may be searched for a particular record and the search may be conducted on one named field. The computer can search for embedded text as well as whole words. For example, all records could be searched which related to people whose names ended with EMT. No, I don't have a clue why you would want to do that, it was only an example after all. But you can see that if you forget someone's initials then the appropriate record can be located with just the surname, or even part of it. When the record has been found it may be amended, deleted or left unchanged. Report From the reports menu a reasonable range of useful output may be produced, either on the screen or on the printer. The label option has a rather unassuming name, it does a little more than you might expect. Firstly you can print out parts of records with the fields printed in any order. Data may be printed conditionally, ie print field 2 if the data in it is greater than 4, or less than or equal to' etc . . . Where you have fields of numeric data you can ask for a total report which presents a list of the field names and a total of the data in each field across all of the records. That could be a very neat way of keeping a total stock record. The only option that lets this program down is the sort. Although the sort can be based on any chosen field containing alphabetic or numeric data, and sorted into ascending or descending order — it's a slow process. So slow in fact that Amstrad launched a new machine by the time the program had sorted my test file. My last moan is that the error checking could be improved. Mr Beech flatters me when he suspects that I won't enter the same field number twice when telling the label designer the order in which to print the fields. Or even ask it to calculate the contents of one field by multiplying that field by itself. For the careful user this is a very clever program. The sort routine needs seeing to, perhaps that could be put into machine code. Otherwise Quickfile is worth every penny especially to those keeping numeric or short alphabetic data items. This would be ideal for keeping stock records. At the end of the day you could simply alter the quantity change and, as if by magic, the total stock value could be printed out.
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