Use Excel or Open Office Calc to store records

Q Can you recommend an alternative database to Lotus Approach, which is good but getting on a bit?
I use it for a collection of historic events associated with the Lindley surname which runs to over 80,000 records. The database is simple but makes use of Approach’s capacious memo field. I don’t want to pay for Microsoft Access and a family tree program is not appropriate.

John Lindley

A There are a couple of programs that could be used in place of Lotus Approach. If the database is relatively simple in structure without linked tables (even if it contains 80,000 records) then it should be possible to import it into Excel.

Either save the file as an Excel document, or a CSV (comma-separated values) file. The latter is text based and compatible with the widest range of software.

Microsoft Excel is included in the Home and Student Edition of Microsoft Office, which is the most affordable.

If you would like to avoid spending any money, the Openoffice suite can be downloaded and installed at no cost. It includes a spreadsheet called Calc and database program called Base.

You can import your database as a spreadsheet into Calc as you would for Excel. Using the database software would be more versatile, although it is a little harder to use.

Openoffice Base cannot open Lotus Approach files so you should either export the database as a CSV file or as a dBase (.dbf) file.

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