Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook
Devcon 2020 Goes Virtual! LEARN MORE >

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Which program?

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
    #1

    Which program?

    Will appreciate feedback from any Alpha users. I am manager in small office. My assistants know very little more than data entry. All my computer knowledge is self-taught. In 1993 I set up database in Alpha 4 (out of necessity). I later set up a relational set in Alpha 4. I later learned it was set up incorrectly, but it basically worked for us. I switched to Alpha 5 after getting Windows because I thought Windows was much friendlier. I was never happy with Alpha 5�did not allow flexibility in printing. Finally I switched to MS Access. It took me a LONG time to get it set up. I still do not feel I understand what I am doing when I need to change something. When I try to go into MS Help it is like they are speaking a different language. I received the ad today for Alpha 4 V7. It made me wonder if I should change back to Alpha 4. I am sure that I probably could not convert data, so need to be very sure of what I am doing before I leap. I am very happy with Access with the looks of printed reports, but not happy with control of knowledge of program. I also am getting old, will retire in a few years. At the present time assistants do not understand Access, Alpha 4 or 5 or DOS Programs. The important thing I need from databases are various reports on Jobs, due dates, Material needed, etc. Will appreciate any comments, especially if you have used all the programs.
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: Which program?

    Jeanne
    I have been using Alpha for about 12 years. I started with the DOS version and tried to switch to the Windows version with Alpha5v1 I found it very difficult and I also attempted to switch to MS Access. It took alot of attempts but I have switch to Alpha5v4.5 and it is the greatest software I have ever used. Access was even harder to use and I found it would not do the things that I wanted out of it.
    Stick with Alpha and ask alot of questions on this board and you will soon be able to do the things you want. The people on this Board are the most helpful group I have ever come across.
    And as for being close to retirment I think a great number of us Alpha users are there or close to it. I hope to work as a developer in Alpha databases when I finally quit my job and retire.

    Good luck and hangin there.

    Rick T.

    Comment

      #3
      RE: Which program?

      Jeanne! I have used Alpha almost from the start, including alpha 4V6 (just ordered A4V7) and Alpha 5V4.5 (and will get A5V5 when it comes out). I still use Alpha 4 on some of my
      applications. I will not change to Alpha 5 for these because A4 does everything I want in these applications.
      However, A5 is the way to go. Using this board and some
      study, you can't beat A5. A4 is by far the best DOS database ever written, and as I said, I still use it, but A5 is the way to go. Buy the way, I am retired (USAF and Police) but still do some application work in A4 & A5. Good Luck.

      Comment

        #4
        RE: Which program?

        Jeanne,

        I did it too, but may have a little more knowledge of programming.

        Do a5v4.5! It really has more flexibility and power than a4 or access.

        Very few people use access for long.

        Dave
        Dave Mason
        [email protected]
        Skype is dave.mason46

        Comment

          #5
          RE: Which program?

          You are not getting old... you're just getting a little older!
          Jim in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

          All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today.

          Comment

            #6
            RE: Which program?

            I do so agree. I was an Alpha 4 user for years, and I hated mocving to Alpha 5 - it felt different and less controllable. But in fact, if you stick at it - about 3 months to get over the hump, you will find it is actually MORE controllable (in terms of reports and stuff) that A4v6.

            Go on - make the jump.

            Rev Peter Lear (Retired Colonel too!)

            Comment

              #7
              RE: Which program?

              For many many years, I used Dataflex in the DOS and Windows worlds. It is still around, very expensive and complex but very good, but the problems cause to clients with the changing licensing arrangements by Dataflex made me decide to walk away.

              I have used Access over a number of years. It is a very good product and you can do a lot without any programming. It is the same with Alpha 5.

              What really turned me off Acess is that over a network with a reasonably large database it is a total dog, with no reliable refresh on records. I remember reading somewhere that Access sends the whole dataset to your machine, but I have never checked this out. On a single machine, Access is ok.

              Both products have good and not so good features. For the past 4 months, I have been using Alpha 5 to develop a simple database and see what it is really like. So far, A5 is quite good, although it does crash while developing forms reports etc., but that is usually caused by me with conflicting or not so complimentary options in forms, tables etc. Even so, it should not crash so often.

              As a general idea, I would avoid returning to a DOS product in the Windows world. Most products like A4 are needed just to support the hugh DOS product base. If you are working on a small database or on a single machine stay with Access and avoid changing unecessarily.

              I like the easy way of designing forms, letters and reports in A5, especially the ability to simply drag a field onto a footer and have the total worked out.

              I don't like the way the reports & letters have trouble figuring out what size paper they will use when I swap printers. This has turned out to be inconvenient as I develop a lot at home and then bring the database to work, where naturally another printer must be selected.

              If you keep the concept simple and think your requirements through, both products will work well. Although I have looked at Filemanager Pro and it is a good product without any real programming; this is good and bad, depending on how complex your requirements are.

              I am past retirement age and hope to take up surfing again very soon now. Retire and then contract yourself back as a programming consultant- more per hour that way.

              Comment

              Previous template Next
              Working...
              X