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April 12, 2008
HanDBase 4.0
I must admit that I have been aware of HanDBase for some time, but have largely ignored it because my databases are in the millions of records and would swamp the memory of a PDA.
However, upon the prompting of a friend, I took another look at the new version 4.0 recently and was more than a little impressed with what I found.
HandDBase is a sophisticated relational database that will work on almost all PDA platforms. It allows data entry, record searching, sorting, filtering, printing, and syncing with desktop and handheld devices. It will import/export Microsoft Access or other ODBC compliant databases.
You can construct your own custom-designed database using fifteen different kinds of fields from text to numerical to date to calculating and more. It also lets you create forms for data input with a nifty drag and drop designer. The form designer is impressive. You can select colors for text, background, buttons, as well as button functions and button shape. There are drop down boxes, radio buttons, and free text fields that can contain up to 2000 characters. You can even insert graphics in the forms.
HanDBase comes with a desktop form designer application as well. You can also sync data with a desktop computer if you wish.
There are unlimited ways to use HanDBase. For example, in the personal arena, you may wish to make shopping lists, packing lists, to do lists, guest, and gift lists. You can construct a database to handle recipes, car and travel information, bible study, workouts, and weight loss.
In the realm of business, you can use HanDBase for tracking inventory, customers, deliveries, estimates, invoices, and much more.
In the medical and professional field, there are innumerable tasks that HanDBase will perform for you with respect to patient/client records and vital information access at your fingertips.
When properly equipped, HanDBase can accommodate barcode scanning into a database, which has huge implications.
HanDBase strives for universal compatibility between different types of databases, handheld, and desktop platforms.
If you are concerned about security, HanDBase allows you to encrypt your data in many different ways on several levels. Developers can lock certain aspects of a program so that users can’t mess with it.
Truly, the applications are only limited by your imagination. If you are not up to the tedium of constructing your own database, HanDBase will build it for you for a small fee. Not only that, but there are over 2000 ready-made databases already online on the Website that you can download free.
Some of the most popular examples of ready-made free databases include WeightWatchers guide, Jenny Craig meal buying list, music collection, herbal medicines, home to do list, teacher’s grade book, and recipes.
As I already mentioned, HanDBase is a relational database so that you can link to other databases and pull up data in specified fields. For this purpose, it also allows field mapping between various databases.
Here is where I could go into a mini-tutorial on how to use HanDBase, but the excellent online video tutorials make it unnecessary.
Almost anyone’s personal life, business, or profession can benefit from the power HanDBase. You owe it to yourself to check it out and give it a try. There is a 30 free trial. If you decide that it will change your life forever and you cannot live without it, you have several purchase options ranging from $39.95 to $99.95 depending on the plug-ins and addons.
Conclusions
Let me make it perfectly clear, if I have not already done so, HanDBase has won me over, and I highly recommend it. However, I do think it is weak in the report area (unless I completely missed something). For example, if you need the statistics on how many people in your database have orange hair, blue teeth, and purple ears, you could create a filter, but not a report with statistics.
If you are looking for a simple list program, you may be better off with something like ListPro, for it can be a little tedious going through all the motions to build a database just for a simple shopping list. But, you may find that there is already a database that suits your needs for you to download free.
And, clearly, HanDBase is not for huge multi-million record databases because of the limitations of handheld memory and processing power.
Nevertheless, with these limitations in mind, HanDBase offers a handheld solution for individuals, businesses, and professionals who want to be organized and have access to critical information at their fingertips on the job and in the field. Don’t forget that data can be transferred between devices and synchronization keeps all records up to date.
HanDBase is an amazingly powerful program for handheld data access, input, and manipulation.
Posted by conradb212 at April 12, 2008 04:41 PM