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List:       koffice
Subject:    KDatabase for KOffice
From:       Dave Bailey <dbailey () dnetworks ! com>
Date:       2001-10-31 16:33:10
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Hey guys,

I  and my compadres work with technology in a lot of schools up and down the 
eastern coastal area. (Mostly in the Carolinas.)

There is a LOT of interest in moving away from Microsoft Works or Microsoft 
Office- especially since Microsoft has been getting far expensive with their 
new licenses.

The one obstacle? The computer skills tests in most districts I work with 
require a database.

Currently, Linux has lots of database backends, but not many easy database 
front-ends.

I would love to see something simple, like a database frontend based on 
FileMaker or even just Microsoft Works database module.

Access is a bit of a disaster for schools, so most schools stick with 
Microsoft Works just because of the easy-to-use database. (IE- in a computer 
schools test, you don't want your students failing because they can't 
understand a basic computer skill due to the fact the software GUI stinks.)

A basic database for KOffice would help free a lot of these school districts 
from paying HUGE sums of money to Microsoft year after year. Many of these 
school systems are strapped for cash and can't afford to purchase needed 
upgrade computer systems and networks due to software expense. (I see many 
systems still using Macintosh (not PowerMacs) and 386/486 systems.)

A basic database would really help- it should probably allow for-

1. A single file storage approach to saving a local database.
2. Both form and list views of the data. The form view should have some basic 
interface element options like popup lists, checkboxes and radio buttons.
3. Very basic report printing based on the layouts for simplicity sake.
4. Import and export capabilities of, at least, text command and tab 
delimited files.
5. A find/filter capability to show a sub-set of all the records based on 
search criteria.
6. Wysiwyg layout creation.
7. multiple field sorting capability

Some other features that would be nice, but not at all required-

1. spell checking.
2. integration with KWord for things like automating mail merges
3. a simple scripting language to automate certain tasks.

What do you think. Have you discussed any of this? I've looked around for 
this solution and found *nothing*. Plenty of power databases, but no 
easy-to-use ones.

Thanks for listening-

Dave Bailey
Senior Network Engineer
Data Networks
dbailey@dnetworks.com

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