Hello All, I've used Open Office on my MacBook Pro for about three years and like it, but have not done anything particularly challenging. I'm using Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0 now.
I need advice as to whether OO's Base with MySQL can be used in a practical way to do some tasks, before making a major attempt to switch from MS Access to OO & MySQL for this work. I started to make this switch 3 years ago but stopped when I learned that Base does not include its own database engine. Sample tasks are as follows: For many years I used MS Access to facilitate mailing CDs, later DVDs, to attendees of ACM SIGAda Conferences, now morphed into HILT Conferences. I'd use the Conference Attendee List in the Access DB to perform two jobs to support this work: * Print shipping Labels via a DYMO Printer. The labels would include a graphic, the shipping address, the return address, and the number of disks to be included in the package. * Print US Customs Forms to mail to attendees from outside the USA. Initially the US Forms were a single sheet, then later they changed to a triplicate format. I handled that by separating the forms and printing on three copies in succession, being careful to keep the forms with the same pre-printed number together. The info printed was essentially the same as that used on the Shipping Labels. The critical capability provided by Access, besides driving jobs from its database, was the capability to control placement of the text very precisely, to match the fields on the pre-printed forms. I'd really rather be able to do this job running OO's Base and MySQL directly from Mac OS X, rather than starting my Windows XP Virtual Machine, mechanized via Parallels, so that I can use MS Access from my MS Office XP Professional software. Do such tasks seem appropriate for OO's Base & MySQL? Can Base provide very critical control of the positioning of text? v/r, Tom Panfil
