he SQL mode and enter our query in raw SQL; finally, something I was familiar with! I have to admit though, that the wizard really wasn't that bad. It allowed me to determine how the data would be sorted, and gave me a very intuitive means of selecting the data, much like the conditional formatting functionality of the Open Office spreadsheet application that I was already used to using. See Figure 6. Still, I decided to try out the manual query generator, which you can see in Figure 7. Both the wizard and manual method are extremely powerful, and quite intuitive. If I had to chose between them, I don't know which way I'd go. But over all, I preferred the SQL method because that is what I'm used to using.

Figure 6

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 7

My wife doesn't have extensive reporting requirements, so I only took a cursory glance at the reporting tool. Here we're only offered the option of using a report generating wizard. I actually can't imagine any other way to generate a report, and the wizard seemed to do what I expected it should do.

So after an evening or two of work, what do I have to show? Well, I have a means of storing my wife's business data, and she can enter it into a (reasonably?) attractive data-entry form. She can search and sort her data. The program is easy enough to use that she won't have any difficulty learning how get her work done with it. It's also extensible enough that I can make periodic improvements to it as my skills grow. Think of it as a living document.

On the other hand, what am I still lacking? The application isn't as polished as I'd like it t