Features

• With this set of tutorials you'll learn all about working with the graphical interface for SQL
• Understand the basic SQL objects
• Build your own queries, create constraints, and define & manipulate objects
• Work with tools like the Step Skip List, Dynamic Simulation Display Window, and more
• A grand total of 24 narrated simulations to teach you all about using SQL!

Features

• Accommodates notebook computers measuring up to 14.5 x 11 x 2.
• Strong double rivet construction and protective case bottom.
• Comfortable gel-infused shoulder strap and padded handle.
• SmartPocket' slides over the handles of today's popular rolling luggage.
• Accordion file holder within main compartment.Strong double rivet construction and protective case bottom.

Reviews (1)

An Academic's Dream
Reference Manager is a huge time saver for students as well as professors. Right out of the box, it is very intuitive to figure out how to use this program to insert citations into papers and format your references. A toolbar in Microsoft Word makes it easy to insert citations while you write either individually or en masse. Click, click, click. When you finish the text, you can choose the reference format you need. Get rejected from one journal? You just click a few buttons to reformat your in-text citations and reference list rather than spend hours deleting periods from authors' names.

Directly exporting references from search engines is very handy, too. This way you have a well-organized database with full reference information that you can keep coming back. This is not always a perfect process, but comes close enough.

Another option for building a reference database is to tell Reference Manager what sort of references you need, but I don't recommend this method. It is easier to work with familiar search engines that are formatted for your field than try to go through an unwieldy middle-man.

All around an excellent product to help you write research papers and to establish a personalized electronic library for yourself. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

FileMaker Pro 6.0 makes data management for individuals and small groups engaging and almost fun. Installation and setup are both surprisingly quick and easy, and the templates and wizards will have most users frolicking with their new or imported databases in just a couple of hours. The interface and design tools are comfortable for Windows users of all levels of experience. The software is not designed for the lowest common denominator, though--advanced users will find FileMaker Pro's scripting language for queries and other tasks handy, if not all-powerful.

Data entry couldn't be easier. For some formats, it's as simple as dragging and dropping folder contents, so multimedia management, for example, becomes almost trivial. FileMaker Pro's data manipulation tools are more powerful than before, which means administrators would do well to limit users or train them carefully. Searches, the meat of the package, are simple enough for beginners but offer enough complexity to keep power users happy. One new timesaving search feature is the extend/constrain function: if a search returns too few or too many results, it takes just one step to expand or contract search parameters.

Web-style integration in FileMaker Pro 6.0 has taken a huge step forward from version 5.5; the look and feel of the desktop is almost seamlessly translated to intranet application. However, those with more than 10 potential FileMaker users should pick up the unlimited-use version of the software. FileMaker can import and export XML, so data can be manipulated and then easily shared with non-users via a Web browser.

While there might be more powerful data management packages available, for a wide range of uses and users, FileMaker Pro 6.0 is tough to beat. --Rob Lightner

Note: This review refers to theWindows version. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

OS X and Filemaker Great Combination
I had to upgrade to get OS X functionality. Filemaker is the best database program around-- for all-around functionality, ease of use, and rapid deployment. I use Filemaker to run my business from accounting, to tracking, to letterhead and faxes. Now that Filemaker is XML, it's a real contender to any commercial database program. You can also access just about any database with Filemaker, and has great import/export functionality. From the amount of time Filemaker can save the average business, I think it's a must in any efficient or multi-tasking office.

IT'S GOOD, BUT IT'S NOT A MUST-HAVE UPGRADE
The strength of "FileMaker Pro 6 Upgrade" is marginally above that of its immediate predecessor, (the 5.5 version). That said, anybody who still feels at home with the 5.5 version should not see this new one as a must-have upgrade. The improvements do not worth the asking price.
Yes, there is an improved interface, as well as loading speed; but what else? Technical support is minimal; and it is very likely that you will need it. This is because, you may discover one or two hitches as soon as you start running the software.

Faster FileMaker Pro
Version 6.0 speeds up FileMaker Pro -- it loads much, much faster -- almost instantly -- curing the major shortcoming of previous versions.

The only quirk I've found is that in both Windows XP Pro and Windows 98 SE, FM Pro 6 will not show a list of recently opened files from the Files drop down menu. It simply refuses when I click the check box in "Preferences" to show recently opened files. It responds by saying that it cannot perform this function in this installation of FileMaker Pro. Technical support was of no help whatsoever! All they could suggest was to do a reinstallation in Safe Mode -- which, of course, made no difference. Tech support seemed to be reading from a script or manual. The guy had no working knowledge of the software at all. And tech support policies are very limited -- free support for installation and then one free tech support call (not on a toll-free number). Pardon the generalization, but the software industry really, really stinks. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great for travel!
This USB hub is the size of a fat credit card. It's great for travel as it has four ports. Has a plug-in for power, but it does not come with an AC adapter. The slide-in plug for the USB makes it even more compact, no extra wires to carry. Works great with a USB optical wireless mouse (Kensington)for travel. The rubber part that comes with the slide in to the USB port on the computer is a bit flimsy and that's why I gave it 4 stars vs. 5. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Microsoft Office XP Professional Special Edition Upgrade includes the 2002 versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, andFrontPage.

New context-sensitive smart tags pop up with options you need--right whenyou need them. No digging through menus. Tasks that once required multiplesteps are just one click away with the new task pane. New and improved tools in Access allow you to build and manage lists and databases, or analyzeinformation from databases such as Microsoft SQL Server.

The new version of Outlook in Office XP Professional condenses all your personal and professional e-mail into one central location, even your Web-based e-mail accounts like Hotmail. With AutoRecover, your work is saved at regular intervals while you work. PowerPoint includes animation effects and custom slide transitions. An editable print preview assures that your printed slides anddocuments come out right the first time.

Microsoft Publisher 2002 provides professional page layout and text toolsto help you create compelling marketing materials for your business.FrontPage 2002 lets you create exactly the Web site you want withgraphics-rich, hyperlinked, sound-enabled Web pages. New tools andfeatures like automatic Web content, PowerPoint-like drawing capabilities,a streamlined user interface, and optional HTML and XML reformatting makethis a complete Web site creation and management tool. ... Read more

Reviews (109)

Great product!
Microsoft Office XP is a large improvement over Office 2000. Not only is the [slightly] new interface more refined, but the smarttags and more features are great. The difference between Office 2000 and XP is very similar to that of Office 97 and 2000; there are suttle changes that you do not notice until you actually need them. And when you need them, they are great to have! If you are upgrading to Office XP, then you should definately get the Special Edition (I have no idea why it is called that; it should just be called premium). I use Publisher and FrontPage almost everyday, as well as the normal Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access (basically, I utilize every part of Office XP). I highly prefer this product over Corel WordPerfect Office 2002, or any other competitors. I am aware, there has been some concern over the Product Activiation Wizard; frankly, I do not have a problem with it. As long as it does not disclose personal information (which it does not), I don't think it's a big deal. I think that it is a good way for Microsoft to keep people from installing multiple copies of their software. Don't get me wrong; I do not like Product Activation at all, but I think that people are overreacting about the privacy concerns of it. Another thing people might be concerned about is compatibility. As far as I know, the only products whose files cannot be opened in previous versions of the same product is Publisher; a new format for saving the file was introduced in Office XP and therefore it is not compatiable with Publisher 2000 or earlier. Other than that, I definately think that Office XP is the best office suite I have used!

Office
Well, actually I like Excel and hate Word. The other programs included I have little or no use for.
I use Excel all the time for engineering calculations, including writing VBA macros to automate things that I can't do easily in the cells. It's very useful, like having a calculator that remembers everything you've done, writes it down, but allows you to change inputs and recalculate everything automatically. Unfortunately, there is a bug in the help files, so I can't get Visual Basic help anymore. The IT guys at work fixed the regular help but never could get the macro help to work again. Very annoying.
Word is terrible compared to WordPerfect. What I used to be able to do with a couple of keystrokes, now takes minutes of navigation thru menus and dialog boxes. Outline formatting, numbered lists, etc. are especially frustrating in Word because nothing is obvious. You shouldn't have to get a college degree in word processing in order to learn to write a specification and get the formatting correct. One annoyance is that paragraph formatting is hidden in a selectable little space at the end of the paragraph, so if you try to delete the last few words by hitting shift-end and delete, you will delete numbering, formatting, etc. of that paragraph. Also, the thesaurus that came with WordPerfect was much better.
In general, Microsoft Office tries to be everything for every possible user, automates many tasks to do things that it thinks I want to do even though I don't, and makes it hard to figure out how to undo them.
I am using WordPerfect wherever possible and trying StarOffice.

Real problems with this one..
Installed the upgrade over Office 2000 on a well equipped XP Professional system. Liked it well enough but after an online update, File->Open began taking 20-30 sec per level to navigate to the file. Unfortunately, installing this package seems to put the 'better' file menus in and everything came to a crashing halt. Worse news is that it wouldn't uninstall nor reinstall/fix (something got corrupted). A Msoft A+ beat on it a long time then finally reinstalled XP (unfortunately an all too common occurance, for lots of reasons) and all was well until I installed Office XP again. The problem recurred but this time, a system restore cleaned it up. Still using Office 2000. Now using Office XP as a gold coaster. I've heard of this happening on other systems.. something in the networking maybe.. We're using a Linux server w/Samba drive. Works great with everything else..

If you want to write...
Microsoft Word on XP is the industry standard and next to Quark Express one of the most important tools of the trade.

Nothing comes close to Microsoft Word. MSWORD is as important as the invention of the pen and most importantly is compatible with nearly everything. Open up any written document. Save to any written document type. The import feature is almost flawless.

Thank goodness I get a university discount
When I saw the cost of this, my jaw dropped. I didn't think it would cost so much for Word, PowerPoint, FrontPage and Excel.

I went to the university bookstore at my school to see if I could get any kind of discount on it. Thank goodness Indiana University has a contract with Microsoft!

About the program now that I've complained about the cost enough...

WORD
This is the program I use the most because for being a word processing program, it is very versatile. I can write term papers and what not with it, but I can also credit news letters complete with graphics. I have also used it to create invoices with neat graphics.

FRONTPAGE
I know HTML (one of the languages webpage makers write webpages in), so I pretty much only use this program when I'm trying out something new, like frams. I have also used it to figure out HTML codes for colors, frames, and tables. I had a college instructor who used it to do her entire webpage and it looked pretty good.

EXCEL
I used Excel to keep track of the money I was spending on gas for 6 months, how many miles I was traveling, where I was traveling, and the cost of gas. I know it sounds like of nerdy, but it really helped me save some money on gas, knowing exactly where to stop when I was on a trip. I also has how many miles I was putting on my car in that 6 months (10,000+ miles), which explained the wear and tear.

POWERPOINT
I am just beginning to learn this. I didn't realize what a valuable program PowerPoint was until people in some of my college classes gave presentations with it. Man, my poster board presentation was nothing compared to theirs. It is actually a pretty easy program to learn, but the 'little extras' like the animation and extra graphics can take a bit of time.

OUTLOOK
I use this program to check my school e-mail because I have AOL at home. I like not having to go to the university's website, navigating my way to the mail page, signing it, and going through at least one more link, just to get to my e-mail. This program goes straight to my mailbox with no links, no navigating.

ACCESS
When I tried to use access to create a database of my CDs, I had a lot of problems. It is probably the only program in this software suite that I think is a total waste of disc space. I have had to use it before, but for me, I can just use Excel to make lists, it is much easier to use.

I am really glad that I have Microsoft Office. It has made school a lot easier. I can e-mail documents to my school account, download them, and know they will work with the school software. That saves me from having to reformat the assignment whenever I want to work on it at school. ... Read more

Features

• Track and manage people, projects, images, and data
• Do more, faster with 30 starter solutions
• Exchange data with a virtually limitless number of applications
• Store, track, and archive files and documents
• Secure data with assigned accounts and privileges

Amazon.com Review

FileMaker Pro 6.0 makes data management for individuals and small groups engaging and almost fun. Installation and setup are both surprisingly quick and easy, and the templates and wizards will have most users frolicking with their new or imported databases in just a couple of hours. The interface and design tools are comfortable for Windows users of all levels of experience. The software is not designed for the lowest common denominator, though--advanced users will find FileMaker Pro's scripting language for queries and other tasks handy, if not all-powerful.

Data entry couldn't be easier. For some formats, it's as simple as dragging and dropping folder contents, so multimedia management, for example, becomes almost trivial. FileMaker Pro's data manipulation tools are more powerful than before, which means administrators would do well to limit users or train them carefully. Searches, the meat of the package, are simple enough for beginners but offer enough complexity to keep power users happy. One new timesaving search feature is the extend/constrain function: if a search returns too few or too many results, it takes just one step to expand or contract search parameters.

Web-style integration in FileMaker Pro 6.0 has taken a huge step forward from version 5.5; the look and feel of the desktop is almost seamlessly translated to intranet application. However, those with more than 10 potential FileMaker users should pick up the unlimited-use version of the software. FileMaker can import and export XML, so data can be manipulated and then easily shared with non-users via a Web browser.

While there might be more powerful data management packages available, for a wide range of uses and users, FileMaker Pro 6.0 is tough to beat. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Faster, smoother - a joy to use
I've been using FileMaker since version 3 -- and this new Version 6 retains its user-friendly interface and commands. But the big improvement is in speed - the speed with which the application launches and the speed at which database files open -- much, much faster than in version 5.0 (in Windows XP and in Windows 98)! Otherwise, I'm still exploring. The only frustration I've come upon is that this version of FileMaker does not include a list of recently opened files in the File Menu (the option to do this is greyed out). Instead you can access a list of recently opened files from an arrow next to the "Open File" icon -- only after you have already opened a document file. V-e-r-r-r-y strange.

I cannot fathom what some other reviewer meant when he refered to FileMaker's "draconian" upgrade policies. Does he expect them to give it away for free? The upgrade price -- especially with the $$ rebate that brings it down to $$-- is quite reasonable for a program of this power and sophistication. It's FileMaker's support policy that disappoints, but then again the entire software industry seems to have moved in this direction (free support for installation and getting started; one free support call thereafter). Fortunately with FileMaker Pro, you rarely need to call technical support, the program is that easy to learn and use. It actually comes with a printed manual!

Five-star program, but WIN update software flawed
I loved (5-star) FileMaker Pro (FMP) 5.5 and was keen on updating to the latest 6.0 version. Unfortunately, installation of the update was clunky in that it required that FMP 5.5 remain in place. Reasonable enough for copyright protection, except that my system ended up with two identically named FMP.exe files that thoroughly confused the registry. [Later I found yet another 2+MB FMP.exe in the installation folder that hadn't been cleaned up.] Yes, you can remove FMP 5.5 after installing 6.0, in a different folder, but that's not really good practice. When you plunk down a hefty sum for an upgrade, you shouldn't have to make repeated calls to Tech Help to make it work. Moreover, perhaps because I keep my programs and data in hard drive partitions separate from the operating system (C:\drive) file association (where an .fp5 file shows its identity in an Explorer listing with the FMP icon) never worked -- so that files could not be started by double-clicking their name, but required opening with FMP's File|Open command.

Worse, an update patch (downloaded from FMP website) converting FMP 6.01 to 6.02 crashed repeatedly, 5 calls to Tech Help notwithstanding. I gave up, it still isn't working!

My recommendation is to call Tech before installing the upgrade and insisting that you want to > uninstall FMP 5.x < PRIOR TO installing 6.0. The solution is surprisingly simple. At this writing, it might be least troublesome to install FMP6 in the default program location (C:\Program Files) -- a kludgy solution indicative of hasty release without thorough testing. Too bad, for the program is great -- but I've wasted 2 days and still don't have file association working. Perhaps you ought to hang on to FMP 5.0 or 5.5 (unless you badly need XML) until the mud has settled.

Draconian Policies
I have had terrible experiences with this company regarding their Draconian upgrade policies. I suggest you avoid this product and this company. ... Read more

Features

• Define and monitor work order processes with maximum job efficiency
• Navigate through the different steps and track order activity quickly
• Perform flexible searches; pull up summary screens; print simple reports
• Automatically generates lists of items needed to complete orders
• Define procedures and services with minimal effort

Reviews (1)

Dosen't work
I bought this software and i instaleed it as usual then when i am ready to use it, it dosent work! I tried returning it and they wont even take it back. This product sucks! ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Teacher's Toolbox provides what teachers need in one easy-to-use package. It tracks grades, tests, quizzes, marking periods, and more. It automates time-consuming tasks such as grade weighting, averaging, curving, and sorting. It can help you organize your class schedule in minutes, create professional lesson plans, and prepare seating charts. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Forget the promise of a "paperless office." From bank statements and insurance policies to dental records and business cards, life is filled with paperwork. Wouldn't it be satisfying to cut through the clutter and get organized?

Once and for all, you'll know what you have and where it's stored. With 27 categories and 230 subcategories, Personal Record Keeper 5 provides a place for all your records, whether you're hoarding frequent-flyer miles or itemizing your Pez-dispenser collection. You're also less likely to misfile important information or go digging every time you need to retrieve those numbers you don't need every day, like your passport's expiration date. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Re: Nolo Press
I read the initial review of Personal Record Keeper 5 by Suzanne Whalen, and so was hesitant to go ahead and purchase this, even though other reviews I've read have been so positive. Then I read her next updated review, and felt I had to write. Finally, a software company that cares about it's customers-how refreshing!!! It is nice to know that if a product isn't what you expected that a company is not only understanding, but proactive in making it right. It's too bad customer service for most software and computer companies is a lost art. I will not hesitate to buy any Nolo products in the future!!

Update to previous review/ Nolo Press Customer Service
After Nolo Press received my review, I was contacted by their customer service department. I was told that since the software did not meet my needs, they would gladly refund my money. I purchased the software from Amazon and no longer had the receipt, but that was not an issue for the folks at Nolo Press. Nolo Press customer service gets 5 stars!

Money wasted
I am extremely disappointed with Personal Record Keeper 5. This item was purchased because we are military and constantly moving. It is imperative that we have good records of our household items due to the occasional loss of entire housholds during a government move.

While there were indeed many categories to list household items, there was no place to scan a photo or document. There is a box to tell me that there IS a photo of an item, but I assume that I am to store it in a shoebox. There is also a section to list military records and awards. It's a very nice thought but I don't think the Army will take a printout as proof if something should happen to the documents. Address books normally come with the software already on your computer. Pet records request that you list your pet's "personality", but there's no place to list shot records. The family member record format is better left to geneology programs. After about the hundredth time I was asked to input the location of a document, I wearied of typing "in the filing cabinet where it oughta be!"

This software is only for the organizationally dysfunctional stackers or junk drawer filers. If you have even somewhat tidy filing drawers, this program is completely unnecessary. The money is better spent on some new file folders. ... Read more