[Starry Night]

G'day,

I need to set up a simple form on which I can enter in reservations for a boating company. I need to be able to create the specific fields (ie. company name, names of the people in the party, which resort they're staying at, etc.). Then be able to save each reservation and being able to search for it later.

Is there a simple, either free, or low cost software that can do this for me?

Any suggestions are most appreciated.

Thanks.

[osxisfun]

filemaker will more than pay for itself in ease of use. it sounds perfect for your skill level and need.

i bet there is a 30 day demo on their site. And i would be willing to bet you could learn the app and build you database in that time frame.

its unreal how easy it is to use...

good luck.

[Starry Night]

Originally posted by osxisfun:
filemaker will more than pay for itself in ease of use. it sounds perfect for your skill level and need.

i bet there is a 30 day demo on their site. And i would be willing to bet you could learn the app and build you database in that time frame.

its unreal how easy it is to use...

good luck.

Thanks for the suggestion. Filemaker looks great, but for my needs, $289 is a bit much, and I don't need any where close to all of Filemaker's features. I've scoured MacUpdate, it appears the shareware/ freeware market hasn't produced any simple, low cost, database software for the Mac. There's no database "Mellel", something low cost that does a great job.

What about Appleworks, has anyone used its database feature?

[spiky_dog]

do you or anyone in your company have programming skills? then whipping together a simple php/mysql solution should be feasible. of course it will take time, quite a significant amount of time if you're not proficient already... consider very carefully whether $289 for filemaker is a better deal.

http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/
http://www.phpfreaks.com/tutorials/89/0.php

[Krusty]

Well, as lame as it is, have you looked at AppleWorks built in database ? It's free (assuming you have AppleWorks) and allows you to define custom fields.

Also take a look at

Time Equal Money from Stone design. Might be a little overkill for your needs but its only $49. I've never used it but have always had a good impression of Stone Studio's products
Here is a screenshot of what can be expected. Looks like it might just have a few other useful things that could be adapted to your business.

[Starry Night]

Originally posted by Krusty:
Well, as lame as it is, have you looked at AppleWorks built in database ? It's free (assuming you have AppleWorks) and allows you to define custom fields.

Also take a look at

Time Equal Money from Stone design. Might be a little overkill for your needs but its only $49. I've never used it but have always had a good impression of Stone Studio's products
Here is a screenshot of what can be expected. Looks like it might just have a few other useful things that could be adapted to your business.

Cool, I'll check out Stone Design. I have a PowerMac, hence AppleWorks didn't come with it and I've read so many bad things about it that I bought Mellel instead.

I don't actually work for the company, it's a long story, but a friend of mine owns it, he's being trying to sell it but it's about to fall out of escrow and there's chaos in the office. He's asked me to periodically allow him to forward the reservation phone to me at home while they go through the transition. I have poor handwriting, hence the idea to automate the process on the Mac.

Thanks again

[osxisfun]

ok. sounds good. i would suggest checking out appleworks. it might do the trick just fine.

also, you would spend more than 289 bucks on a mysql php solution if you hired someone plus if you have to make changes you have to go back to them. actually, i should be more specific, if you find someone to do it for that price, be wary or its probably a college kid learning still.


good luck.

[bergy]

I've used Appleworks ... pretty good

Here's a new one .. don't know anything about it ... $130.00

iList Studio
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15590

[mark2]

I have the perfect database for you. I've used it for years and it's one of the apps I find most useful. You'll find yourself using it for all kinds of things, it's that flexible. It's easy and fun to use and has a terrific, very fast find function.

You can set up as many different datafiles as you want. I have a datafile for phone numbers and contact information, for instance. This works MUCH better than the Apple Address book because you can tailor it to your needs and store much more information regarding phone calls, subjects covered, etc. Also have files for other aspects of the work I do, and still other files for home use. I even use it to keep track of URLs and to archive email messages.

You can also set up either field-based datafiles (like what you said you want to do), or, free-form datafiles (for info that doesn't easily fit into a rigid format). One more thing, you can buy this app for $50.00. Try it out and post back with your thoughts.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15650

Product_Description:
iData 2 is an easy-to-use database application for storing text and graphics. It is also very flexible and user-configurable. It can store information in either freeform or field-based formats, and makes it very easy to store and retrieve information. Great for grabbing web page bookmarks or linking to files on disk.