markxx@garnet.berkeley.edu (01/04/89)
I am considering using WordPerfect as a text database, and am looking for some other people's ideas or reccomendations. I have been using WordPerfect for over 3 years, and with the latest version it seems that it could be used as a text database. I will be primarily using it for bibliographic information, as well as storing the text of inverview transcriptions, field notes, and document summarys. To be able to search trough this information, and then pull it into whatever document I am writing would be great. (And yes, I know about NotaBene - see below.) My Approach: While WordPerfect 5.0 is not a database program, it can be used as such if the following rules for your files are used: 1) Use the document summary for your key words (ie. subject, author, title, topics). 2) Use the first page as an abstract or summary of the rest of the file. 3) Use the rest of the file (page 2 onward) as normal. To do a search, one could search 1, 2 or 3 from the directory, using Boolean operators. The Problem: While the above approach will flag files with hits, once you pull up a document (one of the hits) then you will loose the results of your search. The Question(s): 1) Is is possible to NOT loose your search results? 2) Are there any books etc, that you would reccomend that focus on this aspect of WordPerfect? 3) Anyone yet written a macro that will do a search and pull in the paragraph with the hit from within a document? (I am going to be working on this one, so if you want a copy let me know. But if it's already been done, why duplicate effort? :-) ANY input will be appreciate, especially related to working out this somewhat overlooked aspect of 5.0, and even persuasive attempts to convert me to another, better, program. (see below) Please e-mail if possible. If there is enough interest I will post a summary. Why am I using WordPerfect and not NotaBene or AskSam? I have used NotaBene, and while it is great for some things, I already have hundreds of files in WordPerfect format, and often need to merge text and graphics as well as some other things NotaBene does not do (that I know of...correct me if I am wrong, I *would* switch if there was good reason). I also think that as a wordprocessor goes, WordPerfect is better than NotaBene (and I know WordPerfect better!) AskSam, while from what I have read and the little I have played with it, seems to be a great text database, but is not a word processor, and would introduce one more step into working with my documents (conversions etc.) Thanks! Mark A. Ritchie (markxx@garnet.Berkeley.EDU)