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From: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Address Book Plus vs. DynoDex vs. ?
Message-ID: <269@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 30 Dec 89 00:14:14 GMT
References: <1882@lafcol.UUCP>
Reply-To: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor)
Organization: Intuitive Systems, Mountain View, CA: +011 (415) 966-1151
Lines: 61

Steven Buyske recently asked about Address Book Plus, DynoDex, 
QuickDex and/or any other phone book type software...

I have been using QuickDex ever since Cassady & Greene were kind
enough to send a copy of it to me for evaluation.  Additionally, I
have a copy of DAtabase from Preferred Publishers, though frankly
I haven't yet had the time to play with it.

My impressions so far are that for what I need, QuickDex is a great
solution.  Basically, it's an 'all words are key words' stack of cards
that you can use for just about any purpose you'd like.  It lives as
a DA so it's quite convenient, AND adding and deleting cards is very
straightforward. 

My needs are quite simple; an easily accessed database of phone numbers
and addresses for personal and business contacts that I can move through
and find quickly.  Currently I would guess that I have over 130 entries
in the program, with a typical one being:

		Software Ventures
		2907 Claremont Ave
		Berkeley, CA  94705

		 (microphone II, version 2.0)

		  (415) 644-3232

With this type of information I can search by telephone number to
resolve strange phone bills, search by product name, or by the name
of the company...

The only problems I have with the program are that it doesn't allow
you to have more than one 'card' of information, though it seems to me
that adding a scroll bar and allowing scrolling on the card would be
quite simple.  The other gripe?  I like to use TAB characters in my
cards to indent things like addresses, but the tab immediately puts me
into the "search for" dialog box (and the second puts me back in the
card window)... it would be nice if I could change that.  Finally, the 
printing feature is pretty lame.  They supply a separate program called 
"PrintDex", but it is pretty much geared to one-page-of-info per sheet 
of paper, which makes a printout of my database, at 130+ cards, a bit 
prohibitive!  It would be much nicer if I could somehow specify that
eight cards per page, with borders, please, would be ideal..

Another nice thing about the package is that the designers realized
that many people might well have data files already existing that they'd
like to convert, so they include in the documentation exactly how to 
create a "data file" for the program... quite simple... and sure enough,
with some help from a Unix "awk" script, I was up and running in an
astoundingly short period of time!

DAtabase, on the other hand, appears to be overkill for something as
simple as a phone list...

I'd be most interested in hearing about this Address Book Plus program
if someone can supply information.
						-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California

taylor@limbo.intuitive.com    or   {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor