| Frances
M. Peake,
professional
database developer has this to say about the
Alpha Five Made Easy book
. . .
Susan
Bush and I met at the Alpha Five Developer's Conference in December
of 2000. I was the professional developer. Susan used Alpha
Five in her business. After a short conversation with Susan,
I realized that she was much more than an end-user. She has
made a study of Alpha Five over the years, pushing the product
to its limits to serve her business needs.
Shortly
after the conference, Susan came to our South Florida Database
User Group meeting. She offered to give a presentation on a
multi-step import procedure she had devised in Alpha Five.
She impressed the group with detailed handouts and screen shots.
Then she hosted the next few meetings while I was out of town. When
I returned to the User Group meetings, Susan pitched the
idea of doing a seminar to help Alpha Four[1] users
make the transition to Alpha Five thus our joint ventures, “Get
Outta DOS” and then “Get into Alpha Five!” seminars
were born.
When
I returned to the User Group meetings, Susan pitched the
idea of doing a seminar to help Alpha Four users make the
transition to Alpha Five thus our joint venture, ABC Seminars,
was born. We agreed that, with all the preparation it would
require, the seminar would not be a big money maker. So I
asked, "What
would you want to get out of it?" She stated very emphatically,
"I want to do an Alpha Five book." I can't remember
whether I said this out loud, but my first thought was "Are
you out of your mind?" But I knew it was true, Susan
was going to write her Alpha Five book.
The book that you hold in your hands is not simply the product
of Susan's experience as an advanced-level Alpha Five user.
It is a product of her vision and seemingly boundless energy
and enthusiasm. It is also a product of many, many hours of
research, writing, editing and above all, attention to detail.
Like so many of us in the Alpha Five community, Susan saw a
need for additional training and support materials for Alpha
Five. Any of us who have ever contemplated actually writing
such a book and imagined ourselves as the author of, "Step
1. Right-click the mouse…Step 2. Choose Properties…"
can only begin to appreciate what Susan has accomplished here.
This
book can be used as both a tutorial and reference manual. Susan
has achieved a healthy and practical balance between tutorial
and reference by offering short, compartmentalized exercises.
The book and disk that accompanies it are designed so that you
can start at any chapter. For example, if you want to jump right
into designing forms, you will not be lost if you have not followed
the lessons from Chapter 1. You will find that every chapter
is chock-full of valuable information for Alpha Five users of
all levels.
The value of Susan's experience using Alpha Five in a real-world
business environment cannot be underestimated. It is evident
throughout the book in the plain-English explanations of each
Alpha Five feature and in the examples she uses. You will appreciate
the generous use of screen shots to guide you through the exercises.
Best of all are the tips and hints she provides to help shorten
the learning curve so that you can get the most out of Alpha
Five.
On
behalf of Alpha Five users and enthusiasts everywhere, thank
you Susan for writing this book!
-
Frances M. Peake, President, Proctor & Peake, Inc.
- Go to www.proctorandpeake.com
for information on web & database solutions.
[1]Alpha
Four is a relational database program developed by Alpha
Software, Inc. It uses the MS DOS platform. |
