
In the Spotlight:  Alpha Five
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"A popular DOS database spins off a Windows database"

           ALPHA FIVE: WINDOWS DATABASE POWER COMES EASY

                    Review by Lauren Willoughby


   Alpha Five makes a fine Windows successor to the DOS-based Alpha 
Four. Both are dBASE-compatible, relational databases, and both are 
popular for the same reason -- ease of use. They let ordinary PC users 
build powerful, custom database applications without having to know 
anything about programming or reading the manual. Accounting 
applications, contact managers, mailing-list managers and simple 
videotape libraries can all be created with relative ease.

   I've been a fan of Alpha Four, through its various incarnations, for 
a couple of years. One reason I like it is because it gives helpful 
prompts at the bottom of the screen, so even novice database users can 
navigate without having the manual attached at the hip. But that's just 
a small reason why I like Alpha Four. Here are more:

   []  It lets you reconfigure databases on the fly. (I've added and 
          deleted fields as needed -- and adjusted field sizes -- for a 
          database of 3000+ records.)
   []  Its form painter lets you color-code fields as you like, and also 
          set the order in which you enter data in fields. You can add 
          lines, borders and other visual elements to the onscreen form. 
          Designing custom reports in the banded report writer is just 
          as easy and fast.
   []  Relational lookups are easy to set up, and they can save lots of 
          typing. (A relational lookup could, for example, enter the 
          city and state automatically when you enter the ZIP code in 
          the ZIP code field of your contact database -- providing, of 
          course, you've set your contact database to do a lookup on a 
          city/state/ZIP-code database.)
   []  You can have many databases open at the same time.
   []  It lets you quickly flit back and forth between form and browse 
          views. (Form view has one record onscreen at a time; the 
          browse view is a spreadsheet-like view that can show many 
          records at once in a scrollable table.)
   []  Indexes! Whenever you need a new index, just create it. The 
          program prompts you for the sort order of the fields. You 
          can't miss.
   []  Field rules! Field rules make data entry soooo easy. Plus, they 
          increase accuracy of data entry, and they give you control 
          over what goes in the field. You can set up a mask for phone 
          numbers that accepts only numbers, no alpha characters. Field 
          rules can force data automatically into all uppercase, all 
          lowercase or initial uppercase. You can use field rules to 
          define lookup tables: for example, if you're designing a sales 
          order system, field rules can trigger an automatic popup 
          dialog box that lets you tap one key to tell the database if 
          payment is by cash, check or charge (and for charges, you can 
          set up a branch that lets you specify Visa, MasterCard or 
          Discover Card). A field rule can be set to turn a field into
          an automatic counter. A field rule can automatically post data 
          to other programs (decreasing inventory when a sale is made, 
          for example). Defining field rules is a menu-driven process -- 
          a snap.

   Wait a minute, you're saying -- this is supposed to be a review of 
Alpha *Five*! <G> It is! Take everything above about Alpha Four and 
apply it to Alpha Five, but add a graphical interface and the ability to 
plant graphics on forms, use TrueType/PostScript fonts in reports (and 
forms), and embed Windows multimedia objects in fields via OLE. And 
though Alpha Five makes life easy for nonprogrammers, there is also 
Xbasic, an included programming language for power-hungry, technical-
minded users.


>>[ The Windows Advantage ]<<

   Being a Windows program, Alpha Five sports features impossible in 
Alpha Four. Like support for fancy TrueType fonts in forms and reports. 
And it of course supports the Windows Clipboard to cut and paste 
information with other Windows programs! (This is handier than you can 
imagine.) Reports can be designed in snaking multicolumns, almost like 
you're using a desktop-publishing program.

   Other neat things you can do is use check boxes and radio buttons to 
enter data on the forms. (You can also put browse tables on the forms --
yippee!) Another great feature is bubble help, which pops up a balloon 
explaining each button. Query-by-Example lets you zero in on the 
specific records you need by clicking around in the Query Table. You can 
link related database files together into a relational set using the 
graphical set editor. And you can enjoy a memo field with unlimited 
capacity. dBASE-compatible databases usually limit the memo field to 
5000 characters. (If you export Alpha Five databases to standard dBASE 
format, it converts the memo fields back to the usual .DBT, truncating 
characters beyond 5000.)

   Fortunately Alpha Five keeps many of the speed keystrokes from Alpha 
Four, like F for find, C to change the current record, and E to enter a 
new record. You can click speedbar buttons at the top of the screen to 
do these things, but old hands will prefer the keystrokes.

   Alpha Five's interface bears more than a passing resemblance to that 
of Microsoft Access. Both have a tabbed control panel from which you can 
select views, reports, applications, etc. The palette window in Alpha 
Four's forms editor looks very much like Access's. Alpha Five is 
friendlier than Access (but not as much as Alpha Software may think). I 
tried Access for a while; I balked at Paradox for Windows. Alpha Five is 
definitely the nicest to beginners, nonprogrammers and "I-don't-do-
manuals" people.

   Access has wizards to guide you through certain tasks. Alpha Five has 
three Genies: the Create Database Genie, the Query Genie and the Report 
Genie. Don't have a clue how to set up an inventory file? Relax, the 
Database Creation Genie has it covered. How about a "Rolodex" database, 
or an invoice line-item database, or a CD/tape database? The Database 
Creation Genie has templates for 16 specific types of databases, 
including those just mentioned. (It adds appropriate fields; you can 
delete and add fields to suit your situation.) The Genie can also hold 
your hand in setting up new, custom databases. When you're finished with 
the Genie, you've created a database! Each Genie delivers you to your 
destination, and you learn by doing.

   The default forms look boring, but you can click on the forms-
designer speedbar button to dress them up -- or create new forms. You 
can drag and drop from the "Drag and Drop" list to place fields on the 
screen. You can also create "command" buttons by dragging from the list 
(put a "Print Report" button right there on the form). A right click on 
a field or label item brings up the Object Properties box, in which you 
can specify fonts, borders and colors.

   Alpha Five sports neat new field rules! The case-convert exceptions 
are particularly cool. When you want to enter data as quickly as 
possible, you don't want to worry about the SHIFT keys. Field rules let 
you type last names in lowercase, for example, and then let the program 
change the first letter to uppercase. This works great in Alpha Four 
. . . but not with names like MacLeod, O'Hara or McCay. Alpha Five 
offers an elegant solution to the problem of words that need capital 
letters somewhere in the middle. For these you can click on the Edit 
Exceptions button in the field rules area and type in -- what else -- 
exceptions! You can enter exceptions for other words and abbreviations 
too, like to turn ascii into ASCII.

   Lookups in Alpha Five look like combo boxes. (A lookup is a list of 
choices you can scroll through to enter data into a field.) If there's a 
button on the right side of the box in which you're entering data, 
that's the lookup -- click it for a window of options, then click the 
option to insert it into the field. Data entry goes much faster (and is 
assured to be more accurate) with lookups. I use lookups all the time. 
In our New Products database, I use lookups to "type in" the category of 
a program with just a few mouse clicks. For example, when I entered Arts 
& Letters Express into the database, a popup appeared when I arrived at 
the Category field. I clicked Graphics, and a sub-popup list appeared; 
there I clicked P for Paint/Draw. Lookups are easy to designate; you 
just fill in a table with your choices. I also use relational lookups to 
enter company names from the company database (which is kept separate 
because of all the contact info).

   Probably the most exciting thing Alpha Five has that Alpha Four 
doesn't is a built-in letter writer -- perfect for mail merges! If 
you've given up on trying to make your database talk to your word 
processor, this is the solution. Your form letters can have conditional 
paragraphs, pictures and calculated values.

   Xbasic is the built-in programming language for techies with special 
requirements. Xbasic uses a structure and syntax similar to QuickBASIC 
or Visual BASIC, but with database-specific functions and commands. 
There are more than 300 Xbasic functions, and programmers can call 
external DLLs and the Windows API. Xbasic scripts can be written to 
perform batch operations on your databases -- or to do anything normally 
called from a menu. You can add buttons to your forms to call Xbasic 
scripts.

   Do I recommend Alpha Five? Yes! *Anyone*, even a novice PC user, can 
set up a database and start entering data immediately with it. More 
advanced users will love the field rules and the graphical set editor. 
You can set up complete bookkeeping systems with Alpha Four without 
having to program a whit of code.

   Businesses will enjoy the more esoteric features of Alpha Five, like 
cross-file validation, which checks new data against old: it'll check 
new orders against a database of customers on credit hold, for example. 
The event rules will simplify your life and make your customers think 
you're really on top of things: with event rules you can trigger actions 
based on a condition -- for example, if someone tagged as a "preferred 
customer" places an order, event rules can trigger the printing of a 
special thank-you letter.


>>[ A Few Complaints ]<<

   I have four complaints with Alpha Five. The first is a feature I 
enjoyed in Alpha Four but which is missing in Alpha Five. In Alpha Four, 
you could "print" reports to a plain ASCII file. This is great for 
anyone who needs to suck information from databases for any kind of 
formal publishing work, whether it's a catalog or a New Products list.

   We happened to use Alpha Four to enter the New Products, Press Box 
and Software Shopper product information. When it was time to publish, 
we just "printed" a report to a file, which we imported into PageMaker. 
Because we inserted PageMaker's style tags in the report layout, the 
document came into PageMaker with all the right fonts and attributes. So 
the absence of a "print to file" feature in Alpha Five really bothers 
me. Yeah, I sort of jury-rigged an ASCII report file by installing a 
Windows printer driver for "Generic / Text Only on FILE" and calling for 
Courier fonts -- but it's not the same. The spacing in between records 
isn't right, because the report layout insists on knowing your page size 
so it can paginate. (Not wanting more than one page, so I wouldn't have 
to deal with editing out the page breaks, I tried feeding the setup a 
custom page size of 8-1/2 by 100,000 inches. Big mistake. That bothered 
Alpha Five so much it burped up a General Protection Fault.)

   I think the idea of Windows' WYSIWYG power must have made the Alpha 
Software programmers forget about people who like to carry report data 
to other programs. Sure, you can use Alpha Five to design and print 
great-looking, multicolumn report layouts for, say, a catalog. But you 
can't interact with the layout on a page-by-page basis as you can with 
dtp software -- inserting sidebars here and graphic elements there. For 
that you need to be able to create a tagged file for import into a dtp 
app. With everyone rushing around trying to put massive amounts of data 
into HTML format for World Wide Web surfers, it would behoove Alpha 
Software to bring back an easy "print-to-file" option. I'm sure the 
SysOps out there would second that. (You guys spend a LOT of time 
massaging data, right?)

   My second complaint with Alpha Five is the lack of a spelling 
checker. No, Alpha Four doesn't have one either, but it sure would be a 
handy thing to have -- and not just for those into desktop publishing 
(though we'd probably appreciate it most of all). Business managers in 
charge of mass mailings would kiss the ground. I mean, Alpha Five does 
such a great job of printing custom, targeted sales letters, it would be 
a shame to have them go out with misspellings -- by the hundreds or 
thousands! And it's no fun to have to print a memo-field report to a 
file (arrgh!) just to import it into a word processor for spell checking 
-- and then have to jump back into the database and manually run down 
each error (double arrgh!). Most databases don't have spelling checkers, 
it's true. A spelling checker might seem like too much to expect in a 
database -- but, hey, we're talking about Alpha Software here! These 
people pride themselves on listening to their customers.

   My third complaint is that the Windows interface of Alpha Five seems 
somehow inferior to that of Alpha Four. Maybe it's because Alpha Four is 
older and has gone through many levels of refinement. It's hard to get 
lost in Alpha Four, because the help at the bottom of each screen 
anticipates the actions you want to take next. Alpha Five delivers up 
speedbars, toolbars, scroll bars and buttons galore, but Alpha Four 
seems more direct.

   My last and final nitpick is the slowness of Alpha Five -- compared 
to Alpha Four. It's a dirty little secret that DOS text-based 
applications will *always* be faster than graphical Windows programs; 
this will still be true in *Windows 2000*. If do a "fast-forward" to 
look at sequential records in Alpha Four's form view (by holding your 
finger on the down button), the records fly by like greased lightning. 
If you try the equivalent procedure in Alpha Five, the records ooze by 
at one-fifth the speed. Alpha Five loads ponderously.

   Alpha Five is a Version 1.0 after all; I'm sure the speed and the 
interface will improve.


>>[ Great Database, Two Flavors (Well, Three) ]<<

   If you want a Windows database, get Alpha Five. If you're motoring in 
DOS, set coordinates to Alpha Four. There's actually another version of 
Alpha Five that's especially appealing to nonprogrammers: the "Home & 
Business" version -- everything but the Xbasic language -- and it's only 
$49.95! The suggested retail price of Alpha Five (with Xbasic) is $445, 
but you can usually find it for about $99 through third-party resellers.

   Psst: Hot news! A new version of Alpha Four -- Alpha Four 6.0 for DOS 
($99.95) -- is shipping! The new features look great. Alpha Four gets 
more mouseable, lets you add more fields per record, and will look a 
little more "Five-ish" with buttons you can plant on the form. For the 
first time Alpha Four offers multiple one-to-many links at the same 
level.

{Alpha Five: Alpha Software Corp., 168 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington, 
MA 01803, (800) 515-2650 or (617) 229-2924; $449. REQUIRES: 386+ CPU, 
8MB RAM, Windows 3.1, 5MB disk space, VGA graphics.}

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