Why I have held off buying SoftMaker Office

[Grindelwald]

I think SoftMaker Office is a great suite. It is no Microsoft Office featurewise, but who needs all those bloated features anyway! I use TextMaker all the time. It is fast, slim and well designed, and is a pleasure to use. PlanMaker and Presentations are also well designed and easy to use. The only thing missing from the suite is a dedicated database management program in the style of Microsoft Access. And that is why I have not yet purchased SoftMaker Office and just stayed with the free version. It is mission critical that I have a proper database management program, not just a basic add-on to the wordprocessor or spreadsheet program.
I notice that there is a SoftMaker database program called DataMaker 99, an end-user database for Windows 95 to Windows XP, which is only available to German customers. I don't know if it has been updated for Windows 10. Sounds interesting. If it has been updated for Windows 10, and they decide to make it available to (English-speaking) customers outside Germany, and it is as well designed as the other three programs, even if only available in the SoftMaker Office Professional/Universal suite, I will immediately buy the suite. Simple as that.
I understand that a considerable number of potential customers around the world have also said that they have not purchased SoftMaker Office because it has no database program.
So there you go SoftMaker. Give us a database management program and we will be loyal customers!

[josefcunha]

I also miss a lot MS Access alternatives, all in all, I believe I am a few of them, peoples does everthing using spreadsheets.

[Atomic Ed]

Hello,

I am also very interested in a Access equivalent database product. Does anyone know if there are any plans to include such a program within the suite?

Thanks.

[sven-l]

An Access-like database is on the wish list for the future but there is no schedule.

[Woody44]

Please escalate the database to a very high priority. I also think that SoftOffice is not a complete suite without a database application. The database within the TextMaker module is basically an address book. It cannot be used for any serious (or even light-duty) database purposes. Libre Office offers Base. SoftMaker Office needs to offer an equivalent.

[martin-k]

We would love to develop our own database program, but we don't have the manpower for that. We are concentrating on SoftMaker Office and looking at ways to add more database capabilities to its applications.

[Woody44]

Martin, I don't think you understand. Access IS part of Microsoft's office suite. Base IS part of the Libre Office suite. I have both, and I have used both. SoftMaker Office simply is not a full-fledged office suite if it does not have a database program ("application") in it. Any database capabilities you can hide inside one of the other programs in the suite almost certainly will not be a true database application.

Unless and until SoftMaker Office includes a true, freestanding database program, I will not be able to make a transition from Microsoft Office and/or Libre Office to SoftMaker Office. That's just (as a Zen teacher once told me) "what is." The same Zen teacher followed up that statement by saying that, 'What is ... is. It is your resistance to what is that causes your unhappiness."

What is, is that SoftMaker Office lacks -- and needs -- a database program. You can try to sugar coat that, or talk around it to try to make it seem less important, but that's what is. If you are a car dealer and a buyer says he needs a pickup truck, it just doesn't make any difference if you tell him you're working to make the trunk area of your sedan larger but you don't plan to offer a pickup truck. He needs a pickup truck, so he's going to go to a dealer who will sell him a pickup truck.

[martin-k]

I understand very well that you and others would like to have a database product in SoftMaker Office. I already mentioned that lack of manpower is preventing that.

[nord]

I understand very well that you and others would like to have a database product in SoftMaker Office. I already mentioned that lack of manpower is preventing that.

martin-k,

Same complaint and as a grant writer for non-profits in NYC, I have helped many clients transition to LibreOffice, not SoftMaker precisely because of the lack of a dBase. The need there is for a program that works like Raiser's Edge (without the price tag) or DonorPerfect, which is still too expensive. So I have worked with others to use Base, modified by coders who are willing to go the extra mile for needed nonprofits. As this is NYC, we are talking about hundreds, if not thousands of nonprofits who could use such a product not from MS. Offline, not 365 cloud, etc.

Finally, it would be one thing if you were starting absolutely from scratch, but as it appears that you do have (or did have) a product called DataMaker 99, you might wish to rethink your strategy going forward.

Just sayin' and as a dedicated user of Textmaker going back to 2008, I want to thank you for an excellent product that has withstood the test of time.

[martin-k]

DataMaker 99 is unfortunately not a program on which a new product could be based. It will be a completely new development.