Make a Database in Open Office

Data Bases can be really helpful. They can be made for personal things, like a CD collection for example, or business, for something like how many cars they have. So now, I'm going to show you how to make a database in Openoffice.Org.

Open up Open Office.org (Now referred to by me as OO.org) base and select create new database. Then click finish. It will prompt you to save, so save it and name it what you like.

To start, you're going to get all of your information in. To do this, you need o make a Table. So, go to The "Table" tab and select the Wizard option. Design view is for advanced people. If you were advanced, you probably wouldn't be looking at this Instructable right now.

On step one are your fields. Those are the information that will be in your database, whichever way you might choose to present it. As you can see, there's a picture of a database entry. This is a good example of what fields look like.

So, lets go over from the business bubble, to the personal bubble. (No pun intended)

There, there's a drop down menu called simple tables, and select CD-collection.

Then add Artist and AlbumTitle to your box on the right. I know that I'm not very good at explaining things, so you should probably check out the pictures.

So, now you're on step two. This is pretty much for advanced users, although there is one thing I use it for. There's a box for the name of the field, and you can change it. That's pretty much it. Now you can click next.

Step three is just another advanced feature. Just make sure "Automatically add a primary key" is selected.

Just click next on step 4 and off we go.

I know. Everyone hates spreadsheets. But this one isn't that bad. Just type in some example artists and albums for your fields. If you can't think of any titles, just use mine. You should do at least two, so you can use the search and browse capability. When you finish, just File>Save or just click the little save icon in the top right.

Close out your table and go back onto the actual OO.org Base program. Now, go over to the forms option and click on "create form with wizard."

Step one will ask you what fields you want. You should definitely add you Artist and Album title, but you don't really need to add ID.

Subforms are just another advanced feature, so skip step 2.

Steps 3+4 are also for subforms, so it just grays those out.

This controls how you want to present your info. I don't suggest the default, because all it is, is a spreadsheet. I like the "Columnar - Labels on top" one. If you select it, it does give you a preview in the background on what it will look like.

Leave step 6 exactly as it is, and move on.

Step 7 is optional. You can choose the color of the database. And the final step, just leave it.

To scroll and look through your database, just click on the arrows on the bottom to look through your entries.

Go ahead. Look at your beautiful database. You finished. Now, just imagine all of the possibilities that lie within this program. Thanks for using my first Instructable. It means something when I know that it actually helped someone out.