I have done one database in my life. It was not bad and it is still in
use by my former employer. That said, I would not consider myself a good
database programer.

That is why I was looking at something basic that I could purchase that
I could input the info I have into it.
Karen

Karen,

You may be selling yourself short. After all, there are lots of kids
fresh out of a degree program in computer science who couldn't hope to
begin to design, let alone implement, a useful application, and yet
you have developed and delivered to your former employer a viable
commercial database application. Simple custom products, intended to
be used only by the company who paid for its development, are where
the bulk of software development work is to be found. That puts you
further ahead than a good many folk who call themselves programmers!
This tells me that you do have the skills required to quickly develop
an Access database. In my case, the only time I don't develop my own
software product is when there isn't anything on the market that meets
my needs (or what is available is garbage) or when it is more cost
effective to buy rights to a product than it is to develop it myself.

Besides, what could be more basic than Access. After all, it, like
the rest of MS Office, can be programmed using Visual BASIC, and BASIC
stands for Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code!

A different consideration is that cheap software products are likely
to be badly written and not well tested; and a bad program can
significantly damage your system. Now I have to qualify that by saying
there is plenty of freeware, and inexpensive software, that is of
outstanding quality. The problem is, though, one of knowing which are
well written and which aren't. I know which free or inexpensive
products are good and reliable, when it comes to development tools,
since I make my living at it. But I couldn't begin to tell you about
such products to be used for, e.g., language instruction or for
landscape design. Because of this, if I decided I need a landscape
design product, I'd develop it myself (something I could almost do in
my sleep), rather than trust one of the cheap products available
commercially in that category of software application. Since I make
my living with my computer, I will not risk it by installing a product
I can't trust.

If it is just a matter of self confidence, I would encourage you to
try anyway. You are probably a better database programmer than you
give yourself credit for. I too had issues with self confidence as a
software developer (especially when dealing with other software
developers), because I have never taken even one course in computer
science, until a C++ guru told me that by virtue of my knowledge of
C++ and other programming languages, and my experience in commercial
software development, I would be qualified as a senior software
engineer: what I knew was more important than my academic credentials
(which are all in ecology and education). If instead it is a matter
of cost effectiveness or a shortage of time, that is a question only
you can answer, and that is a value judgement.

Cheers,

Ted