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I now have a hefty pile of Orchid and The Orchid Digest Magazines and I
want to organize them on a database somehow so that if I have a question I can refer back to a specific article. I am always so impressed by people who can pull journal references out for other people to refer to. Currently I have Access and Excel 2000 on my computer. Is there anything reasonably priced out there that anyone can point me towards that is not to hard to set up and use? Karen |
tracking Magazine articles
Karen,
I would find out what these guys use http://los.lon.imag.net/picref.asp Mick ------------------------ |
tracking Magazine articles
On Tue, 11 Mar 2003 09:47:15 -0600, Karen
(Karen) wrote in Message ID : I now have a hefty pile of Orchid and The Orchid Digest Magazines and I want to organize them on a database somehow so that if I have a question I can refer back to a specific article. I am always so impressed by people who can pull journal references out for other people to refer to. Currently I have Access and Excel 2000 on my computer. Is there anything reasonably priced out there that anyone can point me towards that is not to hard to set up and use? Karen I would scan the annual volume index (usually published in the December issue) with Optical Character Recognition software, so that you'd have all the indexes in text format on your computer. Then edit them (with wordpad or notepad), so that each article (record) is on a separate line, and each item (field) relating to the article (date, title, page number,...) is separated by a comma. Then import the comma-delimited database that you have just created to Excel. Once in Excel, the data should be searchable. |
tracking Magazine articles
I would scan the annual volume index (usually published in the December issue) with Optical Character Recognition software, so that you'd have all the indexes in text format on your computer. Then edit them (with wordpad or notepad), so that each article (record) is on a separate line, and each item (field) relating to the article (date, title, page number,...) is separated by a comma. Then import the comma-delimited database that you have just created to Excel. Once in Excel, the data should be searchable. I would actually write a PERL script to do the text editing... But that is just geeky. Doesn't Orchids have an online table of contents? If I recall, orchidweb.org has the contents of several years worth of Orchids online. Not all of the text, but at least the table of contents. Might be easier to grab some of that. Rob -- Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren 1) There is always room for one more orchid 2) There is always room for two more orchids 2a. See rule 1 3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase more orchids, obtain more credit |
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Karen,
If these are orchid genus related articles you could always scan them into the computer. Then drag across the text and paste the information into Everything Orchid Management System in the Notes section. Everything Orchid Management System sells for $29.95 + 4.95 shipping/handling (same price as 4 years ago) and 5 copies still remain of a previous version -- 19.95 + 5.50 shipping/handling. To order the previous version, use Prev311 for the product code and replace the dollar amounts with the new. Even the cheaper version is a fully supported product which comes with 2 free upgrades. .. . . Pam Everything Orchid Management System http://www.pe.net/~profpam/page3.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Karen wrote: I now have a hefty pile of Orchid and The Orchid Digest Magazines and I want to organize them on a database somehow so that if I have a question I can refer back to a specific article. I am always so impressed by people who can pull journal references out for other people to refer to. Currently I have Access and Excel 2000 on my computer. Is there anything reasonably priced out there that anyone can point me towards that is not to hard to set up and use? Karen |
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Karen wrote in message ...
I now have a hefty pile of Orchid and The Orchid Digest Magazines and I want to organize them on a database somehow so that if I have a question I can refer back to a specific article. I am always so impressed by people who can pull journal references out for other people to refer to. Currently I have Access and Excel 2000 on my computer. Is there anything reasonably priced out there that anyone can point me towards that is not to hard to set up and use? Karen Karen, How familiar are you with Access 2000? Since you have it, and it ain't cheap (I KNOW, as I have it too), you might as well make use of it. If you are an experienced database developer, you could probably work up a proper data model, and relevant tables and queries, in a matter of a few hours. If you've never done it before, it might take you a few weeks, or longer (depending on whether or not you're a perfectionist), but that is well worth the experience. The most time consuming part of the task, though, is entering the data. While you could scan some of the data in, as some have suggested, I find that would take much longer than if I just typed the data in manually. To start, you probably want to sit down, away from the computer, with a notepad, and make some notes on how you do a search through your magazines manually. Then draw a sketch or two of the relationships between the various pieces of information. Then you are in a position to begin making your first (of many ;-) version of your tables. As I develop software for a living, and I have Access 2000 (along with the rest of MS Office), I can point you to a few books that you may find helpful. Or, if your query is not time sensitive, you can ask me and I wil help you out as time permits (I can't guarantee a speedy response, especially on weekdays when my workday is often in excess of 12 hours). After all, why pay money for some other product when you already have a product that, if used well, will meet your needs? With data of the sort you describe, it will be hard to get it wrong. Cheers, Ted |
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Ted Byers wrote:
Karen wrote in message ... I now have a hefty pile of Orchid and The Orchid Digest Magazines and I want to organize them on a database somehow so that if I have a question I can refer back to a specific article. I am always so impressed by people who can pull journal references out for other people to refer to. Currently I have Access and Excel 2000 on my computer. Is there anything reasonably priced out there that anyone can point me towards that is not to hard to set up and use? Karen Karen, How familiar are you with Access 2000? Since you have it, and it ain't cheap (I KNOW, as I have it too), you might as well make use of it. If you are an experienced database developer, you could probably work up a proper data model, and relevant tables and queries, in a matter of a few hours. If you've never done it before, it might take you a few weeks, or longer (depending on whether or not you're a perfectionist), but that is well worth the experience. The most time consuming part of the task, though, is entering the data. While you could scan some of the data in, as some have suggested, I find that would take much longer than if I just typed the data in manually. To start, you probably want to sit down, away from the computer, with a notepad, and make some notes on how you do a search through your magazines manually. Then draw a sketch or two of the relationships between the various pieces of information. Then you are in a position to begin making your first (of many ;-) version of your tables. As I develop software for a living, and I have Access 2000 (along with the rest of MS Office), I can point you to a few books that you may find helpful. Or, if your query is not time sensitive, you can ask me and I wil help you out as time permits (I can't guarantee a speedy response, especially on weekdays when my workday is often in excess of 12 hours). After all, why pay money for some other product when you already have a product that, if used well, will meet your needs? With data of the sort you describe, it will be hard to get it wrong. Cheers, Ted 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 |
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Rob Halgren wrote:
I would scan the annual volume index (usually published in the December issue) with Optical Character Recognition software, so that you'd have all the indexes in text format on your computer. Then edit them (with wordpad or notepad), so that each article (record) is on a separate line, and each item (field) relating to the article (date, title, page number,...) is separated by a comma. Then import the comma-delimited database that you have just created to Excel. Once in Excel, the data should be searchable. I would actually write a PERL script to do the text editing... But that is just geeky. Doesn't Orchids have an online table of contents? If I recall, orchidweb.org has the contents of several years worth of Orchids online. Not all of the text, but at least the table of contents. Might be easier to grab some of that. Rob that might be if I would be that logical to think about it when I wanted the info. sometimes it is the moments like that when I become spacy and having something something local where I can put my hands on it is the most important thing. |
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Mick Fournier wrote:
Karen, I would find out what these guys use http://los.lon.imag.net/picref.asp Mick ------------------------ whatever they use may be a bit more powerful than what I need. Man they have quite a list of source material to go through. quite impressive! But I did ask asnyway. |
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The AOS has not put their index on line, however the ODC has. You should
check their website. K Barrett "Karen" wrote in message ... I now have a hefty pile of Orchid and The Orchid Digest Magazines and I want to organize them on a database somehow so that if I have a question I can refer back to a specific article. I am always so impressed by people who can pull journal references out for other people to refer to. Currently I have Access and Excel 2000 on my computer. Is there anything reasonably priced out there that anyone can point me towards that is not to hard to set up and use? Karen |
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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 |
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Actually I meant that you could grab the text from the AOS, rather than
trying to make your OCR software work for scanning in data. Some of the stuff you would still have to scan in, but it is a lot easier to cut and paste from a web page. Get what you can in digital format, get the rest the hard way. You will still have to figure out a way to keep track of the data... Rob I would actually write a PERL script to do the text editing... But that is just geeky. Doesn't Orchids have an online table of contents? If I recall, orchidweb.org has the contents of several years worth of Orchids online. Not all of the text, but at least the table of contents. Might be easier to grab some of that. Rob that might be if I would be that logical to think about it when I wanted the info. sometimes it is the moments like that when I become spacy and having something something local where I can put my hands on it is the most important thing. -- Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren 1) There is always room for one more orchid 2) There is always room for two more orchids 2a. See rule 1 3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase more orchids, obtain more credit |
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Perhaps I was reading into Karen's needs a little too much. I don't
think you originially specified non-orchid-related magazines and now I see you really meant what I thought -- you were talking about ORCHIDS, ORCHID DIGEST, etc. All of these magazines already have indexes. It seemed to me a major make-work project unless you workfor a magazine and then MS WORD and other wordprocessors will automatically create indexes and table of contents. If you are really into orchids and you are gleaning culture info., etc., then it takes hours and hours and hours to setup the information, figure-out what is wanted, and then to input the data. So, my quick suggestion was that it may be best to start with something that exists and one can't go too far wrong for the previous version price. Oh, well, so I missed the boat on this one. Anyway, if I were doing it for my own purposes, I would scan in the exiting indexes. I would then convert the indexes into tables then I would go from there. Nevertheless, whatever you decide consists of more than one hour of programming cost at $25+. Everything Orchid Management System http://www.pe.net/~profpam/page3.html |
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profpam wrote:
Perhaps I was reading into Karen's needs a little too much. I don't think you originially specified non-orchid-related magazines and now I see you really meant what I thought -- you were talking about ORCHIDS, ORCHID DIGEST, etc. All of these magazines already have indexes. It seemed to me a major make-work project unless you workfor a magazine and then MS WORD and other wordprocessors will automatically create indexes and table of contents. If you are really into orchids and you are gleaning culture info., etc., then it takes hours and hours and hours to setup the information, figure-out what is wanted, and then to input the data. So, my quick suggestion was that it may be best to start with something that exists and one can't go too far wrong for the previous version price. Oh, well, so I missed the boat on this one. Anyway, if I were doing it for my own purposes, I would scan in the exiting indexes. I would then convert the indexes into tables then I would go from there. Nevertheless, whatever you decide consists of more than one hour of programming cost at $25+. Everything Orchid Management System http://www.pe.net/~profpam/page3.html Well I am going to take a crack it it myself and see what I can create for myself I guess. Karen |
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Hi Bob,
What I am about to say will put a smile on the face of the technically challenged and horrify the technocrats in our group. Don't count on it! ;-) Even though I have been a systems analyst and programmer with major companies like IBM, Lucent Technologies, and Avaya for over 32 years, I still keep it simple. I haven't been at it quite as long as you. I started programming only about twenty two years ago, but the first programs I wrote were in fortran iv, written first on paper and then on punch cards; and then we got to wait half a day for the output. The same programs now might take all of thirty seconds to compile and run. But I like to keep things simple too. As simple as possible, but no simpler. All of the data is entered by me typing it into an ancient DOS editor that never even made it to product status. It was a prototype written and used internally at IBM where I worked years ago. For simple stuff, I still use Notepad on windows. It is quick and easy and cut and past is trivial. But for much of what I do, it can't match a decent programmer's editor, like emacs. After I have entered enough new data to make it worthwhile to upload a new version of the database which is created by merging the old flat file with the flat files of new data (5 to 10 thousand records in up to 5 separate 2000 record files). I open the main file and all the files of new data with ultraedit. I cut and paste the data from the new data files into the main one and use ultraedit to sort it all on the name field so I don't have to have the retrieval code do it. I then open the database, which is in MS Access/97, delete all the data, and import the new complete text file into Access. I use the Access data maintenance tool to compress the database and then upload it to the website. Since I only have a slow dial-up connection and the database is now just under 17 megabytes, I do not want to upload it without a good bunch of new data. It is here where a little more complexity would serve you well. You can combine a decent database with a scripting language (such as php or perl), so that you can enter the data directly, rather than as a single large chunk. If you set up a web based data entry page, you may end up sending only a few hundred bytes at a time. You have a head start on this because you already have a web interface for querying your database. You only need to extend it now to allow data entry. This would be a little more complex to maintain and program, but it would eliminate merging the data files, and then sorting the data, and then deleting the existing data and importing it into Access and compressing it. I have found there is always a tension between making a program's interface simple and easy to use and the amount of work required of the developer. Making a user interface simple for the user, so simple that it is hard for the user to make a mistake, can easy increase the programming effort by a factor of ten. Sometimes, no-one is willing to pay the extra cost. But when it is done, we end up with happy clients. Currently it is one totally un-normalized table. I tried normalizing it by creating a book name table and referring to it from the main table but that only cut the file size down by a couple of megs so I decided to leave it as one table. I think that a large portion of the physical size is in the indexes since I have them on the plant name field, the hybrid or species field, the photo or drawing field, and the colour or black and white field. You may need to think about why you need each index. I can see the need for an index on the name and species/hybrid fields, but why have an index on a blob (your pictures)? I am not questioning your design decisions here, but just pointing out that if your indeces are a major contributor to your size issue, some analysis may help. If there are any MS Access wizards out there that can tell me how to make a significant reduction in the file size with what is really one very simple table, I would love to hear from you. The space for out club website is donated by my ISP and I keep worrying that when they see how much space it is using that they may stop being so generous. If that happens, our club will no longer have a website or the database. Cutting the file size down will not only save me time during the upload and allow more frequent updates but it may make my space usage less noticeable by my ISP. What I would suggest here is a bit more proactive. Instead of waiting for your ISP to complain about the space you're using, take the bull by the horns and contact them and express to them your concerns about the space taken up by your database, and discuss some alternatives. Your ISP will be happier with you if you do this than if you wait for them to notice the amount of space required by your database, and I'd expect them to be more favourably disposed toward helping resolve it. If you wait for them to complain, they may just choose to stop supporting you, whereas if you contact them proactively, they may be willing to find a solution you both can live with. One alternative may be to arrange for a subsidized or free (if they're willing) permanent DSL connection so that your society uses its own machine as the database server, and then configure it so that the web page, hosted on the ISP's server, would submit queries to your own database sitting on your own machine. You can then, with your ISP's help, configure your server to respond only to queries from your ISP's machine (e.g. by properly configuring your firewall). I am sure it would cost your ISP less to provide a DSL connection than to provide a lot of disk space. And your ISP may well have some better ideas both for managing the space requirements as well as how you get your data into the database. After all, I have seen a number of ISPs that provide support for web based databases (a service for which some charge a pretty penny), so they have the expertise. HTH Ted |
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