To Convert A DataBase From Acornsoft's ViewStore to Microsoft Access
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This file may be freely distributed as long as the contents are unchanged. The latest version may be found at http://bbc.nvg.org/ or in Compuserve's Microsoft Office forum.

First you need to get the main daatabase file onto the PC. To do this you will either need an old 5.25 inch drive designed for the PC or a serial cable. The cable is the best bet as most disk controllers in PCs cannot cope with BBC Disks. If you have an Archimedes it's a bit different. Next you will need some transfer software. Both PCXFER and XFER send a BASIC file to the BBC. Transfer can then be initiated. Instructions are included in these programs. They have the advantage that all the control software is within the program.

If the database is on a disk image on your hard drive it needs to be extracted. BBC Explorer is a good utlity for this or BBCdisk (the latter copes better with ADFS disks).
Once the database is saved on your hard drive ensure it has the .txt extension. Use rename if necessary.

Method 1
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1.Open Word and then open the file. It will load in as text.
2.Press CTRL+A to select everything. Click Table, Convert text to table. Ensure that tabs are chosen as the delimiter. Check the number of columns corresponds to your fields. Bear in mind that things can be edited later. Click OK.
3.Delete the last column by selecting it (Table, select column) and then click table, Delete Column. The reason for this is that it is full of rubbish or characters that Access does not recognise and which it therefore has problems with. It is wise to delete the last row as well, although Access will import this as a blank row.
4.Open Excel and return to Word.
5.Press CTRL+A to select the table. 
6.Click Edit, Copy or click the copy button on the toolbar. Switch to Excel.
7.Click in the top left cell and click Edit, Paste or click the paste icon on the toolbar. Save the file.
8.Fire up Access and choose blank database.
9.Click File, get external data. Choose the Excel file you have just saved. You will be importing onto a new table.
10.Although you can go into Design View later and rename the fields it is much easier to name them now. Provide the information asked for at each stage clicking Next as you go.
11.If there are any import errors refer to the Word document or Excel file. The Access record referred to in the import errors may be blank inwhich case you should be able to delete the blank record.
12.Do a quick check of the Access file for mistakes.

TIP: The above shows how to import a whole database. However, you may want to import into an existing Access database. A similar method is followed. If you want to append data to an existing table then in Excel click Insert and add a new column at the far left. Type 1 into the top left cell. Select the column as far as the last record. Click Edit, Fill, Series, OK. The column will be filled with a series of numbers 1,2,3 etc. This will correspond to the ID field in Access.

Method 2
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Another method may be to get rid of the extra field data in notepad but this would be very tedious. Importing directly into Excel is not an option as Excel cannot cope with the padding Viewstore puts at the end of records.

You can now set up queries, reports etc. You might want to go into Design View and set field lengths and other properties.

The BBC Lives! web site at http://bbc.nvg.org/ has a number of utilities and documentation that can help.

(c) Paul Weddell 2001 EMAIL:pweddell@bigfoot.com