Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

I have, for the last 20 years been using Microsoft Works Programme (W/Processor/Spreadsheet/Database). With the withdrawl of the brilliant 'flat' database they provided, I have been highly recommended Open Office Database. On the MS version, I used it in two ways - (a) With 'Lists' - where information was listed across the page - one below the other, and (b) in 'Form' View, where you could see the same information of each individual 'line' now displayed downwards on a single page.

Being new to Open Office,
(a) are these two functions available here?
(b) Is the term 'tables' the same as 'Form View' that I used previously?
(c) Can I still display and edit information on both as a list and as a form as before?
(d) Are there any other bits of terminology I need?

Any help would be appreciated. Remember, I am not an expert - just a user who wantS something simple!!!

Many thanks......

I cannot answer your questions but, as a newcomer, start with LibreOffice as AOO is on its last legs (and the LO documentation is much better). The LO Base documentation is here

This forum supports AOO and LO users. Base forums etc are here.

Martin Smith wrote:I used it in two ways - (a) With 'Lists' - where information was listed across the page - one below the other, and (b) in 'Form' View, where you could see the same information of each individual 'line' now displayed downwards on a single page.

The Base Guide in the documentation link above will describe how to create a table (your 'List'), and a report (your 'Form'). Base also has something called a form, but it is for data entry, not for display. I suggest that you work through some of the examples in the Base Guide so you can experiment a bit first. Then you can create your own database.

New people often do not understand what Base is. It is a tool to access an external database from OpenOffice components like Writer, Calc, etc. It can create a database with File → New → Database → Create a new database. Then you can access it with Base. While is suitable for experimentation and "proof of concept" you should not use that database for your real data. You will want an external database for that. But you can leave that step for after you have tried the examples in the Base Guide.
[Tutorial] Splitting an "embedded HSQL database"

Open a new topic in this forum if you need assistance with the tutorial above.