[Solved] How to Access a MS Works Database ?

[MelSmith]

Hi:

One of clients provided me with a file named : xxxxxxx.wdb

Internally and near the top, this file has the words "Microsoft Works Database"

Can I access this .wdb file with any of the Open Office modules ?? If so, what input format/program do I specify ??

btw, I'll be inputting/parsing data from this file, then attempting to output a dbase .dbf (or sdf text) file with certain fields

Thanks for any help offered.

-Mel Smith

[TheGurkha]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Doesn't look like you can do this directly. See this: Convert MS /Works Database files.

If this has answered your question please go to your first post and use the Edit button, and add [Solved] to the start of the title. You can use the green tick icon at the same time if you like.

[MelSmith]

Hi:

My problem is not really 'solved' -- but I guess I have to either buy MS Works or ...

I followed the link shown in the reply to my original post and found I could not do this access/viewing/export unless I had the MS Works program.

My user is 1800 miles from me and I will have to guide her in exporting to a .csv file when I've never seen even msworks run ! This promises to be an excruciating phone call ((

Thanks for the guidance.

-Mel Smith

[Arineckaig]

If your client still has the MS Works program, ask her to use "Save As" to save the data file in either CSV or DBF ( 3 or 4) format - these options are provided by the MS Works Database program. In turn these can be emailed to you. Neither format totally avoids the possibility of errors but should be worth a try and the procedure should not be too difficult to explain.

[MelSmith]

arineckaig:

In the end I located and purchased a 'budget' wdb2xls converter package from R&L software in Hamburg, Germany for 10 euros.

This software converts a .wdb file into an .xls file.

Then, using OO's 'Calc' module, I dumped this .xls file into a dBase database (by selection on file type when using 'Save as ...')

This was a bit onerous but not as much potential problem as contacting the person at the other end of this 1800 mile link (who I don't know, and who was ordered to provide me with the database, and who is the lone part-time worker in the office, and who is probably antagonistic to me because I may be usurping her job).

Anyway, thanks to you folks, and some internet searching by a fellow programmer, I found a very reasonably priced piece of software (but deliberately made very slow in execution) to do this conversion.

Thanks for the help !

-Mel Smith
Edmonton, Canada