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| 1 | What are all these things called? The terms used in LibreOffice for most parts of the user interface (the parts of the program you see and use, in contrast to the behind-the-scenes code that actually makes it work) are the same as for most other programs. A dialog is a special type of window. Its purpose is to inform you of something, or request input from you, or both. It provides controls for you to use to specify how to carry out an action. The technical names for common controls are shown in Figure 1. In most cases we do not use the technical terms in this book, but it is useful to know them because the Help and other sources of information often use them. |
| 2 | Introduction In everyday office operation, spreadsheets are regularly used to aggregate sets of data and to perform some kind of analyses on them. As the data in a spreadsheet is laid out in a table view, plainly visible and able to be edited or added to, many users ask why they should use a database instead of a spreadsheet. This handbook explains the differences between the two, beginning with a short section on what can be done with a database. This chapter introduces two database examples and the entire Handbook is built around these. One database is named Media_without_macros.odb and the other, extended with the inclusion of macros, is named Media_with_macros.odb. |
| 3 | The Base environment contains four work areas: Tables, Queries, Forms, and Reports. Depending on the work area selected, various tasks - creating new content or calling up existing elements - may be carried out. Base starts with the Form view, because forms are the elements most commonly used when working with databases. |
| 4 | Reports – presentation of data Before an actual report in the form of a recall notice can be printed, the recall information must be entered into the Recall form. The table in the form shows all persons who have borrowed items with a negative remaining loan time. For each media item to be recalled, the recall date and recall notice number is entered. The recall date defaults to the current date. The recall number is an integer incremented by 1 with each successive recall notice for a particular lender/media. |
| 5 | General notes on the creation of a database The basics of creating a database in LibreOffice are described in Chapter 8 of the Getting Started guide, Getting Started with Base. The database component of LibreOffice, called Base, provides a graphical interface for working with databases. In addition, LibreOffice contains a version of the HSQL database engine. This HSQLDB database can only be used by a single user. The entire data set is stored in an ODB file which has no file locking mechanism when opened by a user. |
| 6 | Accessing external databases An external database must exist before it can be accessed. Assuming that access to a database is desired, the database must be set up to allow network connections with a specific user name and password before external programs can connect to it. When such a database is properly set up, a user may, depending on the available connection software (the database driver), create tables, input data, and query data. |