You'll thoroughly enjoy these high-quality
videotapes of the best-attended Q&A users gathering ever! Almost nine
hours of expert tips, techniques, and vital know-how
for all versions of Q&A, including an eye-popping 2 ½-hour comprehensive interactive
presentation on the coming new Q&A-compatible database manager designed
especially for Q&A users like you!
All presentations were professionally recorded on DVCAM
and digitally mastered, so the picture and sound are very good. These
tapes are first-rate instructional tools. They're terrifically entertaining.
And best of all, they're a solid investment in your computing future.
Order your set today. We'll include the Conference CD that attendees
received with all the speakers' handouts, demo databases and other valuable files. (Order
Form at bottom of page.)
 Bill Halpern
Running Q&A on All Windows PCs
Everything you need to know about getting Q&A to run perfectly on any PC. Professional
Computer Technology Associates (PCTA) co-owner and Quick Answer @Help column
editor Bill Halpern gives an expert 90-minute wide-screen presentation on surviving with
Q&A in in today’s new operating systems and PCs. He covers a wide range of vital
issues that are increasingly affecting all Q&A users: How to set up Q&A to run
optimally in Windows 98, 2000, NT and ME. System settings you’d better not ignore.
The correct way to configure your Q&A Shortcut and properties. How to coax essential
Expanded Memory from computers that don't come with it. Which new computers to avoid
purchasing. Options for resolving the “too large hard drive partition” problem
and why you put your data at risk by neglecting this issue. Bill covers all these issues
and more in graphic detail. He then talks on resolving database corruption problems with
Q&A 5.0, and offers a variety of useful suggestions on how to resolve common printing
problems when using Q&A for DOS with troublesome printers. Tape 1
 Tom Marcellus
Using Your Q&A Data on the Web
The Quick Answer publisher Tom Marcellus gives a 75-minute presentation on
“Five Ways to Get Your Q&A Data on a Web Site.” With the explosion of
Internet access in recent years, the Web has become the low-cost medium for wide-area data
dissemination in companies looking for a competitive edge in sales and service. Watch as
Tom works with actual Q&A databases, demonstrating easy, practical ways to output
Q&A data to “Web-ready”-formatted files that can be immediately uploaded to
a Web server at any interval for instantaneous access by anyone anywhere. Tom shows that
Q&A has the tools to do it. You just have to know where they are and how to use them.
Several of Tom’s demo databases along with the Web files he uses during his
presentation are on the Conference CD. Tape 1
This was by far the best, most informative seminar I've ever attended, and
I've attended many. Not only is the "Sesame" news exciting, but the Q&A
information content was so comprehensive. Best $99 (plus $99 for David) I've ever spent
for a conference/workshop/seminar. My thanks to everyone!
-- Carol J. Wilde (business built around Q&A-DOS since 1985)
 Erika Yoxall
Sophisticated Reports
Many Q&A users with departmental or company-wide responsibilities rely on their
workhorse Q&A databases to help them store, retrieve and manipulate their vital
information. But when it comes to summarizing and committing that information to paper,
Q&A’s Report module too often just can’t produce the kind of output—or
look—needed to communicate the data in the clearest, most effective way. Q&A for
DOS’ inability to take advantage of the advanced features found in today’s
printers only compounds the problem. An attractive solution expertly demonstrated by Erika
Yoxall of Hammer Data Systems involves designing the report in Microsoft Access’
powerful graphical report writer, then clicking on a button to flow in the data from the
Q&A database. Q&A data. Access container. The result?—gorgeous,
professional-looking report output enhanced with pictures, colors, lines, boxes and
shading. Erika’s demo files on the Conference CD help simplify setup. Tape
1
Videotape sets include the Conference
CD attendees
received with speakers' handouts, demo databases & other files
 Jeff Noreman
Network Essentials & Troubleshooting
“Houston, We Have a Problem—It’s the Network Again.” Whether
you’re sharing your databases over a network now or plan to in the future, this is
one “high-tech” morass most of us would rather not have to step into. So we call
in “The Network Guy”—a guy like Jeff Noreman of Nexus Unlimited. As Jeff
points out early to a round of hearty laughter—where computer networks are concerned:
If it ain’t broke, it will be! And it’s laughter and learning for the
next 90 minutes. Where do you begin when you want to network two or more PCs? What do you
need to do in and with Q&A to safely and efficiently share your files? Peer-to-peer
vs. standalone server—which is best for you? Should you use Windows built-in
networking or buy a networking software package? How do you setup network resource sharing
for printers, Internet connections and the like? Home and home/office networks—how
are these different? How do you choose a reliable network interface card? Cabling vs.
telephone and electrical line networks—what are the advantages and disadvantages of
these? Jeff covers all the essentials, including networking traps to avoid, interspersed
with a host of troubleshooting tips. You’ll be treated to a clinic on practical
networking by the guy the Q&A experts call when “It’s the Network
Again!” Tape 2
I attended the January Conference in spirit
only but when I received the videotapes, I felt like I had been there. They were most
enjoyable and inspiring. I'm delighted you and the dedicated Q&A professionals are
spearheading Lantica and I know it will be a terrific product. Thanks for all your hard
work and for a great conference. And your Web Site is terrrific.
-- Drexel Riley
 John Dow
Powerful Q&A Add-On Utilities
Nobody knows what really lives inside a Q&A database better than John Dow.
That’s because during the past few years John has developed a small army of powerful
utility programs that do everything from analyzing and repairing Q&A database
corruption, to extracting records and data, changing multiple passwords in a single pass,
and copying report designs from one database to another. In his presentation, John demos a
number of his most popular utility programs for Q&A, showing their valuable diagnostic
and time-saving capabilities. Judging by the periodic flurry of note-taking, for many
attendees the solutions to their recurring Q&A problems were right there on the screen
in one or more of John’s demos. And they went home with the same demo files on their
conference CDs. Tape 2
 Alec Mulvey
Merging Your Q&A Data with MS Word
Regular Quick Answer contributor Alec Mulvey of Keyword Software in the UK
proves, as in past Q&A Bashes, an exceptional treat. Alec’s unflappable British
wit, coupled with his wide-ranging expertise as a long-time Q&A developer, trainer,
and computer applications consultant, has the audience in stitches as he gives a very well
received big-screen demonstration on integrating Q&A data with Microsoft Word. A
barrier for many Q&A for DOS users has long been the lack of a truly WYSIWYG word
processor in which to design and print graphically-enhanced merge letters, mailing labels,
forms and the like. And then there’s the problem of long-outdated Q&A printer
driver support. Most people today have Microsoft Word on their computers, but many
don’t know how (or even if) they can merge their Q&A data with Word documents.
Alec’s detailed, step-by-step demonstration proves how easy and rewarding it really
is! Tapes 2 & 3
Q&A-Successor
Product Unveiled
See It in Action!
Included in the Video set
(or may be purchased separately)
You’ve known for some months that a group of Q&A
developers, consultants and power users formed a company to develop a new 21st
century Q&A-compatible database manager as a successor to Q&A.
But who are the people doing it?
What is this new product going to look like?
What will it do for me that the Q&A I’m now using can’t do?
Does it have relational capabilities?
How really “Q&A-compatible” and easy-to-use will it be?
Now you can find out!
Tom Marcellus opens the presentation by describing the
chain of events beginning in 1998 that led to the decision to develop an all new
Q&A-compatible successor product.
 Bill Halpern then takes the podium to tell you about the new
company, Lantica Software, LLC, which has been working on the new product
since mid-1999. Bill describes the company’s objectives with the
product—code-named “Sesame”—explaining that its first and foremost
mission is to provide a solid and sensible upgrade path—a powerful
32-bit solution—for Q&A users running virtually any operating system now and to
come—including Windows 95/98, NT, ME, 2000, and even Linux/Unix!
He then introduces the founding members and principals of
the new company.
Bill goes on to describe and show the product’s
state-of-the-art client-server architecture, making it fast, efficient and natively
networkable and securable, whether the server is down the hall, on the same computer as
the client (for standalone use), or 5,000 miles away on a Web server! (Yes, the product is
designed to also run on Windows- or Unix/Linux-based Web servers!) “Faster
than Q&A,” is how Bill answers a question about speed.
Bill shows how the new product accommodates the
same programming syntax as Q&A and describes how your Q&A database
programming will convert in the new product right along with the form design, reports,
field formatting and other specs. What’s more, the new product will feature a host of
powerful new programming capabilities, such as true variables that don’t require
“temporary” fields to store interim calculations, and loops that don’t need
separate fields with Q&A-like Gosub/Return statements in them.
Sesame development team leaders Erika Yoxall and Mark
Lasersohn then continue the demonstration. First, they install the product on a computer
by copying one file. You heard it right! No dozens of who-knows-what-they-do?
files sprayed all over your system! No involvement with the Windows Registry! Simple.
Revolutionary. You've got to see this to believe it!
Then they take you on an extended hands-on tour of the
Alpha version of “Sesame.” You’ll see up close its familiar Q&A-like
menu and navigation system and form-based interface. You’ll
see databases with records being added and updated, including a form with an embedded
subform that demonstrates the product’s relational capabilities.
You’ll also watch Alec Mulvey search a “Sesame” database nine ways to
Sunday using exactly the same methods you’d use to search a Q&A database.
Same retrieval parameters; same syntax; same results. Nothing new to learn! This 2
½-hour video will have you cheering right along with the audience! Tape
3. |
