Database > Opening a database

To open a database, choose the command Edit database on the ribbon tab Mailings | group Database. The program displays a file dialog in which you can select which database to open.

The following formats are supported:

File extension	Description
.sqlite or .db	Databases in SQLite format. The SQLite format is a modern and widely used database format in which you can store several tables in one file.
*.dbf	Databases in dBASE format. The dBASE format is a widely used database format that is still supported by many database programs today.
*.pmdx	Open data from a PlanMaker file as a database (read-only, cannot be edited)
*.xlsx	Open data from an Excel file as a database (read-only, cannot be edited)
.txt or .csv	Open data from a text file as a database (read only, cannot be edited).

Depending on which file format you have chosen to open a database, the program will display another dialog box (for example, for selecting the desired table, a suitable character set, etc.). Notes on the file format options can be found below.

Once you have selected your options, the records will be opened in the database module. Here, you can navigate between the records of the database and edit them. For more information, see Using the database module.

Notes on the database format SQLite

Write can open all SQLite databases in the formats .sqlite and .db.

After you have opened an SQLite database with the aforementioned command Edit database, another dialog box appears if the database contains several tables (which is quite possible with SQLite databases). In this case, select the desired table as the data source and confirm with OK.

If the SQLite database consists of only one table, this dialog box is skipped.

Notes on the dBASE database format

Write can open all databases in dBASE format.

After you have opened a dBASE database (.dbf) with the aforementioned command Edit database, another dialog box may appear. It provides you with various character sets for opening your database. Depending on which character set is used in your dBASE database, you may need to select a suitable character set.

The following character set variants are supported:

Character set	Description
dBASE/DOS	Databases with DOS character set.
dBASE/Windows	Databases with Windows character set: Western Europe or Cyrillic (for the Russian alphabet).
dBASE/Unicode (UTF-8)	Databases with Unicode character set. This is a variant of the dBASE format developed by Ashampoo that also supports complex character sets (for example, Asian scripts). However, such databases can only be edited with a few programs (apart from Ashampoo Office).

In the dialog box, select the desired character set from the list and confirm with OK.

Tip: If you are not sure which character set is used by the database to be opened, first select a character set from the top list of the dialog box and look in the preview window to see whether accented characters (for example, umlauts) are displayed correctly. If this is not the case, try a different character set.

Notes on PlanMaker and Excel files

If you want to use records from a PlanMaker or Excel file for a database, another dialog box appears after you choose the aforementioned command Edit database. Here, you can select the worksheet in which the desired records are to be found.

In the dialog box, you can also specify whether the first row of the PlanMaker/Excel file contains column headings for the records. In this case, enable the option First row contains field names so that the headings in the database are used as field names. If there are no column headings for the records, disable the option. Write will then assign automatically generated field names "Field1", "Field2", etc.

Note: Records from PlanMaker or Excel files can only be displayed in the database module. Editing is not possible here.

Notes on text files

If you want to use records from a text file (.txt or .csv) for a database, another dialog box appears after you choose the aforementioned command Edit database. You can select the appropriate character set and set further options:

Character set: Here, specify the character set to be used to open the database.

Tip: If you are unsure as to which character set to use, first select a character set from the top list of the dialog box and check in the preview window whether accented characters (for example, umlauts) are displayed correctly. If this is not the case, try a different character set.

First row contains field names: If the first line of the text file contains headings for the records, the headings are used as field names in the database if this option is enabled. If no headings are included, disable the option. Write will then assign automatically generated field names "Field1", "Field2", etc.

Separator: Here, you define which separator character separates the individual values in the text file from each other. The entry User-defined can be used to define additional characters.

Text marker: If the values in your text file are surrounded by text markers (double or single quotation marks), you can suppress the inclusion of these characters in the database by selecting the appropriate option. With the None option, the text markers are included in the database in addition to the values.

Note: Records from a text file can only be read in the database module. Editing is not possible here.