Your boss has just bought Paradox 4 and tells you that this will solve all of your company’s data management and report generation problems. The salesperson has installed Paradox 4 on your PC and given a demonstration to your boss. Now what is left with you is the program and a foot-wide set of reference manuals. You are not stupid, but you have never seen this program before. The boss is convinced it is easy to use, and the salesperson is now nowhere to be found. If you are in this situation, this book is for you.

It contains short, unintimidating tutorials given in a conversational tone. Good illustrations and pleasing page layout make it easy to read. The author assumes you have Paradox 4 up and running when you are reading this book. To get the full benefit of this tutorial, you must follow the examples and try out each feature. Although the use of a mouse is described, the book is line- and arrow-key–oriented. The assumed operating system is DOS without Microsoft Windows. The only features of Paradox 4 described are those that might be needed initially. This book fills a documentation niche ignored by the documentation of many large software systems sold for microsystems use.

The book is in three parts. Part 1 (156 pages) covers what a database is, what Paradox can do, using a mouse, using function keys, Paradox menus, and the Paradox window. The basic ideas described are how to build a single file database, print reports, and use queries. The next section (60 pages) covers why one would have a multi-table database, how to do the basic database functions, and how to generate reports with multiple tables. The last section (62 pages) covers such topics as managing files, Paradox’s editor, and script facilities. An appendix gives a brief description of DOS commands, explains how to install Paradox on a PC, and presents the DOS file representation of Paradox objects. To keep the book small, little detail is included, and no one will become a power user by reading this book.