Microsoft Access has been the big name in PC database application for many years, but it's not your only option. Alpha Five V9 is a particularly powerful development tool with a number of features that you might find interesting.

The program includes a comprehensive library of reusable components that makes it quick and easy to develop both desktop and web applications, for instance. It works with its built-in database or all the big systems (MySQL, Oracle, DB2, Enterprise DB and SQL Server). Powerful AJAX code ensures excellent performance on the web, and Alpha Five provides a full security framework for all your apps.

If the point and click simplicity isn't enough, though, you can always get more control with Alpha Five's built-in Action Scripting and Xbasic programming language. This bears a close resemblance to Visual Basic so is very easy to pick up. But if your Basic skills are rusty then you can always use a wizard to generate the initial code, then customise it a little to suit your needs.

Alpha Five offers a great deal of control over the look and feel of your application, too, and the results are very impressive. Check the web site (www.alphafivedatabase.com/access/whychooseAlpha.asp) for some excellent examples.

You also get point and click field rules, allowing data to be entered quickly and accurately. The powerful, intuitive report writer provides a helpful wizard to walk you through the process of drill down reporting. And the system is based around a well designed data storage model where data and indexes are stored in separate files, improving scalability and performance, while reducing file bloat and the chance of corruption.

If you find Alpha Five V9 useful and would like to continue using it after the 180 day trial then you'll need to purchase a licence, priced from ú270 for a single user. If you want to distribute your applications then you'll also need either a runtime, run engine or application server licence. But you can save on this by purchasing an Alpha Five bundle that includes the application and the runtime or run engines you want. There are too many options to explain here, but if you follow the Order links at www.alphasoftware.com then you'll find all the details clearly laid out.