I second this viewpoint, with an additional comment. It may be just as cost effective to upgrade Access instead. Once you have purchased the initial license, Microsoft doesn't charge nearly as much to upgrade. The newer versions should read the older database just fine. Buying a new program includes not only the cost of the software but also the cost of migrating the existing records, staff training, and future upgrades & migrations. And if it is a computer question, buying the new CPU with a newer version of Access bundled can also cheaper be than the out-right purchase of the Office package after buying a new machine. That said, we use Raizer's Edge by Blackbaud which has a lot of fields or tabs for collecting information. You should be able to transfer existing Access records to another program if your fields match and they are both SQL based. At least, that's my experience. If the fields don't match, most times you can do the transfer through a text document edited in Word. (I haven't done it between PP or RE and Access, just various cataloging programs. It took me at least a full 40 hours to clean the data in Word and do the transfer; there was additional cleanup time after the transfer, perhaps 20 hours. It's worth counting that as a cost, because it is.) Kirsten Hammerstrom Rhode Island Historical Society --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.306 / Virus Database: 166 - Release Date: 12/4/01 ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).