I give up. Three hours after starting with Database to quickly build a simple database, I conclude that for users like me, more into word-smithing than iron-smithing or social media-sifting, Database is just a more complex Table. I’m returning to Text and creating a table that’s easier to assemble and use, and quicker to put up and take down. Nice experiment, though.
Sorry you did not manage to achieve what you required. It can be hard when first coming to a new product. Base is the most difficult product from the entire suite, particularly in light of the lack of documentation. Rest assured that it will improve over time, and that it can be used effectively, but this does not mean it is suitable to your needs at this time.
Thanks for letting us all know. We feel you. If there is anything, that you can think of, to make it better, so it would be somewhat usable, then don’t hesitate to leave a note or something.
I was a major MS Access user back in the day. Would love to use Base, but I can’t work it out. There’s a reason why this question has 4K (!!) views: http://j.mp/BaseSampleDBs and @Bob_Jacobson might be interested in the tutorials linked there.
Documentation for LO Base v3.5, which should largely apply to the v3.6 and v4.0 series, can be found here. These have been translated from a German handbook thanks to the incredible efforts of Hazel Russman. There are still a couple of chapters outstanding, but The result is IMO very good.
As someone starting out using Base I would encourage you to at least read through the short Introduction and Creating a Database documents. The next two chapters on Tables and Forms contain a greater amount of information, as this is starting to delve into the detail of how information can be arranged and extracted / presented. By the time you get that far, you should have a better understanding of how the product works.
If you have specific questions then AskLO (this site) is the right place to ask them. If you need to discuss certain aspects in greater depth or detail, then I recommend the Base forum here.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that Chapter 8 of the Getting Started Guides for both v3.5-3.6 and v4.0 also provide an outline of using Base.
Thank you! I was not expecting such informative replies–or any at all, actually! I will take you up on your recommendations and on a spare weekend, learn Base.