UK Helix User Group

Why Join a User Group?

A DTP package is made to fit words and pictures into a page. It does certain things according to certain rules, and you need to find out what it does and what the rules are. But Helix is not like a DTP package.

With a database you make up the rules yourself; Helix can do just about any information handling task you can imagine -- involving words, pictures, structure, organisation and even other programs. You have to decide what to use it for and work out how to make it do it. Added to this is the fact that it works in a unique way (for a database) by using icons instead of a programming language -- it works the way the Macintosh works.

It is a very creative process, and the advice, interest and friendship of other people using the same medium is as valuable to a Helix user as it is to an artist or sculptor. And as with any complex software, there are tricks of the trade that can greatly improve the performance and functionality of your database, if only you know what they are.

The Helix User Group provides a forum for this. Although we longer print Abacus, the newsletter, we do still try to organise the the twice-yearly weekend workshop / seminars, and many members also stay in touch and support each other throughout the year. Who knows, if enough Helix users show an interest through this website, we might even start publishing again -- electronically this time!