We had this same problem. someone else designed the db but we own it. I opened the tables with most of the information in them, exported them to excel and saved them that way for importing to FM. It's a bit fiddly but it gets you your data.
Now my problem is this - our original database is really badly designed, and I am looking at designing one in filemaker pro that gives us the information and reports I want, and allows the input I want. The trouble is, we have 13,000 files which have field names and information that are badly organised. I want to import all the information, but have different field names and probably many more fields ... I have exported our entire member base to an excel file and am renaming what field names I can but it is a complete disaster, really. I can see me having to update practically every single file in order to put the info in the right spots.
Has anyone done anything like this before, what time saving strategies did they employ and are there any hints you can give me to streamline this operation?
pax
Jane
