Q. I run a small works, and wish to keep files on each individual job headed by the client's name and job number. I have tried to use my Spectrum for this purpse, with both Microl Database and Sinclair Vu-File. In both cases I have the problem that there is only a screen for each job, and the information I need to keep requires more than one screen.

J. Nathan
London

A. Can we talk you out of doing what you want to do? Think in terms of manual filing systems. If you're using a card index, you'll have minimum details on the card, while you can get more information on the files in a filing cabinet.

But what do you do if a single company file in a filing cabinet gets too bulky? You split it into a number of subheadings, right?

What you want to do seems analogous to this, and Vu-File, for example, can be set up so that you have one level of filing for the clients' names, and beneath that another level which deals with individual job numbers. Looking at this suggestion you may feel it's less convenient than what you want but, in fact, once you try it you'll find it's much more flexible.