Can you ask the question, "Which of the birds on that trip to the Rio Grande Valley last week were lifers?" (Yes, for AviSys)
And in the above, can your program discriminate among multiple sightings of the same life bird on the same day so it displays the "true" life record? (Yes, for AviSys)
Can you define your own "season" (range of dates) and run reports for that "season" for a range of years? (Yes, for AviSys)
Can you ask the question, "Show me all the female nesting Hermit Thrushes I saw above 3,000 ft in the mountain coniferous habitat of the McNaughton Tract in Sierra County, California, between the dates April 13 and July 22 (a 'season' I define) for the years 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991" ...and if you can't, which elements of that listing can't you handle, and why? (Of course, AviSys can -- and more.)
Can you change trip elements, such as location or date, mid-stream while entering records, or do you have to start a whole new trip structure? (In AviSys you can change any element, for a single record in the trip or to change the actual trip, at any time.)
Can your software "stream" sighting records into other data sets or other copies of the program so you don't have to enter records a second time for your spouse or a special project -- or so you can share data with other AviSys users? (Yes, for AviSys)
How quickly do typical reports run with a 7,000 record sighting file? (See Benchmarks)
Can I quickly and easily back up my valuable data from within the program? (Yes, for AviSys.)
Can I use any of my fonts in reports and listings? (Yes, all fonts and appropriate sizes, for AviSys)
If I can't use my fonts in reports and listings, does your program use a proportionally spaced font, or does it use a clunky typewriter font, like Courier?
Can I select any number of columns for columnar reports, and can I select appropriate font sizes? (Yes, for AviSys)
Do you even have columnar (checklist style) reports? Or would I be doomed to one bird per line? (Yes and No)
Can your program print reports on both sides of the paper with any laser or ink-jet printers? (Yes for AviSys)
Can your program print the entire ABA North America Checklist on one sheet of paper (both sides)? (Yes, for AviSys)
Can your program print a report of over 400 species on one page? (Yes, for AviSys)
Do you have state checklists, and are they truly integrated with reports (highlighting "accidental" sightings)? (Yes, for AviSys)
Do you have nation checklists, and are they truly integrated with reports (highlighting "accidental" sightings)? (Yes, for AviSys with the nation checklist add-on.)
When listing sighting records, if I ask for a listing of California records do I also get the records assigned to San Diego, Fresno, and Point Reyes? (Yes, for AviSys)
Do your screens use nice proportionally spaced fonts, or am I doomed to looking at the typewriter font, Courier? (Proportional, for AviSys)
What quick ways do you have to get to specific birds during data entry? (See the following, for AviSys)
- Do you have Jump Tables to get to birds?
- Can you search by a combination of Latin genus and species name fragments?
- Can you search by any English name fragment?
- Do you have Band Code search to get to birds?
- Do you have Hot Keys to get to birds?
When looking at your master bird list, how many birds can I see at a time? (44, including family names, in AviSys)
When listing records selected by location and/or date range, how many records can I see at a time? (10 in AviSys, including the comments)
What do you charge for support? (Never a charge for AviSys)
Do you have a full money back guarantee if I don't like your product? (AviSys has a 60 day full money back guarantee. We even refund your return postage. And we don't really care about the 60 days if you need more time -- returns are so rare it's really a non-issue for us.)
Are automatic taxonomy updates available? (Yes for AviSys)
Can the taxonomy continue to be updated even if you were to go out of business? (Yes for AviSys)