This is Max. (Well, if Max was human this is what we think he’d look like, the kind of guy you’d be happy to leave your kids with. Some people think this is actually Fred MacMurray, but we’re not so sure. The original image had Max promoting a glass of beer. We’ve substituted that with something more politically and environmentally correct.)
If you spend a lot of time dealing with species names, Max can make your life a lot easier in a whole range of different ways. People dealing with species databases typically spend a lot of time creating data tables, checking or entering names, coming up with species name coding systems once they get sick of typing the full name in, printing species lists, entering sites details and so on.
Well, does it bother you that your list of species names is hopelessly out of date after only a week? Ever got tired of entering those long names only to find your error rate alarming? Ever come back to an old database and found that many of the names had changed? Ever got sick of becoming an IT database expert when you’d rather be doing some science?
And what about localities? If you're not a GPS user, you'll know the tedium of converting between latitude/longitude and projected co-ordinates as well as trying to calculate your localities defined by reference to a named place. What about your old records that used datums prior to GDA94 datum?
These problems can make database management a real chore, not to mention decreasing the usefulness and value of your data because your names aren’t current anymore. This is where Max can help. Max comes bundled with the Census of Western Australian Plants. It also comes with an electronic collecting book for capturing specimen label data. In fact, if you are a regular contributor to the WA Herbarium we strongly encourage to use Max so that a), your names are more likely to be up to date and b) so that you have a standard database structure for your specimen data.
So, if your question is as simple as “How do I spell Eucalyptus?”, Max can help by displaying a list of names from his available species master lists. If you want to enter your data into a well-structure collecting book, Max can do that for you. If you want to know what names have changed recently, or what names in your database are no longer current, again, Max can help. Additionally, you can display distribution maps and images of certain Western Australian plant taxa.
In other words, Max is an all-rounder, making many of the tasks associated with using species names and compiling species databases easier.
Read on to find out how to download and register Max.
Max V3.5 is now available. It contains a number of bug fixes as well as support for Microsoft Access .accdb files.
See "What’s new in Max?" for more information.
Download and evaluate Max at no obligation for 30 days (after that, Max won’t run without providing a permanent serial number.) Once you’ve downloaded the installation program, run it and follow the instructions.
Important: Max needs a serial number before it will run. You must register with the WA Herbarium to get a serial number, even if you only wish to evaluate the product. This enables us to gain an idea of who uses Max and the species name data that comes with Max. It also puts us in a better position to provide support. Visit the registration page to register your copy of Max.
Once you’ve registered Max, go to the Max Download Page to download it from our anonymous FTP site. Once installed, consult the readme.rtf file for more information.
Visit our purchasing page for information on Max pricing, or our ordering page for information on ordering Max.
We hope you enjoy using Max and appreciate your feedback. Feel free to email Julia Percy-Bower.