When databases became available for the personal computer in the mid-1980s, they quickly gained a mystique as the ultimate productivity applications. Despite their widespread use, in some ways they have never lost that mystique -- so much so that many desktop users will stretch the use of spreadsheets to cumbersome lengths rather than consider setting up a database. Fortunately, OpenOffice.org Base makes setting up a database easy, giving you a more efficient way of handling data than a spreadsheet.