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| Ok!! I'll recap the lessons I've learned here.
Most "GIS" software seems to primarily be a database for a collection of shape files with a means of viewing, editing and querying the spatial and tabular data. So I downloaded and tried ou the MapWindow product. The MapWindow software has editing features that are not available in FarmSite or SMS but really doesn't have a better editor for attribute data. So there is still no potential to visually copy and paste from a spreadsheet. The one by one entry of numbers is still tedious.
I can install Office 2003 along with Office 2007 for the sole purpose of editing dbf files. It does solve the original problem. But its kinda like getting a new shop with new tools and new bolt bins and even new equipment, only to discover you need to have some tools around in inch sizes to tighten the hose clamps. (OK, I'd never assume I could do without inch sized wrenches so its not such a great analogy.) Its a solution but not the neat and tidy solution I was hoping for.
The most important lesson was that the neat trick of slipping new contents into a dbf file that was part of an existing shape file complex was really a bit shady and was ultimately gonna come back to bite me in the butt. What I really needed to do was to learn the proscribed and managed method for getting my newly calculated fertilizer rates into an existing shapefile or GIS database. Both SMS and FarmSite have such a procedure. As Carl described, the CSV format is -- for the moment -- the commonly available thread between all these procedures for getting the new rates in. It is not especially visual. Its a black box technique in which you have to trust the software and verify the numbers did indeed go to the place you intended, but it is does do what I need.
So its not the answer to the question I asked but is the solution I needed. Thanks for the help.
Edited by MikeNC 5/10/2008 07:58
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DBF files
