Utilizing and maintaining the data

The data in a NAV system can be accessed via Pages, Queries, and/or Reports, providing total flexibility. Whatever tools are available to the developer or the user, which are appropriate, should be used. There are some very good tools in NAV for data manipulation, extraction, and presentation. Among other things, these include the SIFT/Flowfield functionality, the pervasive filtering capability (including the ability to apply filters to subordinate data structures), and the Navigate function. NAV includes the ability to create page parts for graphing, with a wide variety of predefined chart page parts included as part of the standard distribution. We can also create our own chart parts using tools that were delivered with the system or available from Web blogs.

The NAV database design approach could be referred to as a "rational normalization". NAV isn't constrained by a rigid normalized data structure, where every data element appears...