This is a very boring subject…
Yes I know this is a very boring topic, but one worth posting as after 10 years of using Lotus approach to spreadsheet and database my record collection I needed to upgrade and update to something that would actually run on Win7.
Export your .apr file/database/spreadsheets as excel files using the export (as) function in Lotus and then… bascially using either the full or lite packaged version of Microsoft office which hopefully in your case came with your P.C. and bundle of Microsoft office ‘tools’ import the excel file and edit and carry on with your databasing. you will find a few annoyances such as filtered search results as of yet don’t seem to operate in the same way, but hell just having the possibility of saving years of work seems worth doing eh?
I’d searched for all kinds of complicated and costly ways to update and continue on with my database and in the end stumbled on this. Perhaps this may help you?
Hope so…
Michael Cullen Murphy 
I am still using Lotus Approach in Win7. Let me know if I can help you. There are some good user support web sites. I still prefer it to spread sheets and it is much simpler than othe db tools I have used. jdelayknee@yahoo.com Name is
Jerry
how do you get back to database view from mail label view stuck on that and do not know how to get back to database view help
sorry not a sausagey clue!
Your best bet is to salvage the data. Lotus Approach is marginal with Windows 7 and very prone to issues like you are experiencing. Get MS Excel (any recent version) goto “Open” and navigate to the folder that contains your Approach files. In the Excel screen change the file type to dBase and open the Approach file that has a file type “.dbf”
You will see your data as a spreadsheet. Immediately “save” what you’ve opened but change the file type to a “.xl” (or similar) so you can open it again in Excel.
Good luck.
were you able to install Lotus on your windows 7 automatically or did you have to do it manually?
I think I did it manually, but it’s going back some now..
Mike
I use it on 8 it works fine, I love the ease of use, but IBM wont update it and I cant send e mails from the data so I want to move on to a more up to date Database such as filemaker.