merging and sorting large databases

[magicsound]

I'm working with a very large group archive, 35000+ messages which are now stored in six PGO .mdb files, all associated with the same group. I want to sort  the entire group (with some filtering) to extract content for eventual publication as a technical manual. Questions:
1) how do I merge the five mdb files so PGO can be used to sort and filter the entire message base
2) what is the file size limit of the PGO/Access environment
3) what's the best way to extract the relevant message text (after sorting and filtering) so volunteers can be assigned to evaluate and edit the content.

[Wilson Logan]

1) To merge the five mdb files, open each one consequtively and export all the messages from each file  to consequtively named archive files. Once you have them all, open a new database and import all the archive files.  
2) The file size limit of the PGO/Access environment is 1GB. Your 35k messages will occupy about 130Mb.
3) PGO was designed specifically not to be a group ripper
so there are no
easy ways to get the data out. You may contact me privately to verify your good intent & I will advise you further. Please email me at wilson.logan (at) ntlworld.com

Cheers,

 Wilson.