FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual

By Susan Prosser, Geoff Coffey
January 2009
Pages: 831
Series: The Missing Manuals
ISBN 10: 0-596-15423-2 | ISBN 13: 9780596154233
Press Release
(3) (Average of 5 Customer Reviews)

Description

The FileMaker Pro 10 desktop database lets you do almost anything with the information you give it -- especially with this book as your guide. Clear, thorough, and accessible, FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual helps you get in, build your database, and get the results you need, whether you're running a business, pursuing a hobby, or planning your retirement. It's the ideal guide for non-technical and experienced folks alike.

Each chapter in this fully updated edition covers the latest timesaving features of FileMaker Pro 10, including saved finds and a redesigned toolbar that reveals information and features more clearly than ever. You'll learn how to import information from the new Bento consumer database (Mac only), write scripts to make your database even easier to use, and send email without leaving FileMaker.

With this book, you will:

Get your first database running in minutes and perform basic tasks right away
Catalog people, processes, and things with streamlined data entry and sorting tools
Use your data to generate reports, correspondence, and other documents with ease
Create, connect, and manage multiple tables and set up complex relationships that display just the data you need
Crunch numbers, search text, or pin down dates and times with dozens of built-in formulas
Outfit your database for the Web, and import and export data to other formats

You'll also get objective advice on which features are really useful, and which aren't. To make the most of this database, you need FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual -- the book that should have been in the box.

Featured customer reviews

Practice Files are poorly organzied and presented, May 22 2009
Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]

Hello Anonymous --

Thank you for your detailed review of FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual.

I'm sorry that you're having trouble with the practice files. We included a descriptor in the file names (People_Move, People_Resize, etc.) as well as a description paragraph for each file on the Missing CD page (http://missingmanuals.com/cds/filemaker10tmm) to help make it clear which file to use. However, if you're still having to "guess" which file to use, then we obviously need to do a better job! We will double-check the order of the files listed.

I will also direct your specific questions about the figures to the authors. (Thank you for giving us the exact figure numbers where you found a problem! That will enable us to make corrections in the next printing of the book.)

I apologize again for your trouble.

-- Nan Barber, editor

Practice Files are poorly organzied and presented, May 21 2009

Rating:

Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]

The book has some good information and is organized in a logical progression.

However, it is extremely frustrating that the practice files are not presented in the order in which they are "apparently" referenced. Indeed some of the practice files are not even directly referenced in the text, leaving it to the reader to guess which one, if any is being used. (For example, the Anchor practice file is listed as the first file in Chapter 4. However it is not used until the section "Autoresize", nearly three-quarters of the way through Chapter 4. When it is used, frames from the file are shown in Figures 4-38 and 4-39, but there is no reference to the file in the title to these figures or in the text.) For other practice files, the reader is left to wonder which one is being used. (For example, in Chapter 4, the Section "Making a New Layout" refers to the "People" database. However, there are eight (8) databases listed as practiced files for Chapter 4 with "People" in the title. It is left to the reader to guess which is to be used. In searching each one of the eight, none corresponds exactly to the information presented in Figure 4-2. In addition, in Chapter 4's section "Found Sets and Layouts", the reader is instructed to "Switch to the People List layout". None of the "People" practice files listed for Chapter 4 has a layout named "People List".

I presume the remainder of the practice files for the book are as poorly arranged and correlated with the text. This greatly diminishes the usefulness of this source of information in learning about Filemaker Pro 10.

Praise and rebuke, May 20 2009

Rating:

Submitted by Paul Pazdera [Respond | View]

FileMaker Pro v.10 Review:
2009.05.17
by Paul Pazdera

"The Missing Manual " paperbacks, together with the application's online HELP, always ease us into a flattened learning curve. And "FileMaker Pro 10", Pogue Press/O'Reilly's tome continues this facility. Whether a novice or an advanced user, learning this way leads to early productivity. The book is organized to let you find answers quickly and in a friendly tenor, encouraging even read-throughs by already competent users of previous versions;
better still, the publisher maintains the content of this book online at their "Safari Books Online"-tab for lookups.
So, what's new in this version 10?
create a new file from scratch with the Quick Start screen at your bidding, or use one of the many included starter-templates - everything is customizable to your own liking;
the Status Toolbar now resides on top and all tools alook more modern and have acquired new abilities - hover over them to see helpful tips.
Toolbar and menu now offer common font sizes
When you add new records, sort is automatic.
Manipulation of fields, new calculation functions offering the use of Unicode numbers and text, expanded scripting and new access to external data sources, such as Oracle or MySQL, are the highlights of this newe incarnation of FMP. My reading suggests, that all levels of users - beginner to expert - will benefit from the many Tips & Tricks included in the 832 pages.
FMP is way more powerful than an address book or spreadsheet used as a mere list.
Much in life is binary , and so - the other side of the coin - FileMaker, a subsidiary of Apple, increasingly attracts displeasure from users of previous versions over deemed unreasonable charges for every upgrade, while not offering commensurate improvements to warrant them.
True, FileMaker Pro is the only almost affordable relational database application for the Mac! And Yes, there are others, such as the cross-platform Panorama and 4D, the 4th Dimension DB program - both excellent but costly beyond most Mac-users budgets.
One hopes, that Apple will begin investing in modernizing FileMaker to stem a migration to other vendors. Loyalty must be earned!
Pogue/O'Reilly, however, we salute for their winning descriptions of our programs: The Missing Manuals.

Read all reviews

Re: Not up to the Pogue standard, April 09 2009
Submitted by Nan Barber [Respond | View]

Jeff, I'm the editor of FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual. I would first of all like to thank you for taking the time to submit your candid review of the book. We take reader feedback very seriously.

I'm sorry that the inaccuracies you found hindered your use and enjoyment of the book. While no book is perfect, these kinds of inaccuracies should be very rare.

We will use your feedback and that of others to improve future editions of the book. I'm all ears if you'd care to go into further detail about the problems you found. If any examples in the book aren't clear to you, I will relay your questions to the authors and get a direct response. Please write to me at nanbarber@oreilly.com.

Above all, thank you for being a faithful and involved Missing Manual reader.

-- Nan

Not up to the Pogue standard, April 01 2009

Rating:

Submitted by jeffanon [Respond | View]

There's lots of good info in this book, but the detective agency example is somewhat obscure. The authors don't lay out the real world user work flow/process that motivates the design, so it's a bit of a puzzle. The database creation instructions are reasonably clear, though at times they are dense and abstract. One is required to enter a good deal of sample data into the downloaded databases to see what's going on, and the intermediate stages of the database make that process ubergeeky, to say the least. And finally, the editing is SLOPPY, SLOPPY, SLOPPY. Wrong table references, inaccurate diagrams, and other inconsistencies really slow the learner down. I've used other Pogue Missing Manuals and found them excellent, but this one needs a good going over by a skilled editor before it will be ready.

Exceptional, March 01 2009

Rating:

Submitted by brentl [Respond | View]

Having converted to FileMaker a couple of years ago with FM 8, and previously using Dataflex (DOS) and then Access (beginning in '97), I found that FileMaker was an exceptionally powerful and versatile database solution. This book truly should have been included with the software. I gave it 5 stars because I couldn't find a 10 star rating available.

Don't worry, February 10 2009
Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]

Don't worry, meanwhile the missing files were uploaded...

grrr*&(@#@#$#$, January 30 2009

Rating:

Submitted by ron [Respond | View]

I would give this book 5 stars EXCEPT for the fact that the practice files are NOT on the web site.... How hard can it be to up load them? How can someone write such a great book and then fall down on something like supplying the practice files???? Disappointing...

Media reviews
"The writing style is relaxed and comfortable...I really like how each topic starts from the very basics so that a reasonably experienced person who has not done that particular thing before gets the necessary foundation...this book is a good way to learn FileMaker. "
-- Tom Weaver, CapMac Offline, March 2009 Newsletter

"This book has practically everything that a FileMaker Pro 10 user would need to know, from the essential first steps, to methods of deploying a completed database. The book is chock full of helpful annotated screen grabs, notes and useful tips. It is a much needed resource and a ready reference. "
-- Michael L. Kleper, The Kleper Report on Digital Publishing

"My reading suggests, that all levels of users - beginner to expert - will benefit from the many Tips & Tricks included in the 832 pages."
-- Paul Pazdera, ApplesBC Computer Society

Read all reviews

See larger cover