FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual: The Missing Manual

by Geoff Coffey and Susan Prosser

FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual is the clear, thorough and accessible guide to the latest version of this popular desktop database program. FileMaker Pro lets you do almost anything with the information you give it. You can print corporate reports, plan your retirement, or run a small country -- if you know what you're doing. This book helps non-technical folks like you get in, get your database built, and get the results you need. Pronto.
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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596514131
• ISBN13: 9780596514136
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 800 Pages
• Weight: 2.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 7.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent intro to FileMaker for beginner through high intermediate

The Missing Manual series is, overall, quite good with few misses. "FileMaker Pro 10 - The Missing Manual" is no exception to the generally high quality of the series. I've used FileMaker since its very first version when it was produced by a company called Nashoba Systems. FileMaker has always been an excellent product, but with each new version, new features add another level of complexity. The early Nashoba and Apple documentation was excellent, but bit by bit the standards slipped. Printed manuals gave way to online help. A mini-industry developed as publishers introduced new titles. It was never a tsunami, but there were a number of books on various aspects of FileMaker, some very well developed references. The Missing Manual neatly fills the gap. Starting with the basics, you are guided through the basics in the first three chapters. In reality, many people will not need to go beyond this point. There's enough here to get you through the creation and maintenance of simple FileMaker databases. Beginning with Chapter 4, on layouts, your knowledge will quickly expand. FileMaker was among the first, if not the first, microcomputer database product to allow you to design layouts to meet your needs. Since those early days, the power of the FileMaker layout engine has grown almost beyond comprehension. You can create whatever layout meets your needs - and you can have multiple layouts per database. The Missing Manual does a superb job of showing you how to create very sophisticated layouts. It is important to understand that a FileMaker layout differs considerably merely creating a user interface: in FileMaker, the various fields are also components of the database. For example, for summaries, you use a particular field and have to create a formula to manage it. The Missing Manual explains all this quite nicely. The remaining nine chapters lead you into more complex areas of database design in general and FileMaker in particular. In order, the chapters cover using multiple tables and relationships and then advance relationship techniques. These can be difficult concepts to grasp and even more difficult to implement. The book helps you along, though it doesn't really get into very complex relationships. The next four chapters cover calculations. You can create FileMaker fields that perform virtually any computational task. One of the reasons I've used FileMaker for so many years is because I can use it to rearrange, recombine, sort and do all manner of things with text. Though I don't it use it much for mathematical calculations, it has every function you might reasonably need. Obviously because four chapters are devoted to it, there's a lot to FileMaker calculations and the book is thorough in its approach. Two chapters on scripting follow. Over the years, FileMaker scripting has progressed from being a hair-pulling experience to being occasionally frustrating. If you're developing databases that must perform for relatively unski

FileMaker lifesaver!

It's been years since I used Filemaker, and then only as a database user...not the creator of the application. So when I set out to create a new FM database solution for a small private school I needed help! The tutorial provided with Filemaker9 is VERY basic and the application's "Help" tool is very thin. (I finally stopped clicking on it when search after search yielded no real help at all.) I picked up a copy of the Missing Manual hoping it would save my neck. I found that I already knew the material in the first half of the book, which was actually comforting. It was the second half where I found the help that I needed to make my FM solution do what I wanted it to do. The Missing Manual is well written by real humans...even with a bit of a sense of humor thrown in. And downloadable files on the Missingmanuals.com site make it easy to learn through hands-on exercises. I'm now rockin' & rollin' on my new database application! FileMaker is a powerful tool and the Missing Manual has helped me to unlock its secrets! A few dollars very well spent!

FILEMAKER 9 .. MISSING MANUAL

The book is as massive and complete as Filemaker 9 software. I found that it was at first intimidating because of the 750 + pages but after you dive in and learn to use the index the book because a lifesaver and close companion. I highly recommend it to anyone trying to use this powerful program.

So much more than a "Missing Manual."

This book is now in it's third writing. The first one (for Filekaker 7) never got printed as the release of Filemaker 8 made so many improvements to the software that a revision was mandatory. Nevertheless that early writing served its purpose as the precursor for the previous edition of this book on FileMaker 8. That edition was a real eye opener for me as it taught me so much more about the program than I had ever appreciated after many years of use. Now we have, what is in effect a third writing, for the latest version of FileMaker Pro and the benefit of those previous versions is certainly evident. These authors have an excellent style of writing for a technical product like FileMaker Pro -- the style is both readable and accurate with plenty of light hearted quips to provide a delightful human touch to what could otherwise become fairly dreary tome. The book is thus not only a very readable tutorial on the methodology for setting up a relational database, but it also has a multitude of advice on ways to ensure that your development will follow guidelines for best practice. Explanations of "The FileMaker Way" are thus easy to follow and also display the authors' comprehensive knowledge of the program. This undoubtedly stems from their own credible work as practising FMP developers in their own right. Some professional database gurus seem to take pleasure in deriding FileMaker for its simplicity of use and seeming inability to scale for enterprise tasks. What they overlook is that FileMaker is evolving into a data hub with its ability to exchange data so readily with an increasing number of other file formats. I can see how some of these folk will not find this book so useful as a reference work. It has not been written to be used in that way. If you come from a computer science training in DBMS, then you are only going to use Filemaker effectively if you take sufficient time to understand how and why FileMaker is different. The Missing Manual can certainly help you to achieve that but its style may not be as appropriate for your needs as it is for the database user who now wants to develop databases for their own projects. In summary then, this book is certainly a manual "that should have been in the box" but it makes no claims to being the only source of FileMaker knowledge that you will ever need. There are plenty of other resources to meet that need but I firmly believe you will be hard pressed to find any other text or resource that can match this "Missing Manual" for its comprehensive introduction to FileMaker Pro..