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"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.