View Review Details
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FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual |
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Practice Files are poorly organzied and presented |
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2009-05-21 12:23:50 |
| From: |
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Anonymous Reader
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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.
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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
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