Powerful, flexible Mac database: FileMaker Pro - Software Review - The Pros have it - evaluation

Home Office Computing, May, 1991 by Crystal Waters

Powerful, Flexible Mac Database FileMaker Pro Rating: * * * * AT A GLANCE: Macintosh database with exceptional layout, reporting, and sorting capabilities. Upgrade includes more than 100 new features.

DOCUMENTATION: Multitude of manuals, HyperCard tour, and tutorials are excellent reference and learning tools. Detailed sections for new and experienced users. Extensive on-screen help. Plentiful illustrations; good indexes.

ERROR HANDLING: Excellent; no crashes.

EASE OF USE: Extremely instinctive; templates easy to customize with practice.

SUPPORT: Friendly, fast, free support, weekdays only; toll call. Technical Solutions newsletter includes news, tips, tricks.

VERSION REVIEWED: 1.0

PRICE: $229

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: 1MB Macintosh (2MB recommended); two 800K floppy-disk drives (hard-disk drive recommended); System 6.0 or higher

PUBLISHER: Claris Corp., 5201 Patrick Henry Dr., Box 58168, Santa Clara, CA 95052; (408) 727-8227

FileMaker has long had a reputation as one of the best flat-file databases for the Macintosh, and FileMaker Pro continues the tradition. I've been using FileMaker for close to four years, and although I'm no longer a beginner, my first-time-user clients agree that this software is easy to use and easy to grow with--and their businesses can easily take advantage of FileMaker's many features. If you have a Macintosh and have to keep track of information (mailing lists, inventory, expenses, invoices)--and make it look good-FileMaker Pro is my recommendation.

What's new with the Pro? FileMaker Pro brings with it more than 100 new features, including more layut control for reports, better field and text formatting, a spelling checker, and more data-entry options. FileMaker II limits no longer exist, at least in all of the applications I've put it through. The program's basic structure and operation are the same--but as I worked with Pro, I found myself consistently giving a thumbs-up to the enhancement here, the special touch there.

One of the FileMaker's strong points, at least as far back as the FileMaker Plus days, has been its layout capability. Layouts determine how data looks on-screen and on paper. If you are laying out a client billing statement, for example, you could always drag the client's name and address fields anywhere on the page. It has always been easy enough to have multiple layouts--one for data entry, one for an outstanding balance report, a number for different-size mailing labels, one for invoices, and one for past-due warnings. Now, a pop-up menu lists all layouts by the names I give them, so I can quickly switch from data entry to mailing labels without having to search through every layout to find the right one.

Many of the new features in FileMaker Pro resemble those found in a midlevel desktop-publishing program. Now, with Pro's enhanced layout features, you can add a graphic to your reports without having to go to a graphics program, copy the graphic to the clipboard, and then jump back into FileMaker and paste it. PICT and EPS graphics can now be imported directly. Color and patterns not only spice up the screen, they can make a data entry easier. Gridlines and rulers help line up layout elements, and the ability to zoom in and out (25 to 400 percent) lets you view the page at whichever magnification is most convenient.

You can group and treat objects on the page (such as graphics, fields, lines, and text blocks) as a single item. You can lock the group in place so that no changes can be made to it, align all items within the group with one another, or place the group on top of or behind other objects. These graphic-control modifications will help to make your layouts look even more professional.

Templates start you off on the right foot. Once again, FileMaker comes equipped with ready-to-use business templates, including Orders and Invoices, Project Tracking, and Expenses. I've had a number of clients start using FileMaker right out of the box by taking advantage of these premade database formats. As they learn the program, they eventually learn how to customize the templates. Although I've found that my own database needs vary, I often use the templates as learning tools. For example, I want to create a report of all companies on my mailing list that happen to be periodicals and sort them by type (music, literary, or news). Looking through the Contacts template reports, I can see how it's done--or at least be pointed in the right direction.

One template is called Buttons, a database of icons that can be copies into other database files. These icons, when clicked, automatically perform "scripts." For example, one button simply creates a new, blank record. A more complex button will automatically switch to the mailing-label layout, sort addresses by zip code, and print them out. Adding buttons to a layout can greatly speed up data entry and report generation--especially when you've hired someone to do data entry for you but don't want to teach them the intricacies of the program.