Customer Reviews

FileMaker Pro 2.0 for Macintosh: A Practical Handbook for Designing Sophisticated Databases

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The book covers FileMaker Pro version 2.0 in intimate detail. Since FileMaker has progressed to version 5, many people will discount this book as irrelevant. It's not. It's written in a very readable style and it's goal was to get as much as you possibly could out of FileMaker back when all there was were flat files. Much of FileMaker hasn't changed since version 2 including the various "modes" of operation, defining fields and calculations, writing scripts, implementing security, and making an easy to use data entry layout. Rich's writing is clear and jargon-free. While the files on the Mac 800K disk may be unusable to you, the content of the book is rich and rewarding as an introduction to the world of FileMaker. This is by no means "all" there is to know, but it's a darn good start before drowning in some of the newer and more advanced features introduced in versions 3, 4, and 5. Hopefully, when Rich's new book comes out that has been updated to version 5, that will completely eliminate the need to hunt this one down, but until that time, it's a nice starting point.

As a long time user of FM, I find myself still referring to this excellent book (now presently worn and post-noted to the nth degree..). The authors have a major focus on real world practicality and interface design, concepts that are quickly forgotten in the world of databases. Although the book refers to version 2.X, many of the ideas still apply to the latest version (5). There are numerous tips and tricks, many that were obviously developed in "real world" environment. The authors patiently remind the reader of the overwhelming and timeless importance of INTERFACE design and how to do it, something that is often forgotten or misunderstood in our database and web world. The book reflects the nature of the product: ease of use and simplicity for both the developer and the user.