Customer Reviews

FileMaker Pro Business Applications: For versions 8 and 8.5

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book gets great reviews from enthusiastic readers. I need to wonder how carefully they read it. I have gone through several of the teaching examples in the first section of the book and there are so many editing errors that this book might be a contender for the Guiness Book of World Records. Consistently the author neglects to inform the reader of key details and before you know it, you're lost.

Warning! This book is so poorly written that you need to have very advanced knowledge of the software to get through it. In that case, I would skip the whole first section and start with the second part of this book where the author explores some interesting examples of Filemaker solutions. Were I the publisher, I would just cut out the whole first section (pages 1-141). Start at page 143.

Just popped on to Amazon to see what other books are for Filemaker Pro and thought I would check the rating of the book I am currently using.

Lets me describe the book by chapters:

1: Describing a DDB

2: Other Filemaker products you can buy

3: Installing the program and viewing existing DDB records.

4: Starting to build a DDB, making fields, adding tables, and lists

5: Different types of fields; text, number, date, calculation....

6: Layout types, standard, columnar, table, label

7: Relational Database Design. How to make relationships

8: Calculation fields

9 Using script maker

10: Planning a business solution

11-22: Part two (starting at page 143), each chapter describes one of the authors DDB's and how he made it. The problem is he says, `put a portal here' but does not tell you how, or how to actually get the data to pop into the windows the way you need it to. He leaves out critical details that prevent you from creating something.

Part III (have not read this part yet)

Deployment options

Server 8

Security issues

Getting Data into and out of

FM with other applications

Web publishing

Ch. 7 was the only chapter that was of any use to me!

The book:

Does not describe very well when or why to use various things (portals, look-ups),

I can not figure out how to make a Portal that works properly

I can not figure out how to make a Look-up that works properly

I had to download one of the authors DDB's and dissect it to figure out how to make a relationship work properly.

I'm buying another book!

Rob

I was going to give this book a very enthusiastic five star review, but having read other people's reviews, I can see their point. However, this book has already saved me thousands of dollars simply with its CRM solution (all tutorial files are downloadable unlocked from the author's website). Applications are included for just about every conceivable business need. You can just steal them, or follow along and your FileMaker abilities will take a quantum leap.

This book is aimed at the Filemaker user who has gotten beyond the VERY basic, but who is definitely not a developer. (By "very basic", I can just about use a portal and I know what a global field is, but that's about it.) I often do things in FileMaker that I don't really understand how I did them, or why they work! Plus, I know that I am probably going to run into problems down the road, due to the improvised nature of my "development." (which is, of course, the beauty of FileMaker.)

Simply following along with the author as he shows you how to develop a database correctly, will have you adapting and building complex custom programs for your business in no time. The 15 or so real world solutionsincluded are MUCH more useful than the freebies that FileMaker gives away. They are not as pretty, but once you go into Layout mode you can style them as your heart desires. This is definitely not a book for someone who has never used FileMaker or a database before, but it is a terrific next step, and much more approachable than some of the other "advanced" Filemaker books which were way too advanced for me. Four and a half stars!

A tremendous resource, this book is a must, if you use FileMaker you will not find a better one-stop shop. This is definitely one of the best written and laid out books I have come across. Evans has compiled a book that gives newer users a step by step guide and more experienced users a resource to referrer to when need. In addition the writing style makes it easier for all and the excellent case studies provide scenarios that all users can learn from. Bottom line, get it!