Customer Reviews

FileMaker Pro 4.0 Companion (Claris Press)

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

 

 

Buy this book before you buy your first copy of FM Pro. This book will help beginners the most, and should provide useful information for intermediate developers. For help with advanced solutions, look some where else.

I recently took over the job of network admin at a company that uses Filemaker. I'd never used a database before, and from what I'd heard, they were quite difficult, so I bought this book, as it was aimed at beginners.

Don't make my same mistake. FMP is a database for the computer illiterate. It allows people to get off the ground with their ideas fast. It is intuitive, and therefore a little toying around will get you through anythign this book has to offer (and much faster). The scripting section is a joke, and basically says you CAN script, but doesn't show you any specific syntax.

If you know how to use a computer, don't get this book!

This book is really telling again and again about the clicking tasks for every possible menu interaction of a normal Macintosh or Wiindows application. It's a shame that obvious things are discribed and discussed in a kind of never ending smalltalk about the primitive and lowest basics about managing with FileMaker. It sounds like a home school course where people are proud that they learned the difference between a mouse and a keyboard. So maybe readers who are affraid about abstraction will like it and for them it is aimed to.

I am very sorry that I couldn't find a competent book about FileMaker in this one I coudn't find anything useable - I already read Gagne and Crabb which is a little bit better since it mentions some really important things about relations and other techniques. Academic literature of course handles only high end databases. So there is a big leak.

I wouldn't recommend this heavy companion without weight to anybody. I think that the beginners too know very quickly how to interact with mouse and menues. Maybe it would be good for them if you write it down to maybe 45 pages.

This is the book that should have been in the box with the program. It goes through database development from beginning to end, with many more examples and very good, complete instructions. A "basic" instruction book; not a lot of advanced "how to's" however (but lots more than the original manual).

With FileMakerPro you either know database science or you don't. The Claris manual is so bad we're amazed it even made it into the box. ___ That's why you need Maria's 'Companion'. You'll learn FMP the right way and the easy way. __ What we liked best are the many, many examples that illustrate the book. You not only get the line-by-line lesson... you see the results. We also liked the way Maria related the text to real-life situations. We've automated our "Readers" column for both Print and the Web now with Maria's help. FIVE thumbs UP! ( 1998 Web Design & Review "Editor's Choice Award" at the Design & Publishing Center. )

As usual with Maria L. Langer and her succes with the book FileMaker Pro 2.0 Her style is plain and direct. You won't find a better book, straightforward and very easy to use and learn. Excellent.