Those metrics were collected using our own Punisher tool. At other times, though, it worked perfectly.Throughout this blog post, you will see a number of screenshots showing performance benchmarks of different server machines and how long it took them to perform certain tasks. One odd quirk worth mentioning: when we ran search queries within the Help file, FileMaker Pro 8 crashed twice, bringing down the entire program. Cost-conscious users will likely prefer the rich assortment of free FAQs and troubleshooting advice at the FileMaker online knowledge base. You can buy a pack of five help calls for $180 or purchase annual support plans for $899-$699 per additional user (less for upgraders). After that, though, phone help gets expensive: $3 per minute, with a $75 maximum, or a $45 flat fee per call. Support-center hours are weekdays from 7 a.m. The company also provides one free troubleshooting call. FileMaker Pro 8 users get free phone support for installation issues. Calendar drop-downs, visual spell-checking, and faster mouse scrolling are other welcome additions, as is the ability to filter out irrelevant fields from layouts for quicker sorts and exports. We also liked Auto-complete, a time-saving feature that automatically fills in field content based on previous entries. You can add notes to the graph to explain the database's structure or document why you made specific changes. Other improvements within FileMaker Pro 8 include a nicely designed Relationships graph that provides a visual overview of duplicate tables and their associations. Performing this task is just as quick as making PDFs: simply click File and choose "Save/send records as Excel." In our tests, the FileMaker-to-Excel conversions went smoothly for the most part, although we did see the occasional column of gibberish characters within converted files. In earlier versions, FileMaker could only import Excel data. Another noteworthy upgrade is FileMaker Pro's ability to export records to Microsoft Excel. This task isn't impossible, but it cries out for some wizardlike assistance from FileMaker Pro. You'll need to shrink columns and widen margins on some layouts, such as the Expense Report template, before the entire report will fit on an Acrobat page. However, creating the perfect PDF within FileMaker Pro isn't easy. (Hint: click the first one to install FileMaker.) Despite the hieroglyphics, FileMaker Pro 8 is easy to install we completed setup in less than five minutes.įileMaker Pro 8 lets you save records as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files and e-mail them from within the program. Three icons appear without text descriptions, and it's up to you to figure out which icon does what. Unfortunately, like the setup screen in FileMaker Pro 7, FileMaker Pro 8's is too cryptic. FileMaker Pro's clean, cogent interface is a breeze to navigate. Additional versions include the $999 FileMaker Server 8, with additional file sharing, and the $2,499 Server 8 Advanced, which offers enhanced file sharing, Web publishing, and security features. The $499 Advanced version adds more development tools, including the ability to customize menus and to add tool tips to made-to-order databases for large organizations. We reviewed the $299 FileMaker Pro 8, which supports up to five simultaneous Windows or Mac users. FileMaker Pro 8 is a worthy upgrade for veteran users and a good choice for novices with the time and the patience to learn the art of database design. While the PDF-export feature takes trial and error to perfect, we can't complain about FileMaker Pro's vast toolkit for managing complex data sets.īusiness users can support massive databases as large as 8 terabytes and open up to 125 files at once. FileMaker Pro 8 also makes it vastly easier to e-mail the contents of fields-a tedious chore in prior versions-and to customize menus, use fields and tables, and create relationships between tables. Long considered the easier-to-use-albeit less powerful-alternative to Microsoft Access, FileMaker Pro adds an impressive array of new features, such as the ability to create Adobe Acrobat PDF files from database records or to export FileMaker data to Microsoft Excel. Building a database isn't a trivial task, but FileMaker Pro 8 lightens the load by bringing a powerful set of creation tools to professional developers and novices alike.
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