Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I am the Senior FileMaker Pro Developer at a major American university/medical school, where we have integrated FileMaker Pro and Oracle-based products to manage the vast amounts of clinical data collected for our cancer research center. We've recently started testing FileMaker Pro 11 in our environment, and have so far been very impressed with the new features and enhancements I've encountered.
Here are a few notable things I've encountered:
CHARTING
This long-overdue feature alone justifies the upgrade price! In the past, creating a simple chart in FileMaker Pro has been a complex process involving byzantine workarounds and/or expensive plug-ins or services. Now you can create dynamic charts which key off table data, found-set data, or related data. The new feature supports bar, line, area, and pie charts. I looking forward to seeing more chart types in future releases.
SUMMARIZED DATA ON TABLE LAYOUTS
This feature greatly increases the usability of the table view in FileMaker Pro, and reduces the need for my Excel-savvy users to export the data for further analysis.
RECURRING IMPORT
This feature creates a dynamic link between an existing Excel spreadsheet and a FileMaker Pro file. This is great in an environment like ours where many different data platforms (including Excel) must be supported. With this feature, I can allow an Excel spreadsheet to be the primary repository of a given chunk of data, but still use a FileMaker Pro solution for analysis and reporting. This gives us more flexibility to offer multi-platform solutions to complex workflows.
THE INSPECTOR
The old "Object Info" palette has been greatly extended as a full-blown "Inspector", where all aspects of an object such as position, text & data formatting, field behavior attributes, etc. can be managed. Multiple inspectors can be open, which makes creating layouts a lot more efficient.
ENHANCED OBJECT BADGES
"Object Badges" are visual hints which appear in layout mode which advise the developer about how that object is formatted. This feature has been implemented before with badges for tooltips and script triggers, but has now been extended to show fields with conditional formatting and indexing for the new "Quick Find" feature.
QUICK FIND
This new feature allows the user to search for a particular value across all fields in the layout at once. I don't know how many times I've created this feature in my own solutions, but it was always a hassle and never as elegant or fast as Quick Find. Now I can include this feature in every solution without any any additional effort.
ENHANCED CUSTOM MENU CREATION
A long-awaited re-write of the Custom Menu tool (in FileMaker Pro Advanced) makes the process a lot simpler and intuitive. Finally!
IN-CONTEXT OBJECT CREATION
I've discovered many places in the interface where I can instantly create new objects such as fields, scripts, etc. in the context of what I'm doing. For example, I can invoke a "create script" window directly from within the "Custom Menu" window if I wish to attach a script (which I hadn't previously defined) to a menu item. Another example is the ability to create a new field when defining a table layout without needing to invoke the "Manage Database" window. There are more examples of this "in-context" integration, but the net effect is that I spend less time invoking windows and more time focused on the task at hand. It's a small thing which makes a big difference to a developer.
COPY / PASTE / IMPORT CUSTOM FUNCTIONS
A huge time-saver for developers. Now I can simply keep all my custom functions in a reference file, and move only the ones I want into any given solution.
***
I'm still discovering all the new features of FileMaker Pro 11, but as a 20-year FileMaker Pro developer, I can tell you the upgrade price is more than justified - it's a no-brainer. For companies, institutions, and casual users who are considering FileMaker Pro as a new platform, there has never been a better time to jump on the bandwagon - you won't regret it!
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FileMaker Pro is powerful, easy-to-use database software that helps you and your team get any type of task done faster. Millions of people in business, government, and education use FileMaker Pro to effortlessly manage all their information on Windows, Mac, and the web.
Tackle Any Task on Windows, Mac, and the Web
Chart a whole new course for your data FileMaker Pro 11 comes with brand new features to help you create eye-catching reports, boost your productivity, and build better databases.
Create eye-catching reports with FileMaker Charts using bar, line, area, and pie charting styles. Make reports in a familiar spreadsheet-like format, or build customized reports with the improved Layout/Report Assistant. Set up Recurring Imports with your Excel or text files. Plus save your data as Snapshot Links to create personal reports or collaborate with other.
Boost your productivity every day with new tools to help you build and use your databases more easily including Quick Find, Inspector, Object Badges, improved Quick Start Screen, a new Invoice Starter Solution, and text highlighting.
Build better databases faster with new features for the more experienced developer such as Layout Folders, Portal Filtering, scripting enhancements, file security, and variables in find requests and merge fields.
Tackle any task Get over 30 professionally designed templates to help manage your tasks in minutes.
Create custom databases Build a database tailored for your unique needs. To get started just drag and drop Microsoft Excel data into FileMaker Pro.
Produce reports Get step-by-step reporting tools to help manage and automate tasks. Even easily create and email reports in Excel or PDF.
Share in a couple of clicks Safely share with both Windows and Mac users. Plus share your databases over a network with up to 9 other users.
Publish data to the web Securely publish your databases to the web in a few clicks. Create surveys, registration sites, customer feedback forms, and more.
Top new features in FileMaker Pro 11 Get more innovative features to help you create databases like never before:
New--FileMaker Charts Create eye-catching reports using bar, line, area, and pie charts.
New--Quick Reports Create reports in a spreadsheet-like format. Group and summarize data on the fly.
New--Recurring Import Automatically import Excel and text files every time you open your database.
New--Quick Find Search for information just as you would in a web browser.
New--Inspector Manage your layout tools all in one convenient place.
New--Layout Folders Organize layouts into folders with easy drag and drop.
Why FileMaker Pro?
Cross-platform--use on both Windows and Mac OS
Works with your Microsoft Excel files--just drag and drop
Built-in peer-to-peer sharing over a network
Easy web publishing in just a few clicks
Get results in minutes FileMaker Pro 11 comes with more than 30 ready-to-use Starter Solutions to help you get started fast. Simply open a solution and start adding information, or import your existing data from many popular formats.
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