FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual by Susan Prosser, Geoff Coffey
|
List Price: Our Price: $17.41 You Save: $22.58 (56%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.56 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual
Book Review: Grat book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great book, easy to follow, with easy language... and project files in the website, it works...Book Review: Good help, with a few glaring flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this book because it has received good reviews both here and elsewhere. I've owned Filemaker products for years, but have never really made a huge effort to get full use out of them. That's going to have to change this year, so I thought I'd get studying in earnest. This book seemed like a good place to start.
I'm still working through the material in the book, and I can only conclude it will be a while before I'll be able to give an "expert's opinion" on the content. By and large I've found the book to be well-organized and easy to follow. Since I still consider myself a beginner with Filemaker, the "easy to follow" part is important. The book manages to make concepts quite understandable without talking down to the reader.
Unfortunately I've found that several figures in the book are incorrect. For example, the two screenshots in FIgure 18-6 appear to be reversed: the caption says the top screenshot shows how a layout appears in a web browser, but it's clearly the bottom screenshot that depicts a database being viewed with Safari. Figure 18-7 is also supposed to show details of a database displayed in a web browser, but this time we see a picture of the Deployment Assistant. Hmm.
At best, such errors can only impede the reader's progress through the material; less obvious errors can even create confusion where clarity is the obvious goal. Although the authors of this book have done a good job making Filemaker Pro understandable to the newcomer, the editing staff seems to have been a bit sloppy. I hope Pogue Press will devote a little more time and effort to proofing future editions of this book.
Conclusion: A good how-to manual and reference that should be useful to newcomers as well as experienced users. Contains a few proofing errors that don't ruin the book's value but may require extra alertness from the reader. All in all, highly recommended.
Book Review: Filemaker Pro 10 - The Missing Manual - Your effectiveness enhancedr
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are new to this product or have been through the updated versions of Filemaker over the years this book is a must.
For the novice, it explains in plain language, how to set up and use this powerful program and get you up and running with well explained examples and screen shots and exercises. It gets one off and running and gathering understanding very quickly. It logically and simply moves the reader into databases with real examples.
For the seasoned expert, it is an excellent reference of the functionality and advanced techniques that will make your databases perform even better. The new features and functionality that have come with each Filemaker version are fully explained. I personally have found in a few weeks great improvements to old techniques and approaches that I either misunderstood or wasn't aware of. Well thought out examples and explanation of the steps for even the most complex functions help guide the reader .
Whilst Filemaker is a very powerful program, it most forgiving of sloppy database design. However the better the design, the better for both user and developer. The tools for this are available in Filemaker but not adequately discussed in my view. The chapter on Relationship graphs, table occurrences and techniques to work with relationships and keeping them simple and understandable is too focused on 'how to implement' in Filemaker rather than understanding design and how it can be organised, approached and improved. It could be argued this is not the books purpose, however good design benefits the approach and using Filemaker's functionality.
Filemaker Pro 10 - The Missing Manual is a well thought out, easy to understand text that explains how to use the program to its fullest extent and make your information more manageable, no matter what you are using Filemaker for.
Book Review: Filemaker Pro10 Missing Manual Is Still Missing!
Summary: 4 Stars
Although I give my Review such a negative title, I must rate the book with four stars.
It is a very good in depth book. It has it's topics arranged in a good logical order, and is for the most part a good reference book. When you want to find a specific topic the index is well built.
But, and here is the title reason, there aren't enough examples of real world problems and solutions. For example, if I wanted to build a conditional value list. You know, where the items of the second drop-down menu change or reflect differently depending on what I have selected in the first drop-down menu. And I want to put it in a portal. Well that information isn't there. I know there are examaples on the web and they are good for version 5, I don't want to have three seperate files, and blah blah blah.. Maybe Filemaker just needs a more robust scripting language, maybe it should grow up like FLASHs actionscript finally did.
But I have to be honest, I haven't found many of the Filemaker books that deep into examples.
I can see why some novices never progress past just simple flat file databases using Filemaker.
I've been using it on and off for the past 15yrs.
Book Review: Not Missing Anymore
Summary: 4 Stars
When I picked up Filemaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual, I was looking for a book that would help me get a jump start on building a relational database with multiple many-to-many relationships. So far I have completely redesigned one database I had created and creating a new one.
I haven't found every detail I was looking for, but this is a big book! I am learning that FileMaker Pro 10 is quite capable of doing most anything I'd want. One of the things I like about it is that it explains database concepts. I took a course in metadata for Internet-based database systems and I wish I had had this book going into that class because the book really helps a person understand the process of designing an information management system: tables, relationships, etc. It is very easy to overcomplicate the whole thing, and this book tells you what questions to ask yourself along the way.
The Missing Manual guides the reader through creating a database, designing layouts, working in calculations, including logical functions (if...then), and much more. I am sure I'll be referring to it and learning something new for many months to come.