FileMaker Pro 11: Database Software Review

Is FileMaker Pro 11, the latest version of the ‘easy-to-use’ relational database for PC and Mac from FileMaker Inc., an essential upgrade that puts FileMaker head-and-shoulders above competitors? The short answer is probably not. But the longer answer will depend on your needs and resources.


FileMaker Pro 11 does include substantial new features — new charting and report generation capabilities, for example — that make an already strong contender stronger.


And the new features, in our limited testing, work pretty much as advertised, although, as always, their incremental value to users may be overblown by the company.


FileMaker: Out of the Box


Our out-of-the-box experience went smoothly. The program installed — it was a new installation, not an upgrade — without incident and reasonably quickly given its size and complexity. We installed it on a two-year old dual-core Dell laptop.


The touted new QuickStart screen is not a huge innovation, but it does give quick, intuitive access to the most likely starting points — launching an existing database or application, converting an existing file such as a spreadsheet, using one of the bundled ready-made “solutions,” or going to tutorials and other help resources.






data entry layout in FileMaker Pro 11 screen shot. Small business database
This is a data entry layout sample using FileMaker Pro 11’s contact manager.
(Click for larger image)
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Find Database Records Quickly


While it’s still possible to find records in a database by searching on a specific field, the new Quick Find feature lets you search multiple terms across all fields.


This can save time if you want to find a record about which you can only remember partial information, or in a database where you’re not sure in which field a search term is likely to appear.


When we searched on two terms (first name and country) in an admittedly small, sample contact database of 29 records, it turned up two matching records almost instantly. In a real database with hundreds of names, it might take longer, and indexing a large database converted from another source to enable Quick Find would also take time. Still, score one for FileMaker 11.


Setting the Database Table


In FileMaker 11, you can do more in table view — the rows-and-columns, spreadsheet-like presentation of data — than in past versions. It’s important because many Filemaker customers, old and new, are very familiar with spreadsheets and feel comfortable working in this mode.


You can now add a new field by clicking the plus button at the end of the row of columns in table view. You can also sort, hide or delete fields by clicking the down arrow beside the column heading and selecting an action from the drop-down menu.


Best of all, you can create on-the-fly reports in table view by sorting data — by state, for example — then using the drop-down menu to add a subtotal for each separated group, and a fill color to highlight the subtotals to make them easier to see.


Creating such a simple ad hoc report in the past meant going into a different, more complex dialog and completing more steps.


But FileMaker 11 also simplifies the more traditional report-generation process with a new Layout/Report Assistant that makes it a little more intuitive and reduces the number of steps.


Charting the Data


Charting capability should have been more easily available in FileMaker, and now it finally is. It’s not nearly as easy to use as the new on-the-fly reporting in table view, though. We wonder if that will eventually come — sort by State, select Bar chart from the drop-down menu and hey, presto. But it isn’t there yet.


You have to go into Layout view, create a new layout, draw — by mouse-clicking and dragging — an area for the chart to fill in the new layout, and then select fields and calculations on which to base the chart, as well as the data set (the entire database or a found subset) and the chart style.


FileMaker Pro 11 can generate bar charts — horizontal and vertical — as well as line, area and pie charts, and in lots of pretty and easily selectable colors and themes. Once you’ve created a chart, you can fairly easily change it from, say, a bar chart to a pie chart.


It’s not a terribly user-friendly functionality, but FileMaker does now have charting.

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