By Monte Ferguson We opened our meeting with discussion of the new iPhones and the new iPhone OS 3.0. After a lively discussion centered around the iPhone we moved onto our main presentation.
Our featured presentation was all about FileMaker Pro 10. Our own Duane Weller gave the presentation. Duane related that the first thing you’ll notice is the overhauled interface. First off the side bar, that’s been the main controls area for many years, is gone. Those controls have now been moved to the top. It now looks like a formatting bar. The tool bar is now customizable. Windows are resizable, but it is a rather clunky implementation. Not all elements resize properly. It looks best when the orientation is vertical, rather than horizontal. The advanced versions of the program let you create customizable menus in your solutions. A new layout menu, now a drop down, has been included with the program.
Those who are new to the program, or upgrading from Bento, will be glad to know that there are features to ease the learning curve. Bento users will be able to integrate their data into a FileMaker database. Those new to the program will enjoy the new resource center. It is a good place to start learning the program. There are also a number of starter solutions. They are turn key databases that you can use “out of the box” or customize to your needs.
The next set of features Duane hilighted skew more toward the professional versus casual user. A pie chart now shows how many records are displayed, out of a total count of “X”. In the table view you can drag and drop data. You an also turn off columns of data. A spyglass icon can be clicked on which shows which fields are locked vs searchable. You can finally send out email from within FileMaker. Script triggers, which function much in the same way macro’s do, can now be executed by user feedback. (Example, hitting the return key.) FileMaker now supports bi-directional communication with SQL databases. (FM Pro can also modify data in an SQL database.) FM Pro can now talk directly to Oracle and MS SQL databases.
There are a number of improved features. Those that stood out was the instant web publishing,which is really a one click affair. An improved export feature lets you export to Excel or PDF and append to a pdf file. There is also an enhanced file recovery feature.
Duane said, when asked if it were worth the upgrade price, that the answer was yes. The program does more than it did before. It has more useful features than ever before. And things that used to take some extra coding work arounds or add-ons were now streamlined and built into the program. Posted: Saturday, August 1st, 2009 | 
