Comments about oreilly FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual:

I've used flat databases for years but wanted to get into relational and scripting. The Filemaker manuals don't have the information needed to understand the concepts. This book fills that gap and does it well. I didn't use the examples but built my own database as I read the sections. The extra notes, tips, etc. and the descriptive material do a nice job of explaining not just what to do but why. I really appreciate the warnings explaining why I do not want to do things that might get me in trouble later.
Having used computers for more than 50 years, I can normally figure out things myself but this book saved what could have been months of work.

Comments about oreilly FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual:

The first few parts are fine (except for a few editing errors already reported), but Part 3 on Multiple Tables and Relationships really needs to be totally re-written. (Multiple Tables part is OK.) I don't think I could imagine a more complicated example to use for a teaching aid, and the accompanying text is 'clear as mud'. It really needs both a simpler example, and better editing.

Comments about oreilly FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual:

I was happily working my way through this book until I hit chapter 8 - Advanced Relationship Technique. That's when I started to feel as if I was unravelling a tangled ball of yarn. The fundamental concepts are clear enough but trying to work through the chapter's examples and sample files, well I just had to give up and move on to other parts of the book.

The rest of the book is clear and enjoyable but this chapter needs a major overhaul before Filemaker 11 is released.

Comments about oreilly FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual:

I'd have to agree with this review, I've been using Filemaker on and off for a while but wanted to get into the relational side more after I'd constructed a few databases.

There is some useful information in this book, I started with chapter 7 and it explains how to model your data. From then on it gets into the detective agency example and quickly loses the reader.

I had to go and look for the downloaded examples to try and make sense of what was being written. I'm happy to follow a book building my own copy of the database that they describe and then use it for the next chapter. You can't do that with this book as the example files for the next chapter contain more work in them than is explained in the book. This slows you down as you have to try and work out what the changes are and what they are for.

I still haven't worked out how the detective agency databsae is supposed to work or what it is trying to achieve. Too many jumps without a suitable explanation make it very hard to understand.

What's a line item, how is that different to an expense and why does it have an invoice ID? I can see what you're trying to get at but not being an accountant doesn't make following the example easy at all.

The style of the book is a bit like being in a room with 5 different people talking at the same time, there are too many unrelated examples littering the page and because of that you find yourself having to refer to diagrams several pages forward or back from where you are in the book.

I have other Missing Manual books and I don't feel that this is up to the same standard.

Comments about oreilly FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual:

The book has some good information and is organized in a logical progression.

However, it is extremely frustrating that the practice files are not presented in the order in which they are "apparently" referenced. Indeed some of the practice files are not even directly referenced in the text, leaving it to the reader to guess which one, if any is being used. (For example, the Anchor practice file is listed as the first file in Chapter 4. However it is not used until the section "Autoresize", nearly three-quarters of the way through Chapter 4. When it is used, frames from the file are shown in Figures 4-38 and 4-39, but there is no reference to the file in the title to these figures or in the text.) For other practice files, the reader is left to wonder which one is being used. (For example, in Chapter 4, the Section "Making a New Layout" refers to the "People" database. However, there are eight (8) databases listed as practiced files for Chapter 4 with "People" in the title. It is left to the reader to guess which is to be used. In searching each one of the eight, none corresponds exactly to the information presented in Figure 4-2. In addition, in Chapter 4's section "Found Sets and Layouts", the reader is instructed to "Switch to the People List layout". None of the "People" practice files listed for Chapter 4 has a layout named "People List".

I presume the remainder of the practice files for the book are as poorly arranged and correlated with the text. This greatly diminishes the usefulness of this source of information in learning about Filemaker Pro 10.

Comments about oreilly FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual:

FileMaker Pro v.10 Review:

2009.05.17

by Paul Pazdera

"The Missing Manual " paperbacks, together with the application's online HELP, always ease us into a flattened learning curve. And "FileMaker Pro 10", Pogue Press/O'Reilly's tome continues this facility. Whether a novice or an advanced user, learning this way leads to early productivity. The book is organized to let you find answers quickly and in a friendly tenor, encouraging even read-throughs by already competent users of previous versions;

better still, the publisher maintains the content of this book online at their "Safari Books Online"-tab for lookups.

So, what's new in this version 10?

create a new file from scratch with the Quick Start screen at your bidding, or use one of the many included starter-templates - everything is customizable to your own liking;

the Status Toolbar now resides on top and all tools alook more modern and have acquired new abilities - hover over them to see helpful tips.

Toolbar and menu now offer common font sizes

When you add new records, sort is automatic.

Manipulation of fields, new calculation functions offering the use of Unicode numbers and text, expanded scripting and new access to external data sources, such as Oracle or MySQL, are the highlights of this newe incarnation of FMP. My reading suggests, that all levels of users - beginner to expert - will benefit from the many Tips & Tricks included in the 832 pages.

FMP is way more powerful than an address book or spreadsheet used as a mere list.

Much in life is binary , and so - the other side of the coin - FileMaker, a subsidiary of Apple, increasingly attracts displeasure from users of previous versions over deemed unreasonable charges for every upgrade, while not offering commensurate improvements to warrant them.

True, FileMaker Pro is the only almost affordable relational database application for the Mac! And Yes, there are others, such as the cross-platform Panorama and 4D, the 4th Dimension DB program - both excellent but costly beyond most Mac-users budgets.

One hopes, that Apple will begin investing in modernizing FileMaker to stem a migration to other vendors. Loyalty must be earned!

Pogue/O'Reilly, however, we salute for their winning descriptions of our programs: The Missing Manuals.

Comments about oreilly FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual:

There's lots of good info in this book, but the detective agency example is somewhat obscure. The authors don't lay out the real world user work flow/process that motivates the design, so it's a bit of a puzzle. The database creation instructions are reasonably clear, though at times they are dense and abstract. One is required to enter a good deal of sample data into the downloaded databases to see what's going on, and the intermediate stages of the database make that process ubergeeky, to say the least. And finally, the editing is SLOPPY, SLOPPY, SLOPPY. Wrong table references, inaccurate diagrams, and other inconsistencies really slow the learner down. I've used other Pogue Missing Manuals and found them excellent, but this one needs a good going over by a skilled editor before it will be ready.

Comments about oreilly FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual:

Having converted to FileMaker a couple of years ago with FM 8, and previously using Dataflex (DOS) and then Access (beginning in '97), I found that FileMaker was an exceptionally powerful and versatile database solution. This book truly should have been included with the software. I gave it 5 stars because I couldn't find a 10 star rating available.

Comments about oreilly FileMaker Pro 10: The Missing Manual:

I would give this book 5 stars EXCEPT for the fact that the practice files are NOT on the web site.... How hard can it be to up load them? How can someone write such a great book and then fall down on something like supplying the practice files???? Disappointing...