FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual |  | Authors: Susan Prosser, Stuart Gripman
Publisher: Pogue Press
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $25.38
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 14640
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 928
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 10.3 x 7 x 1.9
ISBN: 1449382592
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.7565
EAN: 9781449382599
ASIN: 1449382592
Publication Date: May 26, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9781449382599 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
This hands-on, friendly guide shows you how to harness FileMaker's power to make your information work for you. With a few mouse clicks, the FileMaker Pro 11 database helps you create and print corporate reports, manage a mailing list, or run your entire business. FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual helps you get started, build your database, and produce results, whether you're running a business, pursuing a hobby, or planning your retirement. It's a thorough, accessible guide for new, non-technical users, as well as those with more experience. - Start up: Get your first database up and running in minutes
- Catalog your data: Organize contacts, to-do items, and product information with speedy data-entry and sorting tools
- Create professional documents: Publish reports, invoices, and more, with ease
- Add visual power and clarity: Create colorful charts to illustrate and summarize your data
- Harness processing power: Crunch numbers and search text with dozens of built-in formulas
- Learn advanced topics: Explore the high-level features of FileMaker Pro Advanced and FileMaker Server
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| Customer Reviews:
 Essential resource for using FileMaker Pro June 14, 2010
Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
FileMaker Pro is considered to be the easiest to use of relational databases - and it is. It is also one of the most capable and powerful databases - and if you want to access that power, it is one of the most complex.
That's why this book has 869 pages of text, including 7 pages of error codes. You'll never see most of these error codes, but the sheer number of them should give you an idea of just how complex FileMaker Pro can be.
This book truly lives up to the premise of the missing manuals series: "the book that should have been in the box".
FileMaker Pro provide s extensive online help facility, but it is often terse and lacking in examples.
The FileMaker Pro missing manual, on the other hand, is pleasantly verbose and has many examples. Moreover, it provides a necessary education in database theory and design as well. There's a wonderful introduction, for example, on using Boolean values.
FileMaker Pro has many unique features, such as repeating fields and portals. The book explains them all. Of special interest to users beyond the beginner stage are the chapters on scripting within FileMaker Pro.
It is not an exaggeration to say that "FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual" is an entire course on using FileMaker Pro. The authors have just the right writing style - not too sparse, not too talkative. Every page is packed with useful information not just on FileMaker, but on creating databases as well.
You can use this book as an A-to-Z training course or as a reference. It's a great - if not mandatory - investment for your FileMaker library.
Jerry
review: Filemaker Pro 11: the missing manual July 19, 2010
lwakus (anchorage, ak)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Conflict of interest disclosure: O'Reilly Media provided me a free copy of FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual for the purposes of the review.
Last month I tried out Filemaker Pro 11 (the program) and had a two-word summary: way cool. This month's review of Filemaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual has an even more succinct one-word summary: oh, as in "oh, that's how that works" or "oh, that's what that means".
Stuart and Gripman know how to write. And they understand Filemaker and they understand that not every user was born speaking database-ese. Databases think and operate in ways that normal people don't; much as I like Filemaker Pro and much as I like to think I know what I'm doing, it can be a tricky program - and apparently I've learned to do many tasks the hard way. The manual is well-written, in clear, plain English. It's great at explaining what Filemaker is doing under the hood and is even humorous, without being silly. And the authors also commiserate about Filemaker's idosyncracies.
At 891 pages, the manual is huge and heavy and, mercifully, well -organized. The table of contents and index make it easy to navigate. But unlearning bad habits may require reading more than a few chunks of text or several chapters.
The Missing Manual also has a missing CD; instead of including a CD with the book, the authors post practice files online, along with errata and corrections. The authors are updating the site; they've added at least one file since I first downloaded them. But I received an error message when I tried to post a minor error (there's a clunky non-sentence on page 92).
My only other criticism is an oblique reference to file care and maintenance. Prosser and Gripman refer to "appropriate care and maintenance" in order to head off injury. But, although they explain what file recovery entails, they don't offer clear instructions as to what steps users should take for ongoing maintenance. I want to know how to avoid damaging my databases.
How To Use FileMaker Pro 11 Like A Pro July 21, 2010
Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
For anyone that uses FileMaker Pro on a daily basis, this book is an absolute steal. With nearly 900 pages of relevant information, the authors go beyond this applications basic use as a digital address book and really get into the details of what makes this a great application. With tons of pictures and clear detail how to follow along, the authors start with the basic use of displaying and inputting people data and go far beyond that, discussing design of databases and learning how to script FileMaker Pro to get this program to do nearly anything you need it to! Reports, exporting data to other formats, or publishing to the web, this book has it all!
A must read for any FileMaker Pro user who wants to get the most out of their experience and learn the ins and outs.
***** RECOMMENDED
 So far so good July 21, 2010
R. Eason (Houston, TX)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
From limited reading this appears to be a useful guide to Filemaker with lots of hints and tricks. At a glance the explanations of database function and form are a little light even for the intended beginner audience, but it is clear that the authors understand what they are doing. I purchased this for specific help on 4 topics and found clear explanations of each in no time flat. if you are new to Filemaker and potentially even a moderate newbie to databases this is money very well spent.
 Maybe It's Just Me August 15, 2010
S. Burman (Page, Arizona)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm sorry. Maybe it's just me. But I find the book mysterious and hard to follow. Perhaps the book would be easier to understand if I already understood FileMaker. The book starts off telling me how to find things apparently not realizing that I have no idea what I am supposed to be looking for. Some of the exercises simply don't work (The Format Painter on page 125). It seems that some apparently basic database subjects are covered after more esoteric concepts are introduced. The book would be more helpful to me if simple ideas were introduced first, and then developed. Very frustrating.
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