FileMaker Pro for Windows

User Reviews

• Do not like this product.

  filemakeruserMay 25, 2016

  Pros

  It allows me to enter information fine.

  Cons

  Sorting of time sheets is terrible. Days are listed backwards from how time entries per/day are. It's confusing and terrible if you have many projects you are working on per day and logging hours per project. Does NOT allow you to sort these as you wish. Does not allow scrolling though clients/projects without clicking directly on them. We have hundreds of clients and this is very cumbersome. Support is pay only which is bad since it is not an inexpensive product.

  Summary

  Would not recommend this from my experience. I only use the timesheet portion now, but our company planned to use many of the other features but they are difficult to learn and no help unless you pay for it.

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• Fantastic App!

  FileMakerGeekOctober 4, 2013

  Pros

  - Cross-platform; Win/Mac/iOS (one file works on all) - FileMaker Go for iOS is FREE! - Friendly learning curve. - Fastest database dev tool. i.e. Days and weeks months, vs weeks, months, years! - Searching is extremely fast and flexible. - Wide array of great template starter solutions in bundle will serve the needs of most beginners. - FM Pro/Advanced may be used as an ad-hoc db server (9 clients/5 IWP). - Support for SQL Select queries! (Use free BaseElements plugin by Goya for Insert/Update/Delete) - FM Server Advanced IWP (Instant Web Publishing) serves 100 virtual web clients with little to no changes to layouts and scripts. - FM Server/Server Advanced gives you Custom Web Publishing which allows you to write PHP web pages to serve up to 200 web users. - Native ODBC JDBC allows access to external SQL databases. - Using Actual Technologies driver(s) allows FileMaker a live connection to most SQL databases (MySQL, Postgre, SQLite, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase).

  Cons

  - FileMaker GO cannot be used to create files (But it is FREE after all!) - Learning relational database theory and filemaker training should be a serious consideration for complex solutions. Searching related data should be scripted carefully to prevent decrease in search performance or SQL should be used as an alternative. - FM Server/Server Advanced sweet-spot is <=250 users. Advanced removes this cap, but good hardware and good database design becomes important. HD and RAM I/O are key, so SSDs and good RAM can help a LOT. Using multiple servers and mirroring/syncing data to distribute the load is preferable for very large deployments. - File size is limited to 8TB. But if you only store 1 table in a file, (server allows unlimited files) 8TB is quite a large. - FM Server was never designed to be a web server to thousands of users at a time. - Filemaker Pro should not be used purely as a front end to an external SQL database due to performance/load issues.

  Summary

  One of the most amazing features of FileMaker is this: Adding new fields to existing table schema, changing field names, table names, layout names, etc is free (wont break anything) since everything is referenced via internal ids under the hood. As long as you are not using literal strings to refer to anything, you are golden. Using the Actual Technologies drivers, allows you to use FileMaker's ESS technology to add External SQL Sources directly to your FileMaker relational graph. You can even add additional 'shadow' calculation fields to the filemaker side of the external SQL tables to make external SQL tables even more useful. Example: A calculation field could be created to combine all name and address fields into a single result. 3rd party plugins allow you to go far beyond what FileMaker is normally capable of. Example: web services, REST, Ajax, Ruby, Etc are all possible. You can even tie PBX phones into FileMaker. Great community support: FileMaker Technet, FM Forums. Other Dev Resources: filemakerstandards.org, modularfilemaker.org Unless your needs are complex from the start, the learning curve for FileMaker is very friendly compared to anything else out there.

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• What a better alternative to MS Access

  josealvarezjrFebruary 3, 2013

  Pros

  Ease of use and web capability make this a more workable solution

  Cons

  none discovered yet

  Summary

  I believe I am a much happier IT manager these days

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• Brilliant software

  shafigorooFebruary 11, 2012

  Pros

  I have been using it for last few years and love working on it.

  Cons

  None, I have not issues

  Summary

  I am planning to upgrade it.

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• Powerful, but easy to customise and use

  mjwmscJanuary 16, 2009

  Pros

  Imported all my files from a previous database through Excel. Easy to customise the fields.

  Cons

  I could not find a way to produce booklets, like directories. I got around it by exporting to PDF and using the book-printing facility of Adobe Reader 8. The should be a more direct way!

  Summary

  I dislike the lack of inbuilt booklet printing. (If it is there and I have missed it, please let me know.) I dislike the cost of buying the program. What am I going to do when my trial period is up?!

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• Fine if you don't know anything about databases

  NessBirdDecember 24, 2008

  Pros

  Easy interface.

  Cons

  Normalization is essentially non-existent. Not suitable for doing anything serious.

  Summary

  You would think there would be something which was easier to learn than Access and more functional than FileMaker. Access gets a bad rap, but the fact is that it's too difficult for an amateur to do much with. FileMaker is almost completely useless, but an amateur can do some minimal operations with it.

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• Great

  RihandiMay 19, 2008

  Pros

  Table and forms are easily made and managed as they are done simultaneously. Pre-made layout choices are a bit low in number, but you can easily make your own layouts and even button art using an art program. To make a query or report you simply create a new layout with the appropriate fields you want; calculations can go anywhere and even be used for an autofill for related feilds. Their system of data verification is much simpler than that of Access as the formate is preset and you don't have to worry about typing it wrong. It's also easier to create check selections. Drop down lists are editable outside of design view and you use specific value lists that can be assigned to as many fields as you need.

  Cons

  Summary

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• Excellent Software

  shafigorooJanuary 31, 2008

  Pros

  It does wonders! I can design my own database. Still there is a lot I can do.

  Cons

  Summary

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