Agreed but is Clarris not pretty well independent although I do recall Apple still own it or part of it ... not too sure. But yes, fold it back in and make it part of iWorks!
Right. Like trying to win a Super Boat Race in a Kayak.
nothing at all, except sharing, for which you have to buy Filemaker Advance
You can do network sharing with standard FileMaker Pro (one licence per user), for up to ten users. More than that and you need FileMaker Server as well as a licence of FileMaker Pro for each user. FM Inc. often does specials giving away a free server with five licences of FileMaker Pro.
FileMaker Pro Advanced adds extra features for database development, such as script debugging and copying tables between databases. Its major feature is creating a standalone (run-time) database which can be used without owning FileMaker Pro (but run-time databases can't be networked).
In a typical organisation which uses FileMaker heavily, most users would be running FileMaker Pro, and a very small number of database developers would have FileMaker Pro Advanced.
I do development in Access and had a pain adjusting to Access 2007 new ribbon look for a project I did but was seriously considering FileMaker. Thinking it would cut my development in half and maybe with more flare on the front end for the users. I was very interested in the stand-alone runtime databases on the FM Advanced version.
So I gave it a try and after playing with it for a bit, I crossed it off my list not because it wasn't any good but because it would require me to spend a lot more time than I wanted to devote on how to use it but frankly I thought how it did some things were just plain wonky in comparison to Access.
The deal breaker came down to when I found out I didn't have the same power as I did with VBS in Access... for instance, I am able to create a File or just a Folder browser in Access and have the capability of checking if a file exists or opening PDF files. I was unable to find this capability in FM. I saw a File browser but not a Folder browser only.
My point is, I want more control and I didn't see that. I also like how you setup fields in Access tables over FMs.
I am not dissing FM, I'm just too used to Access and prefer it over FM especially price-wise.
Part of the problem with FileMaker Pro is that it runs on Windows as well so they can't have full integration with Apple apps because those apps aren't available on Windows which will affect the user experience with those who have to work on both platforms.
Bento on the other hand is Mac only and so can link into the Mac apps much better than its big brother. That being said some of those features in Bento are kind of gimmicky.
I use Bento all the time (in fact I'm going to Sydney next week to talk about how I use it) because it's all I need at the moment but I'm thinking of using FileMaker Pro for a project that I'm working on just because I need the server functionality.
Ultimately FileMaker Pro and Bento serve two different purposes and I like both although I hope the FileMaker 11 manual is better than 10's because it gets stupid seeing screenshots for Windows on the Mac version and even worse when there is actually a mix of Mac and Windows screen shots during the tutorials.
If Apple's going to simultaneously hobble Bento and keep Filemaker cross-platform, there needs to be a product in the middle.
Call it Bento Pro or Filemaker LE. I don't care which.
Bento looks nice, but what kind of serious database doesn't allow you to print envelopes or labels?
The integration with AddressBook and iCal is great, but I want more. I want to be able to select a group of contacts, and print out a page from Google or Yahoo maps so I can plan my daily route.
Or maybe this works better as a feature for AddressBook 6.0?
William Porter has a vested interest which Macworld chooses to conceal. He is a professional FileMaker consultant, trainer and author. Why would he offer anything less than a glowing review? If FileMaker does well, it helps his bottom line too. Macworld needs to be a bit more open about it when the reviewer is not impartial.
Comments
Agreed but is Clarris not pretty well independent although I do recall Apple still own it or part of it ... not too sure. But yes, fold it back in and make it part of iWorks!
Right. Like trying to win a Super Boat Race in a Kayak.
Filemaker 11
nothing at all, except sharing, for which you have to buy Filemaker Advance
You can do network sharing with standard FileMaker Pro (one licence per user), for up to ten users. More than that and you need FileMaker Server as well as a licence of FileMaker Pro for each user. FM Inc. often does specials giving away a free server with five licences of FileMaker Pro.
FileMaker Pro Advanced adds extra features for database development, such as script debugging and copying tables between databases. Its major feature is creating a standalone (run-time) database which can be used without owning FileMaker Pro (but run-time databases can't be networked).
In a typical organisation which uses FileMaker heavily, most users would be running FileMaker Pro, and a very small number of database developers would have FileMaker Pro Advanced.
So I gave it a try and after playing with it for a bit, I crossed it off my list not because it wasn't any good but because it would require me to spend a lot more time than I wanted to devote on how to use it but frankly I thought how it did some things were just plain wonky in comparison to Access.
The deal breaker came down to when I found out I didn't have the same power as I did with VBS in Access... for instance, I am able to create a File or just a Folder browser in Access and have the capability of checking if a file exists or opening PDF files. I was unable to find this capability in FM. I saw a File browser but not a Folder browser only.
My point is, I want more control and I didn't see that. I also like how you setup fields in Access tables over FMs.
I am not dissing FM, I'm just too used to Access and prefer it over FM especially price-wise.
Bento on the other hand is Mac only and so can link into the Mac apps much better than its big brother. That being said some of those features in Bento are kind of gimmicky.
I use Bento all the time (in fact I'm going to Sydney next week to talk about how I use it) because it's all I need at the moment but I'm thinking of using FileMaker Pro for a project that I'm working on just because I need the server functionality.
Ultimately FileMaker Pro and Bento serve two different purposes and I like both although I hope the FileMaker 11 manual is better than 10's because it gets stupid seeing screenshots for Windows on the Mac version and even worse when there is actually a mix of Mac and Windows screen shots during the tutorials.
Call it Bento Pro or Filemaker LE. I don't care which.
Bento looks nice, but what kind of serious database doesn't allow you to print envelopes or labels?
The integration with AddressBook and iCal is great, but I want more. I want to be able to select a group of contacts, and print out a page from Google or Yahoo maps so I can plan my daily route.
Or maybe this works better as a feature for AddressBook 6.0?
William Porter clearly begs to differ
http://www.macworld.com/article/1469...lemaker11.html
William Porter has a vested interest which Macworld chooses to conceal. He is a professional FileMaker consultant, trainer and author. Why would he offer anything less than a glowing review? If FileMaker does well, it helps his bottom line too. Macworld needs to be a bit more open about it when the reviewer is not impartial.