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| FileMaker Pro 8: The Missing Manual | 
 enlarge | Authors: Geoff Coffey, Susan Prosser
Publisher: Pogue Press
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $23.07
You Save: $11.88 (34%)
New (33) Used (17) from $3.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 136897
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 762
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7 x 1.5
ISBN: 0596005792
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.7565
EAN: 9780596005795
ASIN: 0596005792
Publication Date: September 23, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Greatly informative, but needs a better editor. April 27, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I'm not a database expert, yet I'm not a beginner. This review is from a person with a basic understanding of database programs.
I'm about halfway through this book and it has been a great guide to learning about FileMaker. However, it is soooo frustrating that there are many errors in the examples used throughout the book. With all the dry, technical speech (the author does try to lighten it up some) my ADD may kick in a little causing me to read it wrong while thinking about something else, but there are many times when the book tells me to do something with the example file you download with the "missing cd" and it just doesn't working right. For me it doesn't matter if they have updates on misprints in the book available online. I'm the kind of person who would prefer it be printed correctly the first time and not have to check everything against an online list of typos. That said, and taking the examples with a grain of salt and just getting the concepts behind them, I really do think this book is a good resource for becoming familiar FileMaker pretty fast. I've not read any other books but this one has to be one of the most comprehensive ones.
A necessity to learning the program February 28, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Without this book, it will take a long time to understand how the program really works. Unfortunately the manufacturer's provided help is too filled with "jargon" and not enough explanation. It becomes necessary to "reverse engineer" the provided examples to understand how much of the program can be used, being time consuming and filled with trial and error. And since there is no printed version, there is no where to put the notes and comments always gathered as one learns a program
Having written software on a professional basis for the original PCs in assembly language and being a regular user of such systems as SolidWorks parametric software I have a proven ability to understand. But the documentation that came with FileMaker was insufficient to grasp too may details needed to make the program usable in creating one's own databases rather than use a "canned" template.
The book is well written and gives good examples. In addition the authors are available by email to help really serious problems, but don't abuse that by constant pestering. I doubt if I could have gotten good use of the program in any reasonable time without this book. I only gave it a 4 instead of a 5 because I think it could be made perfect with a few more actual written examples of the scripts or commands as the user would type or use them in the program. My real rating is 4.5 But that doesn't detract from it's value. Having looked at other books I feel this is the best.
Bob McCormack
Sonoma, CA
 What a technical manual should be February 24, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is what a technical manual should be. Well written in a style that avoids jargon. Well organized so that it covers every major point of the application, without endless excuses that certain subjects are beyond the scope of the book. Carefully indexed. Well edited. Profusely and intelligently illustrated. And, finally, designed for readability.
FileMaker beginners will find that this is a true tutorial and covers far more territory than most casual users will want to travel. FileMaker pros will find this a handy reference for the inevitable moment when they can't remember something or need to explore a function new to them.
This edition has been outmoded to a degree because of the introduction of FileMaker 8.5, but it is still eminently useful.
In short, this truly is the "missing manual" for FileMaker Pro 8 and should be considered an essential book for any user. It is far superior to "Special Edition Using FileMaker 8".
Jerry
Good General Reference September 6, 2006
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
As the title, and most of the reviews (save Mr. Strauchs') suggest, this is the manual that doesn't exist in print. It's a nice alternative to the Help menu as it's written in a personable style that offers more direct and real-world applications for the basics of FileMaker.
However, as someone who has developed in FileMaker since version 2, I was hoping for a bundle of "tips'n'tricks" that were updated for FMP 7 & 8. But there's not even a simple explanation for a self-relation to find duplicate records (there is on the FileMaker site, but it's not documented in the TOC for Help; and it's more or less unchanged from the version 6 documentation). I'm wondering, with all the new features and new structure of FMP included in versions 7 & 8, how much is really new? It's nice to know that all the familiar tools are there to create field, layouts, and scripts, but I was hoping that the FileMaker redesign might save me a bit of time and make my scripts and calculations a bit more lean. But you won't find that here.
[I empathize with Mr. Strauchs, as I've had similar experiences with MS database products. But, at least superficially, he must have missed a Help menu item in FileMaker about importing Excel files. This may be covered in the book, but, alas, the index is of no help, and importing (or even opening Excel files from FileMaker as on page 630 of the book) is a basic operation not adequately cross-referenced, and a topic that many new users and cross-platforms users would love to know about].
My overall impression is that this is a hasty rehash of FileMaker (FMP) updated for the current version. It lacks a depth of organization and example that would make it an exemplary guide, but it covers every damn bit of the basics completely and, sometimes, without much real imagination.
Thorough, complete, yet easy to understand; well-done tutorials September 2, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Concur with all the other reviewers that this is THE best, most complete, yet easy-to-follow guide to FileMaker Pro [FMP]. The authors really have gone out of their way in using plain words to describe arcane concepts, and the illustrations are well executed. Although there are the usual typos and occasional ambiguous/misleading statements, there is a continuously updated website with 'Errata' and sample completed tutorial exercises. [If these were included on a CD with the book, this book would warrant a super-nova rating!]
A stellar guide that's easy to understand; as the title so aptly implies -- this manual should have been included with the expensive FMP software.
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