Special Edition Using FileMaker 7 (Special Edition Using)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 1104 pages
• Published by: Que August 22, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0789730286
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0789730282
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 2.5 inches
• Weighs: 4 pounds

Product Description


Once upon a time, you were an experienced FileMaker user. Now there's an updated version of the software and you feel like you're back at the beginning of the story. Special Edition Using FileMaker 7 can help you get back to "happily ever after" with your database building skills. Frequent tips, case studies and thorough examples create a learning experience as if you were in the same room with the experienced FileMaker developers. Written by The Moyer Group, a leading FileMaker Pro consulting and training organization, this book will show you how to avoid mistakes and save time in developing databases. A CD is included to show you sample files with before-and-after examples, as well as an interface explorer tool that will allow you to prototype interfaces quickly for clients. Special Edition Using FileMaker 7 is sure to keep you from seeing the end of your database building days.

About The Author


Steve Lane has worked with relational databases for 15 years. He has written for FileMaker Advisor magazine and co-authored Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development. He is a vice president with the Moyer Group and has led training classes in FileMaker technologies all over the country, both in open sessions and in on-site client engagements. He regularly speaks at the annual FileMaker Developer's Conference, where in 2003 he was awarded the FileMaker Fellowship Award for “pushing the boundaries of FileMaker Pro.”

Bob Bowers is a columnist and contributing editor for FileMaker Advisor magazine and has co-authored two other books: Advanced FileMaker Pro 5.5 Techniques for Developers and Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development. He is president of the Moyer Group. At the 2002 FileMaker Developer's Conference, where he is a perennial speaker, he was awarded the FileMaker Fellowship Award for “developing outstanding technical and educational resources for FileMaker.”

Scott Love has been working with FileMaker at leading technology firms for over a decade. Currently a vice president with the Moyer Group, he served at MacUser/MacWEEK as an online Managing Editor, at Apple Computer as its Web Publishing Technology Evangelist, followed by directing the Technical Marketing team at Macromedia. He has written dozens of feature and review articles on FileMaker and Internet/Web topics for a wide range of computer publications, including Macworld magazine.

Chris Moyer has been designing and implementing database solutions for Fortune 500 companies for more than 13 years. He is CEO of the Moyer Group. Before founding the Moyer Group in 1995, he worked as a Sales Engineer for the Claris Corporation (now FileMaker, Inc.). He was one of three trainers selected by Claris to train the FileMaker developer community in the United States and abroad when FileMaker 3.0 was released. Chris subsequently authored Special Edition Using FileMaker Pro 3 for Macintosh. In 1998, he was awarded the FileMaker Solutions Alliance Award of Excellence. Chris is a co-author of Advanced FileMaker Pro 5.5 Techniques for Developers. Today Chris serves as a technical editor for FileMaker Advisor magazine and is a regular presenter at the FileMaker Developer Conference.

Reader Reviews
Like other books in the "Special Edition Using" series, the cover of this book claims it is the "only Filemaker book you'll ever need." Well, that's just some very clever marketing, and probably not correct for most users. But this IS a fantastic 2nd book to use and keep as a reference once you are familiar with the basics of Filemaker. Folks just starting out with the program may not appreciate the absence of true, from the ground up, tutorials walking you through every aspect of the program. For that kind of approach, I whole-heartedly recommend the FM Pro 7 Bible by Schwartz and Cohen. The Bible was the book I started with back when the software was at version 4, and I actually bought a new copy covering version 7 when I came back to the software after shelving it for a few years. The Bible provides an excellent foundation for the basics+. And then this book steps in with excellent coverage of more advanced concepts. Perhaps the most useful sections come in chapters 5-7, in which the authors write the best explanation of entity-relationship theory I've ever read. Best of all, it's all in the context of designing databases with FMP 7 -- you actually learn how to use the software to design complex, multi-table databases in a way that makes the material stick. Read these chapters once for the concepts -- then again sitting before your computer as you put FMP 7 through it's paces. You WILL learn this stuff -- and it WILL stick. Also helpful was coverage re. the several ways to get your database on the web, which, in version 7, is quite different from your options in earlier versions. These sections are an excellent update to the authors' fine work on Advanced FileMaker Pro 6 Web Development from Wordware Press (which, by the way, is an excellent read and is still relevant, if a little dated). I'm using all I've learned to develop a complex trial notebook db program for my law firm, and this book, and the Bible, together convince me that I can in fact do it all on my own!