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(14)


| Downloads:184,984 |
| Version Downloads:2,725 |
| Type:Business : Applications |
| License:Updater |
| Date:09 Aug 2011 |
| Platform:PPC / Intel |
| Price: $299.00 |
Overall (Version 11.x):![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Features:![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Ease of Use:![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Value:![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Stability:![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
+2
+107
If Filemaker is to re-position Filemaker and Filemaker iOS as a rapid application development tool, then maybe folks at its parent company need to assist. The user interface capabilities are increasingly oh so important.
What Filemaker needs: a fundamental re-think, and re-build.
+3
-9
Sw_tester reviewed on 10 Feb 2011
now after six months they finally release 11.03 and no fixes.
Filemaker get your act together.
+4
+8
+11
Can't undo most actions.
Can't select text from a list, like a spreadsheet. I just want to be able to do this occasionally.
Can't seem to format a column, just one item at a time!
Pop-ups in a form don't work like in OS X - it's like a clumsy webpage.
Lists are just ugly.
Form design looks ugly, as it did 6 years ago.
There's an image field but I can't drag an image to it.
etc...
I know I shouldn't pass judgement in minutes but every year I try to get into Filemaker. I owned, used and largely disliked v7 or 8 for a while.
I'd just like an easy to use database with a few decent reporting features. Why can't they make an app with the ease and style of Bento and some of the features of Filemaker?
+4
+31
+1
+11
I wish Bento would allow form design using actual OS X elements and allow you to strip down the database into a sort of stand-alone app.
And if we could make reports with our data that would be useful too.
I'd be happiest if an updated Bento/Filemaker was rolled into iWork and picked up an iWork-style interface.
+11
Simonm reviewed on 10 Apr 2010
If you're considering spending $99 on Bento, I'd strongly advise against wasting your money on a rubbish product. If possible, you'd be better to stretch your budget and get a proper robust database with great data transforming and import/export features. Filemaker even comes with templates for things like CD and movie libraries.
For me, Filemaker seems to fill a need left vacant by spreadsheet software like Excel, and the even more limited Numbers.
It seems there were download and registration problems early, so maybe they underestimated the popularity of the trial. A 30 day unrestricted trial gives you plenty of time to asses it also.
+11
+649
+11
Actually there was a deal where if you bought FileMaker Go for the iPad or iPhone then they'd give you a pretty hefty discount and that appears to have ended so there must be something around the corner I hope.
+20
+915
1. It took about 30 minutes to get the email link for the trial (as of 9:40am ET)
2. The trial link landing page says version 11 everywhere, but the download is still serving up version 10.
Looks like FM needs a bit more time to sort this out...
+4
+915
-1
-1
Unless there is undocumented info on how to do that, you CANNOT send email with the content of a layout in the found set of records. In my case this was simply a letter with one variable field, the name of the recipient. After long and frustrating experiments I had to copy and paste the contents into the message field and replace the personal name with an impersonal "Customer". This kind of "functionality" is simply idiotic. Moreover, the email dialog box exhibited unstable behavior -- different results for the same inputs. You can add to that this crown jewel of developer's newspeak: "cannot send email successfully"(?!) as a notification of a failed attempt. Actually, there are more problems with that dialog box. Once the send fails, you can no longer edit the address, cc, and bcc fields -- you immediately get another failure notification. It also appears that the subject field does not like phrases starting with numbers, for example, 2010. I am also puzzled by the "collect addresses across found set" check box under the BCC field. Doesn't it defeat the purpose of the BCC field, at least according to the warning in the FM Help section? Speaking of the check boxes, they get checked even when you click outside those boxes(?!) This is particularly bad because of the disastrous consequences of that action when, again according to the Help section, say, 10 recipients would receive 10 emails instead of one.
(Now, the Help section also gives you food for thought: at one point it claim that under Mac OS X you can only use Entourage as a mail client, but in a different place it claims that Apple Mail can be used).
All that brings me to the final point -- do all other items in BIBERKOPF's list work the same way as email does? Also, where does the $300 price tag fit in all that?
+1
+40
So anyway I go to the old system, connect it up and then boot it up. Launching Filemaker Pro and guess what - I get a dialog telling me I need to activate it! And no way of getting any further at this point - if I click the "Activate Later" button I get a dialog that says "A trial version of FMP has been used on this computer. Contact FileMaker or your reseller to purchase FileMaker Pro. If you receive this message after selecting Activate Later, then please activate your licensed copy of FileMaker Pro." This dialog also appears on the new system, even though that one DEFINITELY has never had a demo copy installed.
So that's it - I'm screwed and because this is a weekend I have no way of getting any further because their licensing team is not available out of working hours. So all my data that is in FMP is unuseable and inaccessible on either of these systems. This is pathetic in my view - its shouldn't be possible to be so locked out of your data.
I don't know what's gone wrong - I am a totally law-abiding purchaser of the product and yet I am unable to use it.
-1
biberkopf reviewed on 16 Sep 2009
Some of you seem to judge the product as a cheap piece of shareware after 5-10 minutes testing. Others compare it to unnamed databases. Sure, you can get databases that will provide in- and output possibilities for free. I, too, use some of them for certain projects. But for differenct tasks than FileMaker. FileMaker is a full featured, extremely mature and reliable DB with a rock solid server foundation that you can build your buisiness on. Year after year. And with a developer environment, that hands you so many features and functions. If you add to that:
• client-server with up to 999 simultaneus users
• perfect cross-platform (Windows/Mac - alas, no Linux :-[)
• web-publishing (instant, customized or xml-feed)
• ligtning fast search in millions of records
• flexible and intuitive design tools to build user totally customizable interfaces
• send email from server or client via smtp
• webviewer that enables presentation of web pages inside FM
• tabs to cut down on presentation layouts
• very low learning curve for beginners
• direct SQL-access (read/write) to MySQL, MSSQL and Oracle
• excellent, flexible and unrivalled reporting (print or pdf)
• very compatible import/export posibilities
• script triggers
• customizable business logic
• many exellent, cheap plug-ins to further expand the power of FileMaker (provides a.o. system and internet integration)
To name just what spring to mind ...
In the late 90's I was giving up on FileMaker. The developer platform was not moving anywhere. But with the totally revamped version 7 in 2004 things changed. Since then every single update has been a major one. Check out the frequency here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filemaker#Version_history
Since 7 I have felt that the developers at FileMaker are actually listening and understanding what is important for FMP developers to get value to the customers - easy, fast and reliably.
FileMaker is not Oracle - and shouldn't be, but I bet it could often do the job of many existing Oracle installation much cheaper, much more flexible and with less developing time. Still, what is more interesting is, that at a very fair price you can get your business up and running on FileMaker AND grow and scale securely and with an incredible flexibility while growing your business.
FileMaker is a professional tool with amazing power if you understand and known it to its full potential.
Unless you want to build a transatlantic tunnel or send rockets to Mars FileMaker can help you.
However if you just want to keep track of your VHS-video-collection, don't bother.
I'm surprised and really sorry to read all the bad responses to FileMaker. And as someone who has followed the product closely since version 2 in 1989, I have to say: It's utterly unfair!
Some of you seem to judge the product as a cheap piece of shareware after 5-10 minutes testing. Others compare it to other unnamed databases. Sure, you can get databases that will provide in- and output possibilities for free. I, too, use some of them for certain projects. But for differenct tasks than FileMaker. FileMaker is a full featured, extremely mature and reliable DB with a rock solid server foundation that you can build your buisiness on. Year after year. If you add to that:
• client-server with up to 999 simultaneus users
• perfect cross-platform (Windows/Mac - alas, no Linux :-[)
• web-publishing (instant, customized or xml-feed)
• ligtning fast search in millions of records
• flexible and intuitive design tools to build user totally customizable interfaces
• send email from server or client via smtp
• webviewer that enables presentation of web pages inside FM
• tabs to cut down on presentation layouts
• very low learning curve for beginners
• direct SQL-access (read/write) to MySQL, MSSQL and Oracle
• excellent, flexible and unrivalled reporting (print or pdf)
• very compatible import/export posibilities
• script triggers
• customizable business logic
• many exellent, cheap plug-ins to further expand the power of FileMaker (provides a.o. system and internet integration)
To name just what spring to mind ...
In the late 90's I was giving up on FileMaker. The developer platform was not moving anywhere. But with the totally revamped version 7 in 2004 things changed. Since then every single update has been a major one. Check out the frequency here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filemaker#Version_history
Since 7 I have felt that the developers at FileMaker are actually listening and understanding what is important for FMP developers to get value to the customers - easy, fast and reliably.
FileMaker is not Oracle - and shouldn't be, but I bet it could often do the job of many existing Oracle installation much cheaper, much more flexible and with less developing time. Still, what is more interesting is, that at a very fair price you can get your business up and running on FileMaker AND grow and scale securely and with an incredible flexibility while growing your business.
FileMaker is a professional tool with amazing power if you understand and known it to its full potential.
Unless you want to build a transatlantic tunnel or send rockets to Mars FileMaker can help you - and fast. (Well, not quite, but almost... ;-] )
However, if you just want to keep track of your VHS-video-collection, don't bother.
I have no affiliation with FileMaker Inc, but I admit: I am a big fan and long time user as well as a prof. developer.
-1
As if it wasn't long enough already.
Can't seem to edit it after posting.
-1
»FileMaker Pro won 52 awards in the U.S., more than its next eight competitors combined, and 133 worldwide, in the past six years.«
http://www.filemaker.com/company/newsroom/news/product_reviews.html
+40
-1
Finally, and in all fairness, I think FMI has done a great job at keeping the various versions compatible so that you can actually mix version 7 to 10 quite freely and cross platform, with some feature restrictions of course. (To compare: You can't even open a InDesign or Illustrator CS4 in CS3, which should be much more simple to implement. But let's not open *that* discussion ;-] )
Still I agree: It would be nice ...
+1
+40
Whilst Snow Leopard does introduce some new technologies like Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL, these are enhancements and don't affect applications which don't need or want to use them. As always, SL will have tightened up some parts of the API, fixed some bugs, and introduced some new bugs. All of these should be easily addressed by FMI in the normal way (as with any new system update) with a small amount of resource. That they choose not to do so is indicative of their attitude to their users, which is the point I was trying to make.
+1
both would get nearly 98% done with the install and then fail saying a valid copy of Filemaker v11 could not be found.
both had valid copies of Filemaker 11.0v1.
the bunk installs don't seem to have 'ruined' the existing install. but i am not ever able to get the actual update.
+11
Simonm rated on 02 Jul 2011
John McInerney rated on 23 May 2011
-1
ProjectBuilders rated on 17 Apr 2011
+7
Emrys0821 rated on 01 Mar 2011