FileMaker Pro 11 review

A cross–platform database app that's ideal for casual spreadsheet users

FileMaker Pro 11
FileMaker Pro makes it as easy as possible to create your own databases

TechRadar Verdict

Once again, the people at FileMaker have come up with enough new features to justify the upgrade

Pros

  • +

    Spreadsheet-like ease of use

  • +

    Built-in charts

  • +

    Spotlight-like Quick Find

  • +

    Improved developer workflow

Cons

  • -

    Read-only recurring import

  • -

    No image import from Bento

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For the last few years, the FileMaker application's biggest competitors have been the spreadsheet applications. Spreadsheets are simple to understand, 'good enough' for keeping lists of things, and great for 'doing graphs' of most persuasions.

For the casual user, FileMaker Pro 11 may prove itself a spreadsheet killer. It can now create gorgeous 2D and 3D bar, line and pie charts with not a plug-in in sight: charts are straightforward to design and extremely easy to tweak, putting to rest a glaring omission from previous versions.

charting

Version 11 also has plenty to offer the experienced FileMaker user. In Layout mode, an Inspector palette offers complete control over fields, portals, and tabs without you needing to resort to contextual menus. Object badges identify conditionally formatted elements on a layout, and those indexed fields are searchable via Quick Find. You can also select which fields Quick Find searches on a per-layout basis.

When adding buttons to a layout, you can create new scripts on the fly. (In Advanced mode you can do the same for script triggers and custom menus.) Layouts can now be grouped into folders, portals filtered via calculations, and script variables used in both find requests and displayed as merged fields.

In terms of compatibility, the FP7 format is retained so that older clients can open version 11 files, but there's now an option to make files require 11. Given that lot, it's a winner.

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