Skip to Content
FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual
book

FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual

by Stuart Gripman, Susan Prosser
May 2010
Beginner to intermediate
915 pages
33h 1m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual

Chapter 1. Working with a Database

FileMaker Pro databases can be as simple as a list of your antique saltshaker collection or as complex as a company-wide system for purchasing, sales, inventory, invoicing, shipping, and customer tracking. But all of them essentially work the same way. This chapter gives you a tour of FileMaker’s major features and gets you up and running on your very first database.

FileMaker’s vast assortment of tools and options can make the program’s window as intimidating as a jumbo-jet cockpit. But the program’s menu commands, dialog boxes, keyboard shortcuts, and other options stay largely consistent across all databases, so everything you learn in the next few pages applies to almost every database you’ll ever use.

Tip

Because a database usually solves a problem of some kind, some FileMaker experts call a database a solution, as in, “I can create an inventory solution for your bakery, but it’s going to cost you some dough.” Usually, database and solution mean the same thing, although the term solution sometimes implies a system of several connected databases (more on that in Part three).

A Very Quick Database Tour

Every FileMaker Pro database has two major working parts. First, the data you’re storing. And second, the tools that help you view and manage your data. Since data can change radically from file to file, you’ll start this tour focusing on the elements you find in nearly every FileMaker database—the tools. And since the first database you create won’t ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

FileMaker Pro 12: The Missing Manual

FileMaker Pro 12: The Missing Manual

Susan Prosser, Stuart Gripman
FileMaker Pro 14: The Missing Manual

FileMaker Pro 14: The Missing Manual

Stuart Gripman, Susan Prosser
FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual

FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual

Geoff Coffey, Susan Prosser
FileMaker Pro 13: The Missing Manual

FileMaker Pro 13: The Missing Manual

Susan Prosser, Stuart Gripman

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781449390280Errata Page