FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual

Creating a New Database

The best way to understand the concepts introduced in this chapter is to get some mouse-on experience. Fortunately, FileMaker Pro gives you a quick way to jumpstart a new database.

Although a database can do just about anything, most people want to do a few of the same things (like keep track of their contacts). Accordingly, FileMaker Pro comes with dozens of prebuilt Starter Solutions: sample databases that you can fill in with your own data and even customize as you see fit. A Starter Solution, or template, is essentially a sample database, without any information filled in yet. Templates let you start up a database quickly, and as you go along, change or expand it to suit your needs. Almost any conceivable database can be built on one of these foundational layouts; see the box on Opening a Database for the full catalog.

Tip

If you’re the do-it-yourself type, see Chapter 3 for instructions on designing your own database layout from scratch.

Since just about everybody in the world needs to keep track of people, a good place to start your FileMaker experience is with a Contact Management database, which does just what its name suggests: It keeps track of people and their various numbers and addresses. This is the template you can use if, for example, you volunteer for a local repertory company and need a place to store the names and addresses of all season ticket holders. Once you’ve entered all the information, you can use the database to, say, print letters ...