Re: FileMaker 8 is out!

On 30/8/05 00:28, in article
MPG.1d7d3a13faa6b89b989cd1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "42"
<nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> In article <8sLQe.3915$Cc5.1480@lakeread06>, news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> says...
>> Wow, cool calendar popup!
>
> Yeah... that's worth $180/user to upgrade. ... er... no its not.
>
> Still the feature list has its high spots... and low spots:
> None of the low spots are 'bad', they just aren't terribly interesting
> or worth getting excited about.
>
> Create Adobe PDF Files - low spot - its was already built into OSX, and
> you could get in windows (and it supported all your apps not just
> filemaker) with software from free to $10.00. (Only the clueless
> purchase acrobat if all they need is rudimentary pdf creation.) Its a
> nice touch, but its about 3 years too late to be worth getting excited
> about.
>
> Create Microsoft Excel files - low spot - between .mer, .sylk, and html
> tables we really already had all the xml export we needed... I guess its
> nice to have it export an actual .xls, PHBs everywhere will be able to
> open their own exports... but really - not a big deal.
>
> Fast Send! Email the contents of any field isntantly - middle spot - ho
> hum. Definately a nice touch, plug-ins have filled that niche nicely,
> and are likely more robust. But this will definately come in handy.
>
> Fast Match! Search databases easier - low spot - just another 'feature'
> to disable in highly customized, scripted, and locked down solutions. :(
> Maybe I'm being to down on it, and I'm sure it will be welcome in the
> more casual personal-use database creations.
>
> New! Layout alignment tools -low spot - bit of a time saver, but I
> really wasn't having problems aligning thing before.
>
> New! Email merge - middle sport -more ho hum... this potentially useful,
> but its looking very limited too. Html? Multipart? Embedded images?
>
> New! Table Import - high spot - A very welcome and much needed addition.
> This should have been backported to 7 in a free patch though.
>
> Improved! Relationships Graph - high spot - Another very welcome and
> much needed addition for working on complex projects. I'm so optimistic
> about it I gave it a high spot even though I don't know what they've
> really done. Anything they do is a welcome change, but did they do
> enough?
>
> New! Tab Control - high spot - A very welcome addition.
>
> Auto-complete - high spot - if this was done well it will be a real
> plus.
>
> Calendar drop-downs - high spot - These are a pain to 'simulate' its
> nice to finally have them.
>
> Script Variables - high spot - cleaner easier to maintain code is a good
> thing.
>
> Mouse-wheel support - middle-spot - Its about time, but this is pretty
> fundamental hardware support. I'm glad its there but i refuse to get
> excited that Filemaker 8 supports the modern mouse.
>
> Overall, there is enough to really interest me in the product. I see a
> fair bit of value in the feature set. They've already announced pricing
> for FMS8/SA8... but haven't said what they now do.
>
> Lastly, what is the point of a 10-user(or more) FM8 VLA ... it supports
> 5 user concurrency, and there is no FMS8. From this can I assume it will
> connect to FMS7? What do I lose? Can I use tabs? Calendars? If I can
> whats the point of server 8? If I can't whats the point of buying FM8
> today?


I've been beta testing FM8 Advanced and Pro for the last three months and
can say without any worry that it's wonderful. For a start it is stable,
which is why I suspect the turnaround between 7 and 8 was so quick, 7 was so
buggy there was too much to do in a point release. Anyway, the quick saving
and emailing of PDFs and Excel files is great, as is the calendar. The
built-in tab option is fucking wonderful, and with advanced you get Tooltips
(pop-up rollovers previously available with the 24U SimpleHelp plugin) and
Custom Menus (previously available with Menu Magic plugin).

It will run files served by 7, and vice versa, but 8 files running on 7
won't display the calendar, tooltips etc. If you make a layout using the
inbuilt tabbing system and run it on 7 it will seriously screw up.

And the best thing: You can copy and paste fields! Wonderful, wonderful
thing. If you need a field or many fields in lots of tables for
relationships or just want to move old fields to a new database, you can
just select the fields you want to move, Ctrl (or Cmd) + V, move to the
other table, and Ctrl + V, and there they all are, with all definitions
still in tact. And an old file made in 7 will work too, just open it in 8
and you can move all the fields across to a new file.

It is ludicrous that they always release the client software before server
(should be out in about 40 days if memory serves), and possibly the most
important change to the whole of FM is that FM8 Mobile will sync with
Server, which means it now actually has a use! It gives us great opportunity
to expand our software so people can take their databases with them without
it being a completely separate DB from the one at their offices or whatever.
I'm just now waiting impatiently for them to send me my copies :-)

The move from 6 to 7 should have been the most important for FM, but truth
is 7 just didn't work like it was supposed to. 8 does, and this is a
seriously big jump, although I can't help feeling that 7 should have done
all this stuff in the first place.



Zo


PS Sorry if this is written in some alien language, I had two hours sleep
last night and looking over that I think my grammar's way off for most of it
but I'm too tired to concentrate!

.