filemaker pro 7 bible

www.it-ebooks.info FileMaker ® Pro 7 Bible Steven A. Schwartz Dennis R. Cohen 01_543474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page iii www.it-ebooks.info 01_543474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page ii www.it-ebooks.info FileMaker ® Pro 7 Bible 01_543474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page i www.it-ebooks.info 01_543474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page ii www.it-ebooks.info FileMaker ® Pro 7 Bible Steven A. Schwartz Dennis R. Cohen 01_543474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page iii www.it-ebooks.info FileMaker ® Pro 7 Bible Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 0-7645-4347-4 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/QY/QZ/QU/IN No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, E-Mail: brandreview@wiley.com. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF W ARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEB SITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OF WEB SITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEB SITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at (800) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control No.: 2004110585 Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley and Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. FileMaker is a registered trademark of Claris Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. is a trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. 01_543474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page iv www.it-ebooks.info About the Authors Dennis R. Cohen has been developing software and writing about it since the late 1970s. Starting in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Deep Space Network (DSN), through stints at Ashton-Tate, Claris, and Aladdin Systems, he was involved in creat- ing and maintaining such packages as the DSN Station Scheduling System, dBASE III, dBASE Mac, FileMaker, ClarisWorks, Claris Resolve, and many others. During this time, Dennis wrote numerous articles appearing in a variety of differ- ent publications, including Personal Computing, Macintosh Today, Macworld, and MacTutor. The author (or co-author) of over a dozen books, including AppleWorks 6 Bible, AppleWorks 6 For Dummies, Mac OS X Bible, iLife Bible, Teach Yourself Visually iLife ’04 (all Wiley), and Mac Digital Photography (Sybex), Dennis has also been the technical editor for over 100 titles, including all previous editions of FileMaker Pro Bible. Dennis resides in Sunnyvale, California, with his best friend — a Boston terrier named Spenser. You can find out more about him at his Web site at http:// homepage.mac.com/drcohen . In 1978, Dr. Steven Schwartz bought his first microcomputer, a new Apple II+. Determined to find a way to make money with it, he began writing software reviews, BASIC programs, and user tips for Nibble magazine. Shortly thereafter, he was made a contributing editor. Over the past 20 years, Steve has written hundreds of articles for more than a dozen computer magazines. He currently writes for Macworld magazine. He was also a founding editor of Software Digest as well as a business editor for MACazine. From 1985 to 1990, he was the director of technical services for Funk Software. Steve is the author of more than 40 books, including all editions of Macworld ClarisWorks/AppleWorks Bible and the FileMaker Pro Bible (Wiley); Running Microsoft Office 2001 (Microsoft Press); Visual QuickStart Guide for Internet Explorer 5 for Windows, Internet Explorer 5 for Macintosh, Entourage 2001 for Macintosh, CorelDraw 10 for Windows, and Office v.X for Macintosh (Peachpit Press); and dozens of popu- lar game strategy guides. Steve has a Ph.D. in psychology and presently lives in the fictional town of Lizard Spit, Arizona, where he writes books and complains about the heat. His official Web site is www.siliconwasteland.com. 01_543474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page v www.it-ebooks.info Credits Acquisitions Editor Terri Varveris Project Editor Paul Levesque Technical Editor Michael E. Cohen Senior Copy Editor Teresa Artman Project Coordinator Erin Smith Graphics and Production Specialists Carrie A. Foster Lauren Goddard Joyce Haughey Denny Hager Jennifer Heleine Lynsey Osborn Quality Control Technician Charles Spencer Brian H. Walls Proofreading and Indexing TECHBOOKS Production Services 01_543474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page vi www.it-ebooks.info To my friends and family: in particular, Spenser —DRC To my family —SAS 01_543474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page vii www.it-ebooks.info [...]... suffice FileMaker Pro 7 Bible is an all-inone book that gives you a well-rounded knowledge of FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Developer You don’t just learn how to perform an action; you also learn when and why you would perform that action You can find almost anything you want to know about FileMaker Pro in this book Whom This Book Is For FileMaker Pro 7 Bible is for anyone who uses version 7 of FileMaker Pro. .. Preface F ileMaker Pro is a mature database product We’re not talking about some company’s latest brainchild that is being foisted bug-laden onto an unsuspecting public In its various incarnations and from its various publishers, this product has been known as FileMaker, FileMaker 2, FileMaker IV, FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Pro 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6 and now, FileMaker Pro 7 FileMaker Pro has been around... 71 6 71 8 71 9 72 0 72 1 72 5 72 8 73 0 73 1 Appendix A: Macintosh Keyboard Shortcuts 73 3 Appendix B: Windows Keyboard Shortcuts 74 5 Appendix C: FileMaker Pro Function Reference 75 5 Appendix D: Glossary 831 Appendix E: Resources 851 Appendix F: About the CD 8 57 Index ... 21 26 27 27 30 32 35 38 40 44 45 45 47 48 xxii Contents Chapter 3: What’s New in FileMaker Pro 7? 49 The FileMaker Pro 7 Product Family Changes Introduced in FileMaker Pro 7 Operating system requirements File format changed Multiple tables... introduced in FileMaker Pro 7 ✦ Chapter 14 explains how to create calculations For a complete reference to all FileMaker Pro built-in functions, you should review Appendix C as well ✦ Chapter 15 discusses ScriptMaker and explains how to automate many common tasks ✦ Chapter 16 explains the procedures for moving data between FileMaker Pro and other programs ✦ Chapter 18 discusses FileMaker Pro s relational... copy of FileMaker Pro, you’re in excellent company About This Book FileMaker Pro 7 Bible is a different kind of computer book First, it’s not a manual Many people don’t like computer manuals — perhaps because they feel obligated to read a manual from cover to cover, or perhaps because manuals are designed to explain how features work rather than how to make a program work for you FileMaker Pro 7 Bible. .. printing Part IV: Putting FileMaker Pro to Work This part covers material that helps you make more productive use of FileMaker Pro It isn’t essential to learn about these features immediately, but you will want to tackle them after you’re comfortable with the FileMaker Pro basics Part V: Mastering FileMaker Pro Material in this part will interest more experienced FileMaker Pro users and would-be developers,... 125 128 148 150 158 162 164 169 172 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 Chapter 6: Layouts 179 Layout Basics Creating New Layouts Standard form layouts Columnar list/report layouts Creating a... shareware) products We discuss FileMaker Developer 7 s additional features and capabilities as well as how they augment your development efforts Part VII: Appendixes The appendixes present all keyboard shortcuts for the Macintosh and Windows versions of FileMaker Pro 7; explain all the FileMaker Pro built-in functions; list additional resources to which you can turn to learn more about FileMaker Pro; and... 6 When should you use a database program? 8 Flat-File and Relational Databases 8 Introducing FileMaker Pro 10 FileMaker concepts 10 Getting “The Big Picture” 16 Business uses for FileMaker Pro 17 Home uses for FileMaker Pro 18 Summary . various publishers, this product has been known as FileMaker, FileMaker 2, FileMaker IV, FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Pro 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6 . . . and now, FileMaker Pro 7. FileMaker Pro has been around. know about FileMaker Pro in this book. Whom This Book Is For FileMaker Pro 7 Bible is for anyone who uses version 7 of FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Developer: ✦ If you’re a beginning FileMaker Pro user,. ii www.it-ebooks.info FileMaker ® Pro 7 Bible 01_543 474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page i www.it-ebooks.info 01_543 474 ffirs.qxd 8/18/04 3:01 PM Page ii www.it-ebooks.info FileMaker ® Pro 7 Bible Steven A. Schwartz Dennis