Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is transforming how businesses handle data in today’s digital workspace. Traditionally, extracting text from images required costly third-party integrations, but not anymore. With FileMaker’s GetLiveText feature, you can harness the built-in OCR capabilities of iOS and macOS to capture text directly within your database. This includes a video and a demo file.
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For many businesses, FileMaker has long served as the primary hub for data. However, there are plenty of situations where FileMaker either can’t perform a specific task or simply isn’t fast enough for the workload.
This is where external technologies shine. Python handles complex mathematical operations with exceptional speed. JavaScript can process large datasets far more efficiently than a FileMaker custom function. And your data doesn’t always need to live inside the same tool you use to manage it. Sometimes, the most effective approach is to let FileMaker act as the connective layer, the glue-between so to say, of your specialized systems.
In this video, I walk through the integrations available with Amazon Web Services (AWS). In particular, DynamoDB. With AWS offering such an enormous range of services, far more than any one person can fully master, knowing even a few of them can give you valuable insight into when to offload tasks or data storage to a more suitable platform. If you’ve never explored options outside FileMaker for managing or storing your data, this video will give you a few more ideas to consider.
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If your team collects field notes, service updates, support comments, or quick entries from mobile devices, you know how inconsistent and unstructured text can be. Misspellings, shorthand, scattered thoughts, and long explanations can make important information hard to understand. With the AI capabilities available in FileMaker 2025, you now can clean up messy notes, generate clear summaries, and translate text into other languages directly inside your solution.
Our AI text manipulation tool turns everyday entries into organized, professional content that your team can actually use. All it takes is a single script, a few prompts, and the built-in FileMaker AI script steps. Once configured, these tools can transform the way you manage written information in your system.
What You Can Do with AI Text Manipulation in FileMaker
Text Summarization
AI can condense long or disorganized notes into short, helpful summaries. This is ideal for technician logs, support tickets, project updates, or any place where information is captured quickly and becomes difficult to review later. Instead of reading through several paragraphs, users get a concise overview that highlights the key points.
Professionalize Text
Field notes are often typed quickly on mobile devices and may contain spelling issues, inconsistent grammar, or incomplete thoughts. AI can rewrite these entries in clear, polished language that is suitable for customers, managers, or reporting. The original intent is preserved, but the message becomes easier to read and understand.
Translate to Other Languages
With a single request, FileMaker can translate text into German, Spanish, or another language of your choice. The system can automatically select a stronger model for translation accuracy when needed. This helps teams communicate more clearly with multilingual customers or international partners.
Custom AI Instructions
If you need something more specific, you can provide your own instruction. You might ask AI to shorten the content, rewrite it in a friendly tone, remove unnecessary details, or create a one-sentence summary. FileMaker passes your instruction directly to the model so you maintain full control over the output.
One Script for All Actions
All text manipulation functions can run from the same script. The script reads a parameter that tells FileMaker whether the user wants summarization, translation, professionalization, or a custom request. This approach makes your solution easy to maintain and allows you to expand your text tools as your needs grow. The script also handles AI account configuration, model selection, streaming behavior, and response parameters.
Try It Yourself
You can experiment with these features using the free unlocked demo file included in the FileMaker Features and Free Resources course at Productive Computing University. Enter your OpenAI API key, choose your text action, and watch the result appear instantly inside FileMaker.
AI text manipulation is one of the simplest and most practical enhancements you can add to your workflow. It improves clarity, reduces errors, and helps your team work more efficiently with the information they already collect.
Get the free demo file FAQs About AI Text Manipulation in FileMaker
What version of FileMaker do I need to use AI text manipulation?
AI text manipulation features require FileMaker 2025 or later. These versions include the built-in script steps needed to send prompts to an AI model and return the results directly into your FileMaker fields.
Do I need an OpenAI account to use these features?
Yes. To run any of the AI text manipulation examples, you need an OpenAI API key. The demo file from Productive Computing University includes a field where you can paste your key so you can test summarization, translation, and text cleanup immediately.
Does FileMaker handle the entire AI process automatically?
Once you configure your AI account and model, FileMaker handles the request, sends the prompt, receives the response, and streams the result back into a field. You can customize parameters like verbosity, reasoning effort, or model selection depending on your needs.
Can this help with mobile or field-collected notes?
Yes. This feature is especially helpful for mobile workflows where notes are entered quickly or inconsistently. AI can clean up typos, improve clarity, and translate content so your team can work more efficiently with the information they already collect.
Other products and services Productive Computing, Inc. offers:
What can PCI do for you? – Overview Video of Productive Computing Services Consulting and Development – services billed by the hour Maintenance and Support – services billed monthly Packaged Services – flat fee for Health Assessment, Server Installation, etc. Plug-ins – tools to integrate with QuickBooks, Outlook, Google, etc. Core CRM Pro – customizable and scalable CRM built on FileMaker Claris and FileMaker Licensing – discounts on new seats and renewals FileMaker and QuickBooks Hosting – options to host your files in the cloud Productive Computing University – free and paid online video training courses for beginner to advanced users and developers

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There’s a perfect irony in traveling thousands of miles to attend a conference about technology that can make travel obsolete. Video calls beam our faces across continents, AI assistants answer questions faster than any human, and collaboration tools that allow seamless handoffs.collaboration tools seamless handoffs. Yet Todd Geist and I boarded actual planes to sit […]
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Whether you're new to developing in FileMaker or have been using it for a while, unless you’re already familiar with standard timestamp formats and have experience working with external systems, there are several important things to understand about using dates, times, and timestamps within FileMaker — especially when integrating with other systems and APIs.
In this part of our series, we’ll explore a helpful suite of custom functions which serves as a solid foundation for nearly anything related to dates and times in FileMaker. By storing these functions within our Launcher tool, we can easily copy and paste them into any other solution we build.
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