Bill F

Developer 5 works the same as Developer 6.

I find you post interesting as I have developed a rather extensive program for schools and have some idea of what you are looking at as you proceed. The program I developed took care of student and parent demographics including such as names, addresses, telephones, ethicity, sex, lunch status, learning disability info, attendance and tardies using 9 weeks system, discipline tracking, test score tracking, individual classroom printouts, parent handbook info, average daily attendance and membership for all state required groups (Kansas), and much, much more. I found Filemaker to be tremendous for this purpose and have worked with it since about Filemaker 1 or so. I also did some junior high and secondary programs that did much of the above and added teacher input of grades thus producing grade cards, GPA and Honor Roll per nine weeks, etc. Some of my grade programs had grade cards where teachers entered the grades from a Server setup and the attendance flowed automatically into the grade card. I have not worked with FM 7, but since you are just starting, I would think it would be great. You would definitely want to use FM Server if you are going to network. My best advice to you is to set down with all concerned and make absolutely certain that you have agreement as to what types of data you need to track and what kinds of reports you want to produce. It's much easier at the front end than at the back end of the project. I would mention that I used student social security numbers as the relationship keys, but if that is not desirable, filemaker will generate it's own unique student IDs. Best of luck to you if you continue with this. I would be glad to attempt to answer questions that you might have. In addition, I developed on both the Mac and the Windows platforms and have considerable experience in the cross platform experience. Posted this and then thought of something else which is this: Prior to buying FM 7, ascertain what systems you are using. FM 7 will only work on Windows XP or 2000 and on Mac OS X.XXX. If you don't have these systems and can't afford to upgrade your machines (since you are a school, you probably can't), then you should use Developer 5.5 or Dev. 6. I believe Filemaker is still selling FM 6. I have also seen it on several sites such as Outpost, PC Mall, etc.

To all who replied to my query: Thank you very much. The interest and helpfullness of those using this forum is simply out-standing. As I understand what you all are pretty much were saying is: "You probably won't have much difficutly, but then again you might - so wait and see what happens." Well, I can live with that - that's really pretty normal isn't it? Thanks again Bill F FileMaker Version: 5 Platform: Windows XP

I have a networked solution at an Elementary school using Macs with systems 8.6 through 9.2. The software was built on FM 5. They are buying new computers which will have OS X installed. They are also using FM Server software which is not OS X. What problems am I looking at in keeping them in operation with my software?

That's interesting. Also, encouraging! I am using Dev. 5.5 on OS 10.2.8. I contacted Peter Baanen and he discovered that one must place the following script step directly "in front" or "above" the Troi code line for the "Ticks-Delay" function. The script step is Pause/Resume 0.00.00. This has fixed my problem.

Has anyone had any difficulties using the "ticks" function(Troi Dialog) in OS X? I have a database using this function. It works correctly in the Windows and Mac Classic version, but will not function correctly in OS X. Would appreciate hearing from anyone who might have had this problem or has any idea why I might be having this problem.

I've developed a solution that uses the "ticks" part of the Troi Dialog Plug [color:"black"] In to flash words on the screen for a given amount of time with a given interval between word flashes. This uses Global fields for the Word Flash time and Word Flash Interval. It works great in Windows, and Mac Classic. However, it does not work correctly in Mac OS X. I'm using the lastest version of Trio Dialog which I believe is 3.5. I have placed the Plugin in the Extensions folder which is copied to the root of the Solution folder. This is same method as I used in the Mac Classic which work great. Can anyone shed some light on what I am doing wrong or what I need to do that I haven't. I REALLY need some assistance on this!! Thanks Bill F