Should I convert?

[halld13]

Hey guys,

I am a die hard MS Access man, but recently heard about FileMaker and am interested. I have a large database that contains a subjects photo and basic information with subreports containing more photos and detailed information. My questions are this, Can FileMaker handle large number of photos and info per person like Access? Do the databases become huge and bloated? I currently store only the links to photos in my databases to keep them very small and easy to work with? Any help is appreciated before I drop any cash. I have the trial version now to tinker with. Thanks

[Deep Thought II]

i used to work a lot with access too. well, the concept is pretty much the same except the way to do certain things are different, but you'll get used to it.

form building and searching are more convenient to build and use than access i think, for most applications.

online comparison report says that filemaker can store more data than access and is more efficient. this i haven't tested myself.

i think the biggest advantage of using filemaker is that it's easy to share on the web, but the advanced server edition isn't even out yet. it's a little annoying since one has to wait for that or else get a lot of work done to share data on the web. ideally i love web-based things since it's so general and has no need for other applications.

other than that, i think filemaker is a lot faster... such as processing, data loading, etc. :-p

[DanBrill]

I think you'll find that almost everyone here is a big fan of FileMaker, so you'll likely get mostly positive responses to your question. But we're big fans for a reason. FM is a great product.

If you are just starting now, then you'll start with FM7, and I think this is a great option for handling pictures. FM's strength is that you can develop with it quickly and the learning curve is short. It isn't object oriented in quite the same way that Access is, so there are a few things that you give up in terms of programatic interface control. But since I made the switch a couple of years ago (first to FM6 and recently to FM7) I've found very few things that I could do in Access that I can't do with FM, but there are lots of things I can do in FM that I couldn't in Access. Plus I find that it runs much more quickly.

95 times out of 100 I'll take FM over Access. As for information capacity, FM7's is huge -- 8 terabytes per file. I guess this is a theoretical limit, because there's no drive that is actually that big, so I don't know how they tested it. Suffice it to say, a file can handle a lot. And no, I've never had a problem with file bloat.

So I'd jump if I were in your shoes.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[Fitch]

You have the option to store links to the photos, or store the photos themselves. Either way works well.