Suggestions and Help Needed

[minas_tirith]

Hi people,

I'm new around here and to FMP as well. Currently I am using FM Developer 6.0. I am totally new to this so forgive my ignorant questions should anyone deem them so.

I am looking to create a customer database for my small business. I need a database where it allows me to create the necessary fields like First Name Last Name, Notes, Add, Phone Numbers Email Add BUT most importantly I would really like to know/learn more about being able to integrate sending AND receiving emails within FMP and also share access between 3 Macintosh computers.

Can anyone please advise me on what to do and the vital plugins involved, where to get them and if there are free ones out there to use. Wouldn't mind paying though. I am most worried about the Email solutions so any advice would be great!

Your advice and help is deeply appreciated! Cheers

[Ocean West]

Here is a thread someone posted earlier...

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=email&Number=127105

[Steve T.]

Greetings from Lorien! FM has some mail features built-in, which may be enough for many, but if you want to IMPORT/RECEIVE mail into FileMaker records, I think you will want a plugin as Ocean West's reference to Live Oak's post recommends. We downloaded the free version of one a couple years ago and it worked OK but did not auto-parse the messages for us into the various e-mail headers and main body (we just lump dumped the whole message into an FM field), but maybe that's been improved now.

FM6's built-in mail features use your Mac's default e-mail appliation (Mail.app, Eudora, Outlook, etc... preference setting in Mail.app Prefs) to actually send messages, but FM works with the client to pre-compose the message using fields/data from your db. We use FM5/6's ScriptMaker on OS X 10.2 w/Eudora for customized outbound mail and are happy with it.

--ST

[minas_tirith]

Hey guys, thanks so much for your suggestions and reccomendations. Appreciate it lots! Right now, (since i'm new to FMP) I think I will have some intense hands on. By the way, how did some of you pick up FMP? Any tips?

I'm currently going through this guide book by Swhartz and hell it's thick! Can anyone help? Thanks :

[stanley]

minas_tirith:

That's the FileMaker Bible you're looking at, right? If you're finding it a bit dense, you might look at the FileMaker QuickStart Guide from PeachPit Press, which takes you through the basics fairly quickly. Be sure to get the right version. That's what I give my clients, if they ask about what's going on behind the scenes. Once you really get into it, Rich Coulombre & Jonathan Price's Special Edition Using FileMaker Pro is a tremendous resource, as is the Scriptology book.

-Stanley

[Steve T.]

Howdy! I've been fortunate enough to grow w/the program since FMP 2.1, but I show office staff the basics in about an hour or so and they're making databases and layouts the same day. Calculations and ScriptMaker are the only things I've noticed that tend to slow them down a little, but fortunately both have pre-defined lists of options/commands that can be used to create them. I think FM is very well designed and encourages folks just to play with it, and there's always the HELP file and FMFORUMS to lend a hand when you get stuck. I learned a lot of FileMaker right here in the forums!

--ST