Newbie seeks advice

[Sarah S]

Hi there

As a brand new Filemaker Pro user, I've been working in depth with Panorama DBs and we are looking to upgrade (probs with Tiger etc etc). I'm unfamiliar with coding (scripting?) in FM and I'll be needing to convert some pretty complex code, so I'm hoping to be reassured that FM has amazing capacity for in-depth programming. Any recommendations for books would be well received too!

The database is to manage accommodations, courses, dining, scheduling of workers and more. My skim of the FMPro book that came with the software doesn't show any familiar looking code. Please advise! (And although we have 6, we can upgrade to 8 if it's a go-er!)

Thanks very much,

Sarah

[Lee Smith]

If I'm understanding you correctly, you will need to recreate your files in FileMaker first, and then import any data that you are wanting to carry over from before.

Do a search for Booking and see if you don't find some discussions about this same thing.

Lee

[RalphL]

Each version of FileMaker has more features than the previous one. I would recomend that you go to FMP8. For books I suggest Using FileMaker 7 by Lane et al.

Also look at http://www.databasepros.com/ for FileMaker 7 Reference.

[BrentHedden]

Unfortunatly, there aren't any books avaiable right now for FM8 (besides the manual). However, what Ralph suggested would be an excellent start by buying the "Using FileMaker 7" book - it's a good one. There is a separate section in these forums just for FileMaker books and the such. There's been more detailed descriptions about all of the FileMaker books available.

[stanley]

Sarah:

To answer your question directly yes, FileMaker has the power to do pretty much anything you want it to do. While there are no FMP8 books out, the feature set of 8 is mostly identical to FMP7 (there was some talk here at one point that it really could have been called FileMaker 7.5) in which case books on FMP7 will be perfectly valid for most of what you'll find in 8, especially in so far as the scripting language goes. Browse through the Reference Materials forum, and you'll find all sorts of advice regarding the various books available.

-Stanley

[Sarah S]

Thank you all very much for your ideas and input. My confidence rising in FMP, I am going to recommend version 8 for the DB upgrade and research the books and link that you've collectively recommended.

Sarah