I finally want to upgrade from Filemaker 4 and say goodbye to OS 9; I'm using it for simple invoicing. I was told that the existing data and templates would migrate to Filemaker 6 easily but not beyond, as a result I tracked down a brand new Filemaker 6 on eBay. Before I break open the software, can somebody else confirm I'm doing the right thing? Thanks for any help.

Conversion from 4 to 6 is completely without problems. There you are absolutely on the save side.

Problems came up with the step from 6 to 7.

My experience is that conversion from pre-6 to 8 is much easier and mostly without problems. So I would recommend to update to the up to date version of 8.5 and use the new features as tabbed layouts.

-jens

I moved your Thread here, as it meets the sprit of it.

I really like OS 10.x.x. and I think you will too.

I have both OS 9.x and 10.3.9, on my computer, but I bet I haven't had 9 opened in over a year.

[color:blue]jens has answered your question about the conversion process between v4 and v6.

However, I would warn you about buying FileMaker off of Ebay. I have a client that did that, and later found out that software was pirated. When I looked at their Disc, it look just like my legitimate copy, the only difference was that they didn't get any manuals. Which brings up another thing for you to be concerned with. If the software is in the box, you still need to be concerned about whether or not it has been used for an Upgrade. If it has, you will not be able to upgrade it, and in fact, I think that you and the seller would be in violation of the license agreement. Only FileMaker can authorize the transfer of the license agreement.

Lee

Thanks Jens and Lee. I've successfully upgraded and transferred my FM 4 data. I was careful to buy a new, sealed and never registered copy of FM 6 off Ebay. It wasn't that much less than the current FM 8 but was told the current version wasn't compatible with the old data. Regardless, I'm just happy to be running everthing in OS X now.