New FileMaker Pro 11 Delivers Eye-Catching Charts, Easy Reporting and Improved Productivity Features

[Ocean West]

[blurb]

New FileMaker Pro 11 Delivers Eye-Catching Charts, Easy Reporting and Improved Productivity Features

Innovative new ways to create, share and visualize databases

now available in FileMaker Pro 11

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – March 9, 2010 –FileMaker, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of FileMaker Pro 11(http://www.filemaker.com/r/fm11_pr) . Packed with new and innovative features led by charting, “on the fly” reporting, a new Quick Find capability, and a host of productivity tools for easier database creation, FileMaker Pro 11 makes using databases easier and quicker than ever.

For advanced FileMaker users and developers, FileMaker Pro 11 delivers many new features for creating professional solutions in record time.

Also available today with new features is the entire FileMaker 11 product line, which includes FileMaker Pro 11 Advanced, FileMaker Server 11 and FileMaker Server 11.[/blurb]

“FileMaker Pro 11 is designed for solving real-world business problems, such as the need for interpreting business data,” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc. “With easy-to-use integrated charting, we bring dynamic visual reporting to FileMaker Pro 11 users. We also provide new tools to boost all users’ productivity, helping novice and expert users alike build, share and publish better databases.”

FileMaker Charts and reports

FileMaker Pro 11 offers a selection of dynamic professional-quality charts (pie, bar, area, and line), empowering users to visualize, evaluate and report on data within a new or existing layout. For example, users can add a pie chart tab within a FileMaker Pro layout to see their sales depicted graphically any way they chose – weekly, monthly, regionally and more. FileMaker Charts can also be published to the web using FileMaker Pro Instant Web Publishing. FileMaker Pro 11 users can now easily create “on the fly” Quick Reports in a familiar spreadsheet-like format to easily set up subtotals and totals similar to pivot tables in spreadsheets. A new streamlined Layout/Report Assistant guides users through the process of setting up reports with grouped data.

Easier ways to build and use databases

FileMaker Pro 11 provides a variety of new tools to help boost productivity and enable users to build and use databases more easily. New FileMaker Pro 11 productivity features include:

• Innovative Quick Find with iTunes style that searches across all fields within a layout

• Inspector, a master tool palette that controls layout objects and properties in one convenient place

• Object Badges to visually identify scripted fields in layouts with color-coded icons

• A new Invoices Starter Solution, one of more than 30 built-in solutions, designed to track product and customer details and create, manage and print customized invoices for every order

• An improved Quick Start Screen to help users create new databases, manage favorite files and find helpful resources

• Text highlighting to emphasize key words or numbers in fields

For more experienced database developers, FileMaker Pro 11 offers script creation and editing enhancements, portal filtering that specifies related records based on calculations and layout folders that help organize layouts in folders via a simple drag-and-drop operation.

New ways to collaborate

FileMaker Pro 11 also delivers innovative new ways to collaborate with its unique Snapshot Link that flags a specific set of records at a point in time, preserving the same layout, view and sort order. Any changes made to the file are automatically updated in the database. The Snapshot Link file can be emailed to anyone who has FileMaker Pro 11 for easy collaboration. FileMaker Pro 11also introduces Recurring Import, a new feature that allows users to establish an automatic import from Excel, CSV or TAB, the perfect solution for insuring that data is always accurate within a FileMaker record.

FileMaker Pro 11 Advanced delivers greater customization and more

The new FileMaker Pro 11 Advanced, which offers all of the features of FileMaker Pro 11 plus a suite of advanced development and customization tools, provides a new streamlined, intuitive interface for creating customized menus; the ability to copy, paste and import custom functions into databases without having to re-key information; and an Improved Script Debugger that lets users debug scripts attached to buttons and Custom Menus along with all the scripts on a layout.

New FileMaker Server 11 products give new insights into workgroup databases

New in FileMaker Server 11 is an Enhanced Statistics View that provides detailed visibility into FileMaker Pro clients to help diagnose potential issues. The new Backup File Clone allows administrators to save an empty version of any database to help preserve the schema and architecture of a file while troubleshooting.

FileMaker Server 11 Advanced no longer limits the number of users that can simultaneously access files over the network and allows managers to securely assign access privileges to groups of users.

Early testers praise FileMaker Pro 11 innovations

“The feature that I am most excited about is Quick Find. Our FileMaker files contain all the signage for our stores. With large files covering tons of products and ingredients, it has been a hassle in the past using scripts to search multiple fields for the same criteria. With this new feature, we have one universal place in every file that we can use to find whatever we need.”

Bryce Bartley,

Programming Analyst

Whole Foods

Austin, Texas

“Charting in FileMaker Pro 11 adds a whole new dimension to our company project management reports and allows us to visually communicate projected resource needs to better manage labor. Even user statistics for our IT systems are more meaningful when rendered in chart form using FileMaker Pro 11. Certain data calls out for record-by-record comparison, but other data sets are just a blur until placed into the visual context made possible with a chart.”

Ken Grindall,

Director, Information Technology

Scientific Applications & Research Associates (SARA), Inc

Cypress, California

“We genuinely appreciate the new Inspector feature in FileMaker Pro 11. It is easy to use and puts all the tools we need to refine layout objects and properties right at our fingertips.”

Robert LiPuma, Ph.D.,

Director of Assessment and Technology/District CIO

Lockport City School District

Lockport, New York

Pricing and availability

All FileMaker 11 products are immediately available. FileMaker Pro 11 is $299 /$179 upgrade (U.S. suggested list price) and FileMaker Pro 11 Advanced is $499/$299 upgrade (U.S. suggested list price). FileMaker Server 11 is $999/$599 upgrade (U.S. suggested list price) and FileMaker Server 11 Advanced is $2,999/$1,799 upgrade (U.S. suggested list price). Additional pricing and upgrade information is available at http://www.filemaker.com.

For a limited time, FileMaker extends upgrade pricing to licensed users of FileMaker 8 and 8.5 products. This offer expires Sept. 23, 2010, and details are at http://www.filemaker.com/purchase/store/promos_upgrade.html.

About FileMaker, Inc.

FileMaker Inc.(http://www.filemaker.com) is the leader in easy-to-use database software. Millions of people, from individuals to some of the world's largest companies, rely on FileMaker software to manage, analyze and share essential information. The company's products are the FileMaker Pro line –- versatile database software for teams and organizations, for Windows, Mac and the Web –- and Bento, the personal database for Mac, iPhone and iPod touch. FileMaker, Inc. is a subsidiary of Apple.

Customer contact:

800-325-2747

http://www.filemaker.com

Copyright © 2010 FileMaker, Inc. All rights reserved. FileMaker and Bento are trademarks of FileMaker, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

[Chris Knight]

Frankly, it seems pretty underwhelming to me, especially as a full blown version release but then again, that is what I have come to expect from FileMaker. As a Mac user, it continues to be the least Mac-like of almost any major program that is designed to run on a Mac.

The lack of simple Bento like things (address book connectivity) is incomprehensible at this stage (heck, it should have been in 10) and the charts are apparently bettered by a plugin.