FileMaker 11 delivers charting, 'on-the-fly' reporting
Apple-owned FileMaker on Tuesday unveiled the next major version of its database product, FileMaker Pro 11.
In a recent study, the company found that 80 percent of the people who look at FileMaker already have a task in mind. With this type of feedback, FileMaker set out to make the new version faster and more productive for new users.
"It's very much a back to basics release for us," Ryan Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and services at FileMaker, told CNET. "We think ease of use is the core proposition in a database."
To help users receive started, FileMaker added a new "Invoices" template, a task many new users want to receive up and running with quickly. FileMaker now has 31 starter templates included in the application.
Creating an invoice in FileMaker Pro 11
(Credit: FileMaker)One of the big new features of FileMaker 11 is charting. Rosenberg explained that unlike a spreadsheet, charts created with a FileMaker database will update dynamically as the user browses data or views an invoice, for example. The charts can also be published to the Web using FileMaker's built-in tools.
On-the-fly reporting is also new, allowing users to create spreadsheet-like documents with totals and subtotals. Rosenberg likened these to pivot tables in spreadsheets.
The new version also adds an Inspector, a feature many people are used to seeing in applications like Photoshop and Microsoft Office. The Inspector shows a palette on your desktop, allowing you to quickly pick to align text, change colors and other simple tasks.
A new media library
(Credit: FileMaker)FileMaker 11 is now a Cocoa application, which means that it is fully native on Mac OS X. There are four versions of the database app available: FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Pro Advanced, FileMaker Server, and FileMaker Server Advanced.
Pricing starts at $299.
Originally posted at News - Apple
