Integrated XML Import and Export: By fully supporting XML (Extensible Markup Language), FileMaker 6 makes it even easier to integrate FileMaker with other databases, whether they exist on a corporate mainframe or on a distant Web server. The adoption of ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) in version 5 represented a major step in letting FileMaker access enterprise-level data. By adding import-export XML support, FileMaker 6 extends such abilities while sidestepping many of ODBC’s awkward intricacies. FileMaker also maintains a Web site of XSL templates, which you can download and modify for your own projects (Figure 1.1). For more information, see pages 269.

Figure 1.1. Downloadable XSL templates extend FileMaker’s power by making it possible to generate live queries of Web sites. Examples include package and stock tracking templates.

One-step folder import: Now you can import in a single step an entire folder of files, whether images or text. This folder import feature will also capture each file’s name and path, and automatically generate thumbnails for any images (Figure 1.2). For more information, see page 89.

Figure 1.2. The new folder import feature will not only grab each file’s name and path but even generate thumbnails of images.

Direct import of digital camera images (Mac OS X only): Many users will find this slick feature reason enough to upgrade to version 6. It couldn’t be simpler. Connect your camera or memory card reader to your computer via USB or FireWire and the images will be downloaded automatically into a FileMaker database. Here’s the best part: the database also will grab any metadata associated with each image, such as individual exposure settings (Figure 1.3). Virtually all digital cameras store EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) data, but programs that actually use the information have been slow coming to the marketplace. FileMaker 6 not only uses this data, but can combine it with FileMaker scripts and the new folder import feature to make such tasks as maintaining illlustrated product catalogs wonderfully easy. For more information, see page 91.

Figure 1.3.  If you’re using a Mac, FileMaker can automatically capture exposure information from your digital camera files.

Easier Found Set operations: You can now extend or constrain your record searches in far fewer steps than FileMaker previously required. For more information, see pages 55 and 57.

Context menu sorting: You no longer have to open the Sort dialog box to run a sort. Instead, you can right-click (Windows) or -click (Mac) on any form field and instantly sort the records by that field in ascending, descending, or value-list order (Figure 1.4). For more information, see page 67.

Figure 1.4. By right-clicking (Windows) or -clicking (Mac) a field, you can instantly sort all the records based on the field’s values.

New templates: In all, FileMaker 6 includes 20 new templates to help you get to work right away. Highlights include templates for your music collection, student and classroom records, purchase orders, and even a photo catalog—to make handling your digital camera images even easier (Figure 1.5). For more information on opening templates, see page 210.

Figure 1.5. With 20 new templates for everything from music collections to purchase orders, you don’t have to start from scratch.

Web Companion: Security has been improved so that users viewing your database through a Web browser cannot directly see the source code and design of your Web pages.

Minor differences—different looking menus, dialog boxes, window icons—are not highlighted in the text. I’ve alternated illustrations from both platforms when such differences aren’t important to how FileMaker functions. But in many of the book’s illustrations, you can’t necessarily tell which platform is being used.

Small but important differences between the versions are handled like so: “Under the Help menu, select FileMaker Help (Windows) or Show Balloons (Mac).”

Major distinctions are highlighted with two icons:

Tips: Signified by a ✓ in the margin, tips highlight shortcuts for performing common tasks or ways you can use your new FileMaker skills to solve common problems.

Italic words: When italicized words appear in the book’s text, you’ll find the very same words on the FileMaker screen itself when you reach that step in the program. The italicized term might appear as a button or tab label, the name of a text window or an option button in a dialog box, or as one of several choices in a drop-down menu. Whatever the context, the italics are meant to help you quickly find the item in what can sometimes be a crowded screen. If the step includes an accompanying illustration, use it to help you find the item being discussed. For example: Select Open an existing file... and click OK.

Code font: When a word or words appears in code font, it’s used to indicate the literal text you need to type into FileMaker. For example: In the text window, type http://localhost and press . Web addresses are also in code font.

Menu commands and keyboard shortcuts: Menu-based commands are shown as: File > Define Fields. Keyboard-based shortcuts (when available) are shown in parentheses after the first step in which they can be used. For example: () means that you should press the and keys at the same time to switch to the Layout mode.

Cutouts in figures: Sometimes a FileMaker dialog box or menu is so deep that it can be hard to fit on the page with all the other figures and still leave it large enough to read. In those cases, I cut out the middle or end of the figure to save some space and mark it with a white wavy line (Figure 1.6). Nothing critical to understanding the step is ever left out. And it sure beats running teeny, tiny figures.

Figure 1.6. Sometimes the original dialog boxes or deep menus (left) will be snipped in the middle (right) to save space on the printed page.