FileMaker & Me
A 25 Year Journey of Exploration and Discovery, In Search of the Perfect User Interface
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
This new, interactive, multi-media text book takes a completely fresh, and thought provoking, approach to developing FileMaker solutions. Focussed on interface design, the author starts with the premise that function should follow form; which means you start with the interface and build from there. Critically acclaimed by some of the top FileMaker developers in the world, developers at all levels should find something in it for them.
Geoff Ryle, co-founder of Excelisys had this to say:
Among the plethora of FileMaker books that have been published, this book really stands out not specifically as a bible or tutorial (there are enough of those) but instead by offering insight only a seasoned developer can provide. Michael offers a unique perspective on building solutions based on his experiences — the good, the bad and the ugly — which combined gave way to his methods that promote a different approach to development, emphasizing form followed by function and always putting the user experience first. This book is an excellent addition to any developer’s library of resources.
With chapters on:
• Finding a Starting Point
• Reworking Somebody Else’s Design
• Reworking Your Own Design
• WYS is not always WYG
• Using Tab Panels
• Using Conditional Formatting
• Understanding and Using Variables
• The Power of Virtual List
• Scripting
• Tips & Tricks
and much, much more
Includes dozens of interface examples from some of the best interface designers in the FileMaker® community, hundreds of screenshots and pages of useful resources to help you on your journey.
Written by Michael Rocharde, a full time professional
FileMaker® developer since 1987, FileMaker & Me is an ebook written to challenge and inspire FileMaker developers from the absolute beginner to the most expert in the community. It was created for the iPad®, using iBooks Author and is only available from the iTunes® Store.
Customer Reviews
Excellent Book
I have read other FileMaker books but this one is quite different in that it primarily concerns interface design. However it also includes numerous technical hints and tips that I haven’t seen anywhere else but I would class as essential for someone new to FileMaker wishing to create and improve their solutions.
The writing style is relaxed, informative and entertaining. The step by step analysis and redesign of one interface is interesting to see and well broken down. It has helped me re-evaluate my own designs and try to improve them.
It is ideal for beginners to have a look at interface design and give them a few ideas and things to consider when they design their own database. However some technical aspects assume that you are familiar with FileMaker already, so you may need to read up or play around a little.
I would highly recommend this book and I’m looking forward to the follow up, FileMaker & You.
Great Book
I am just starting out with Filemaker. I had a go in the old days of Claris but never really got into it. I decided to learn how to use it as my retirement project. I had already produced my first solution with cranky scripts and a rather clunky interface and then I found this book. Revelation, wow you can make your stuff look that good. I read the book through a couple of times and then started to redesign my efforts. Beautiful, layouts shown in the book, loads of tips, bits of code and everything presented in such a nice way, the animations make things easy to understand. The thing that comes over so strongly is that this is a place where form is at least as important as function. As the format improves so does the desire to make everything better, you start thinking about how you can make this or that work better so for your user it just works. A great book not about " this is how you make a table relationship" more about making things that people want to and enjoy using. I look forward to Michael's next book, I know it will help me gain the knowledge that would normally take years to accumulate. The most useful Filemaker book I have seen.
FileMaker & Me
Michael has provided the community with a very nice utility that provides detailed process steps to enable a wide range of interesting functionality within FileMaker. I particularly liked invisible tab controls in layouts and virtual lists (thanks here to Bruce Robertson for he initial concept).
The features that appealed in particular were firstly - Michael's relaxed and assured narrative style and secondly - the videos and other interactive materials.
Well worth the purchase - thanks Michael.