[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Four Reasons to Consider FileMaker 12 here

[nonseq]

Help4Access, on 06 April 2012 - 07:43 AM, said:

FileMaker Pro is nice but Microsoft Access is free with MS Office, is more widely adopted and can used on the iPad, iPhone and on the Cloud.



Thanks

Hardly free. Doesn't come only with Office Professional? Office Professional is not free by any stretch of the imagination. I've used Access since MS first introduced it and it's OK but, in my opinion, Access has really gone downhill since 2003 (I loathe the ribbon and really dislike the way that it has been jammed down user's throats).

I also use Filemaker on both Mac and Windows platforms.

There are pros and cons for both but Filemaker 12 is a nice upgrade.

This post has been edited by bcappel: 06 April 2012 - 09:45 AM

[TheoWerewolf]

This sort of article really bothers me at a basic level.

This is the WRONG way to approach choosing software or anything really. You start by defining your needs - then your constraints - then look for the best choice that matches them.

Starting with a preference and then trying to shoehorn it into a scenario almost always leads to problems.

This is why articles like 'why you should use...' end up reading more like a sales pitch (looking at the Apple fans here) or propaganda (looking at the Linux fans here) than actually trying to be helpful.

[TheoWerewolf]

nonseq, on 06 April 2012 - 08:11 AM, said:

Help4Access, on 06 April 2012 - 07:43 AM, said:

FileMaker Pro is nice but Microsoft Access is free with MS Office, is more widely adopted and can used on the iPad, iPhone and on the Cloud.



Thanks

Hardly free. Doesn't come only with Office Professional? Office Professional is not free by any stretch of the imagination. I've used Access since MS first introduced it and it's OK but, in my opinion, Access has really gone downhill since 2003 (I loathe the ribbon and really dislike the way that it has been jammed down user's throats).

I also use Filemaker on both Mac and Windows platforms.

There are pros and cons for both but Filemaker 12 is a nice upgrade.

Well, he did say 'free with', which is technically true although a weird use of 'free'. He should have said 'included with'. And the fact that Office isn't free isn't a counterargument since FM isn't free either.

So, to fix his mistakes...

The standalone version of Access 2010, which is most directly comparable to Filemaker 12, costs $180 vs $299 for Filemaker.

http://www.microsoft...s-2010-(English)

Which makes is a better deal even if it's not free.

Or.. if you're into scripting and writing DB apps at a higher level, you could get Visual Studio Express which include SQL Server Express - all free - and write serious standalone DB apps that way.

http://www.microsoft...ditions/express

This post has been edited by bcappel: 06 April 2012 - 09:45 AM

[nonseq]

TheoWerewolf, on 06 April 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

nonseq, on 06 April 2012 - 08:11 AM, said:

Help4Access, on 06 April 2012 - 07:43 AM, said:

FileMaker Pro is nice but Microsoft Access is free with MS Office, is more widely adopted and can used on the iPad, iPhone and on the Cloud.

LINK REMOVED

Thanks

Hardly free. Doesn't come only with Office Professional? Office Professional is not free by any stretch of the imagination. I've used Access since MS first introduced it and it's OK but, in my opinion, Access has really gone downhill since 2003 (I loathe the ribbon and really dislike the way that it has been jammed down user's throats).

I also use Filemaker on both Mac and Windows platforms.

There are pros and cons for both but Filemaker 12 is a nice upgrade.

Well, he did say 'free with', which is technically true although a weird use of 'free'. He should have said 'included with'. And the fact that Office isn't free isn't a counterargument since FM isn't free either.

So, to fix his mistakes...

The standalone version of Access 2010, which is most directly comparable to Filemaker 12, costs $180 vs $299 for Filemaker.

http://www.microsoft...s-2010-(English)

Which makes is a better deal even if it's not free.

Or.. if you're into scripting and writing DB apps at a higher level, you could get Visual Studio Express which include SQL Server Express - all free - and write serious standalone DB apps that way.

http://www.microsoft...ditions/express

All that you have suggested seems spot on. However I suspect the most commonly used version of Office is the Standard version, which does not include Access. The cost of upgrading to Professional is certainly not free.

This post has been edited by nonseq: 06 April 2012 - 09:32 AM

[FMPnut]

All those improvments are nullified to all who are using list and table view, they're 3 to 5 times slower. Which makes every solution using list view / table view unusable (yes even with fully flat indexed data).

The new drawing engine is terribly slow.

Please voice your concern here :
http://forums.filema...osts/715ef37320

To me that render 12 useless, and cast doubts on the future of Filemaker at my place,this speed issue seems deeply entrenched in new rendering engine. So please don't be quiet, voice your concern.

[dataapex]

Unfortunately I have to agree The FM12 is unusable for list view.

[normstern]

[quote name='dataiave to agree The FM12 is unusable for list view.
[/quote]

I work for a 750 person manufacturing company.

We have used both Filemaker and MS Access in the past as well as both php and Visual Studio.net for web apps.
After a very detailed analysis we have standardized on Alpha Five v11 http://www.alphasoftware.com for our database application development needs

The main reasons are Alpha Five offers:

• web and desktop and mobile capabilities
  
• easy connectivity to SQL databases as well as JSON data
  
• scalability
  
• powerful pdf and html5 reporting
  
• charting
  
• GIS/mapping
  
• scheduling/calendering
  
• rapid development along with the ability to program if you want

[karthiq]

@theo

tech blogs are written keeping in mind the needs of many users. So they are written this way!