Let's do the outside of the box first. The title is "FileMaker Pro Deluxe," the complete business and home manager. Well, we'll see about that. It is manufactured by Claris and written for Windows. Recommended system requirements are, 386SX, 4MB RAM, Hard Disk, 1 Floppy, and a mouse. The requirements for ClickBooks, included with this package, are CD-ROM Drive, MS Windows 3.1 or higher, 6MB RAM, and either a laser or ink jet printer; it doesn't support dot matrix printers.
The outside of the box lists several ready to run "Solutions," including Contact Manager, Lead Tracking Manager, Expense Manager, Invoice System, Project Manager, Product Manager, To Do List, Home Budgets, Personnel Records, Job Search Database, Buy vs. Lease Analysis, Student Database, Asset Management, Messages, Employee Leave Form, Job Application Form, Home Inventory, and Party/Wedding Planner.
Enough of the outside, let's open the box and see what we have. The first thing I came across was a pamphlet on International Language Packs. These allow you to improve your foreign language text in correspondence, graphics, presentations, project management, and publishing. There are twelve languages for Mac and five for Windows. They cost $49 each.
The next pamphlet deals with support. You get free support for ninety days, but you pay for the call. There are a few options available for support after the first ninety days, you can pay a year in advance at $129/year, pay as you go, or get help online from CompuServe, America Online, AppleLink, and the Claris Bulletin Board Service.
Next comes the installation guide. I read it and then did a very straightforward installation. Everything went as advertised. Now, let's see if I can make it do something. When I opened the program, I was a little startled. Blank screen, no push buttons, nothing to select but "file." selected file and then open and the dialog box came up. I selected a file, told it OK, and now I had all the bells and whistles. The sample I opened demonstrated a product inventory page and showed that graphics can be placed on the page along with a text description. I closed that page and went back to open more examples, but there were only a couple available. I thought there were to be several "Solutions."
I finally found them on the CD supplied. Also on the CD is the bonus
program Click Books. I opened each of the examples and found all of them
to be very slick. I don't have a use for all of them, but I can see how
I can put several of them to use. There is an example called "Main," which
has four large buttons on the screen. They open other data bases, receipts,
contacts, to-do list and messages, that let a business person keep up with
a schedule. The pre-built data bases that I tried out were very easy to
use. The manual (there's that dirty word again) also goes into great detail
to help you design your own data base. I worked through a tutorial on building
a data base from scratch and found the directions clear and concise. FileMaker
Pro appears much easier to use than other programs I have experimented
with.
Overall, I recommend FileMaker Pro Deluxe for those of you who are in
the market for a data base. It is easy to install and has several ready-made
designs that fit many needs without having to build them from scratch.
It was easy for me to use, and I'm not a database person.