[Healeys] FileMaker - was Parts Database

[Greg Mandas]

Steve,

Well said.

As a database engineer steeped in the likes of FileMaker
Pro (FMP) and Oracle for 30 years I forget how complicated concepts like
databases can be to ramp up, but if I can learn what's necessary to get
through a transmission rebuild, I believe many of the members could pick up
FMP.

Downloading the free trial is a good start.  

FMP does offer templates.
I feel they are like picking up you car from the dealership after they fixed
it and not knowing what went into it. I prefer to make table and fields
(columns) myself and with a little training and a lot of tinkering, it's
doable. 

Excel is a good starting point for most parts management needs and
the knowledge base is transferable to Databases. (You can also import
spreadsheets into FMP.)  For anything beyond sorting columns on a spreadsheet,
I'd move on to databases before doing any complicated Excel formulations using
multiple spreadsheets. 

But, THAT is my preference and personal feeling.
Opinions do differ and for the Excel junkies out there, they are a lot of fun.
Personally, I'd rather do Regular Expressions. (That's a joke for Ira's
benefit. Read it as: Poke a stick in my eye.)

I found some training videos on
YouTube, below. No Financial Interest. 
I looked at just the first video in
each series. I did not run through them all, but they seemed to be going in
the right direction.

This Video, from a guy named David, is a good start on
creating tables.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2SeVZH7ePo

This video is a
lead-in to the Lynda.com site where's there's a series of training videos on
FMP and other software. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6fzrTDn4HY

This is
the tiny URL to the FMP Training on the Lynda.com site.
http://tinyurl.com/7aep88p

Greg

--- On Sun, 7/15/12, Steve B. Gerow
<steveg at abrazosdata.com> wrote:

> From: Steve B. Gerow
<steveg at abrazosdata.com>
> Subject: [Healeys] FileMaker - was Parts Database
>
To: "healeys at autox.team.net" <healeys at autox.team.net>
> Date: Sunday, July 15,
2012, 6:57 AM
> Keep in mind FileMaker is a database
> creation software. It
comes with some templates, one or more
> of which may be 
> appropriate for
storing parts information.
> 
> The learning curve is not insignificant. Excel
might be a
> simpler starting point. Excel spreadsheets can be converted
> to
> FileMaker database files at any time.
> 
> Suggest downloading a 30 day demo
before buying - this would
> include above-mentioned templates:
> 
>
http://info.filemaker.com/GL-en-US-fmp-trial-landing-page.html
> 
> 
> -- 
>
Steve Gerow
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