FileMaker ® Installation and New Features Guide for FileMaker Pro 12 and FileMaker Pro 12 Advanced
© 2007-2012 FileMaker, Inc. All rights reserved. FileMaker, Inc. 5201 Patrick Henry Drive Santa Clara, California 95054 FileMaker and Bento are trademarks of FileMaker, Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries. The file folder logo and the Bento logo are trademarks of FileMaker, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. FileMaker documentation is copyrighted.
Contents Chapter 1 Before you begin About FileMaker documentation Customer support and Knowledge Base Contact Support Update notification New version notification About the license key Requirements for features in Windows Requirements for features in the Mac OS Features not supported in Windows Features not supported in the Mac OS Converting the trial version to the full version of FileMaker Pro Upgrading FileMaker Pro from a previous version Opening files from previous versions Updating your User Dictionar
Chapter 4 New features New layout design and controls Improved performance and usability Improved reporting and analysis Integration with other applications and data sources Script steps, script triggers, and functions Script steps Script triggers Functions Changed and removed features Features changed in FileMaker Pro Features removed from FileMaker Pro FileMaker Pro 12 Advanced 23 23 24 25 25 25 25 27 27 28 28 29 29
Chapter 1 Before you begin Welcome to your FileMaker® software. FileMaker Pro is designed to help you manage information easily and effectively. About FileMaker documentation This Installation and New Features Guide tells you how to install FileMaker Pro 12 or FileMaker Pro 12 Advanced on your Windows or Mac computer and introduces new features in the software.
| Before you begin Customer support and Knowledge Base Choose Help menu > Resource Center to access: 1 ready-made solutions 1 instructional videos and tutorials 1 customer stories 1 forums and other support options To access the FileMaker Knowledge Base, visit http://help.filemaker.com. To see system requirements, visit http://www.filemaker.com/products. Note Information in the FileMaker Knowledge Base and the FileMaker Forum may not be available in all languages.
New version notification FileMaker Pro 12 automatically checks for new software versions every 30 days and informs you if a new version is available for purchase. To turn off new version notification, do one of the following: 1 In the New Version Notification dialog box, select Don’t tell me about new versions again. 1 In Windows, choose Edit menu > Preferences. In the Mac OS, choose FileMaker Pro menu > Preferences. In the General tab, deselect the Notify me when a new version is available option.
| Before you begin Requirements for features in Windows Some of the features of FileMaker Pro for Windows require additional software. Feature Software requirement Send Mail script step Microsoft Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, or Office Mail using an email application This requirement does not apply to SMTP mail.
Requirements for features in the Mac OS Some of the features of FileMaker Pro for the Mac OS require additional software. Feature Software requirement Send Mail script step Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, or Microsoft Outlook 2011 using an email application This requirement does not apply to SMTP mail. ODBC and JDBC features ODBC Manager from Actual Technologies (available at http://www.odbcmanager.net), which is a freeware product not supported by FileMaker.
| Before you begin Converting the trial version to the full version of FileMaker Pro If you have installed the FileMaker Pro 12 trial version on your computer, you can convert to the full version of FileMaker Pro 12 without uninstalling the trial version first. You can also upgrade your retail copy of FileMaker Pro version 9, 10, or 11 to the full version of FileMaker Pro 12 by entering an upgrade license key during the trial conversion process.
Updating your User Dictionary If you added words to a User Dictionary in a previous version of FileMaker Pro, you can use it with FileMaker Pro 12. See FileMaker Pro Help for information about converting a User Dictionary. Installing under a volume license If you’re installing multiple copies of FileMaker Pro under a volume license, or if you want to do a silent install, you can automate the process. Use the Assisted Install.txt file on the disk image to bypass the usual install dialog boxes.
| Before you begin
Chapter 2 Installing FileMaker Pro in Windows Before you begin the installation process, exit other open programs and save your work. For late-breaking information and release notes about FileMaker Pro, visit http://help.filemaker.com. Installation notes Before you install FileMaker Pro, review the following notes: 1 To install FileMaker Pro, you must have Administrator privileges and use the Administrator user name and password.
| Installing FileMaker Pro in Windows Installing FileMaker Pro You must use the installation program to install FileMaker Pro—you can’t install FileMaker Pro by dragging files to your hard disk. If you want to create an install log file that lists the registry entries and path of all installed files, you must install FileMaker Pro from the command line. See “Installing FileMaker Pro from the command line” on page 15. To install FileMaker Pro on your hard disk: 1.
Registering FileMaker Pro Please take a few moments to register your product. By registering your software, FileMaker will be able to assist you in recovering your license key if you ever lose it. You will also receive priority notification of software updates, upgrades, and special offers. Follow the prompts to provide your registration, product, and additional information. If you are using the FileMaker Pro trial version, you must register your software prior to use.
| Installing FileMaker Pro in Windows During the FileMaker Pro installation, the installer uses the following process: 1 If Bonjour isn’t detected, the installer alerts you and prompts you to install Bonjour. 1 If Bonjour is detected but the installed version is not supported by FileMaker, the installer alerts you. It prompts you to manually uninstall the older version of Bonjour and manually install the version supported by FileMaker.
Changing the FileMaker Pro cache size FileMaker Pro maintains an internal cache of portions of your database. Depending on your computer’s memory configuration, you may want to adjust the cache size to improve performance.
| Installing FileMaker Pro in Windows Where to go from here After you install FileMaker Pro, you can immediately begin working with the application. Here are some suggestions on where to go in the documentation to get started: 1 If you’re new to databases, read chapter 2, “Using databases” and chapter 3, “Creating databases” in the FileMaker Pro User’s Guide to learn basic database concepts. 1 If you’re new to FileMaker Pro, work through the lessons in the FileMaker Pro Tutorial.
Chapter 3 Installing FileMaker Pro in the Mac OS Before you begin the installation process, quit other open programs and save your work. For late-breaking information and release notes about FileMaker Pro, visit http://help.filemaker.com. Installation notes Before you install FileMaker Pro, review the following notes: 1 To install FileMaker Pro, you must have Administrator privileges and use the Administrator user name and password.
| Installing FileMaker Pro in the Mac OS Installing FileMaker Pro You must use the installation program to install FileMaker Pro—you can’t install FileMaker Pro by dragging files to your hard disk. To install FileMaker Pro on your hard disk: 1. Do one of the following: 1 If you received your software electronically, after downloading the file, double-click the disk image icon (.dmg file).
Viewing the installation log file To view and save the installation log file, choose Window menu > Installer Log in the installer window. You can display both error messages and progress messages, only error messages, or all available installation messages. Uninstalling FileMaker Pro 12 To uninstall FileMaker Pro 12: 1. Drag the FileMaker Pro 12 or FileMaker Pro 12 Advanced folder and all its contents from the Applications folder to the Trash. 2.
| Installing FileMaker Pro in the Mac OS 2. Type a number in the Attempt to set file cache size to box, then click OK. The next time you start FileMaker Pro, the new cache size is used. Where to go from here After you install FileMaker Pro, you can immediately begin working with the application.
Chapter 4 New features This chapter provides you with an overview of the new features and improvements in FileMaker Pro 12. Unless otherwise noted, please see FileMaker Pro Help for more information on these features. New layout design and controls 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 FileMaker Pro themes – The FileMaker Pro architecture has been redesigned to support rich, beautiful layout themes. You can easily change the theme by choosing from the Layouts menu in Layout mode.
| New features Improved performance and usability 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Enhanced container fields – You can now store container data outside of the database file in managed storage. Storing container data externally facilitates sharing multi-user databases, improves backups, and maintains security through encryption of the external data. Enhancements also let you render images faster with thumbnails; drag and drop files; and work interactively with audio, video, and PDF files in container fields.
Improved reporting and analysis 1 1 FileMaker charts – Create quick charts in Table View, with the option to summarize data and print charts without changing the database schema. You can modify charts using a new Chart inspector. New chart types include stacked column or bar, positive/negative column, scatter, and bubble. (You can also create quick charts by right-clicking a field in Form View or List View.
| New features 1 1 Insert File script step – You can now specify advanced options for the Insert File dialog, which appears when you choose a file to insert into a container field. These options include whether content can be inserted by reference, whether content can be compressed, and which formats are allowed in the field. New Window script step – Creates a new window based on the foreground window. You can create a document window, a floating document window, or a dialog window.
Script triggers Enhancements to script triggers 1 Four windows script triggers are available in a new Script Triggers tab in the File Options dialog box: OnWindowOpen, OnWindowClose, OnFirstWindowOpen, and OnLastWindowClose. New script triggers 1 1 1 1 1 OnFirstWindowOpen – Triggers a script to run each time you open a window of a database file when no other windows for the file are open. OnLastWindowClose – Triggers a script to run each time you close the last window of a database file.
| New features 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Location function – In FileMaker Go, returns a device's current position in one line on a form. LocationValues function – In FileMaker Go, returns a device's current position using a set of return-delimited values. VerifyContainer function – Returns a Boolean value representing the validity of data stored externally in a container field. Get(ConnectionState) – Returns a number representing the security state of the network connection for the current file.
1 1 1 1 Importing data from FileMaker Pro databases – Import order has been improved. The addition or deletion of fields after field mapping no longer affects the sort order in import target files. Extended privileges – The fmmobile and fmxslt extended privileges have been removed. A new extended privilege, fmreauthenticate10, has been added for FileMaker Go. Also, brackets have been removed from all default extended privileges for consistency and to enable editing.
| New features 1 1 1 1 Enhanced Script Debugger – You can now temporarily disable or enable script triggers while you work in the Script Debugger. Database Design Report – The Database Design Report now identifies the tab controls or portals in which objects are located. Close window button in runtime solutions – The close window button in runtime solution windows now works as it does in FileMaker Pro windows.
