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Peachpit Press

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Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education

Credits

Editor: Suzie Nasol

Production Coordinator: Lupe Edgar

Compositor: Steve Schwartz

Indexer: Rebecca Plunkett

Cover design: Peachpit Press, Aren Howell

Interior design: Elizabeth Castro

Cover photo credit: istockphoto.com

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise , without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact permissions@peachpit.com.

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an "As Is" basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit Press shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.

Trademarks

Visual QuickProject Guide is a registered trademark of Peachpit Press, a division of Pearson Education. FileMaker is a trademark of FileMaker, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries .

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name , is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

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Printed and bound in the United States of America

introduction

The Visual QuickProject Guide that you hold in your hands offers a unique way to learn about new technologies. Instead of drowning you in theoretical possibilities and lengthy explanations , this Visual QuickProject Guide uses big, color illustrations coupled with clear, concise step-by-step instructions to show you how to complete one specific project in a matter of hours.

The project in this book is to create a FileMaker Pro 8 relational database for recording and tracking four types of personal investments: savings and money market accounts, stocks and mutual funds, certificates of deposit (CDs), and savings bonds . The database will contain four related data tables, ten layouts, and five reports .

Even if investment tracking isn't one of your needs, the other purpose of this book is to teach you about FileMaker Pro 8; that is, you'll learn by doing. By creating the database, you will see how to use FileMaker to create databases that are of interest to you. You'll define fields and related data tables; set field validation, auto-enter, and auto-complete options; create data entry and report layouts; define value lists that will pop-up when you tab or click into certain fields; and automate database functions with scripts and clickable buttons .

Different platforms . Most of the screen shots in this book were taken on a Mac running OS X. However, FileMaker Pro is a cross-platform product. If you're a Windows user , you'll find that the dialog boxes you see onscreen are similar to the Mac ones shown. In the rare instance where there's an important difference between the platforms, I'll point it out. For example, keyboard shortcuts used by the two are different. Whenever a keyboard shortcut is included in this book, it will be presented in Mac/Windows order, such as / .