Sams Teach Yourself FileMaker in 24 Hours provides a step-by-step introduction to using FileMaker from its out-of-the-box templates to totally customized database solutions on the desktop, LANs, and the Internet.
The book proceeds to help beginners understand how they can tweak and modify templates to make them fit their needs more precisely, and it provides them with the steps they need to create a working database.
It also provides examples calculations and scripts, and it can aid Web designers in moving to the next level of Web development, from building Web pages to designing sites that are dynamic and database-driven.
Jesse Feiler is the author of a number of books on Mac OS X, FileMaker, the Web-based enterprise, the Y2K problem, and home offices. His books on OpenDoc, Cyberdog, Apple Guide, and Rhapsody are now collector's items.
A member of the FileMaker Solutions Alliance, he regularly consults on FileMaker and develops FileMaker solutions for small business, non-profits, art, retail point-of-sale, publishing, marketing, and other markets. He has specialized in "rehabs"-updates to existing FileMaker solutions including FileMaker 7 conversions.
He has worked as a developer and manager for companies such as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (monetary policy and bank supervision), Prodigy (early Web browser), Apple (information systems), New York State Department of Health (rabies and lead poisoning), The Johnson Company (office management), and Young & Rubicam (media planning and new product development).
His interests in new forms of technical training have led him to MediaSchool (http://www.mediaschool.com), for which he has authored several Mac OS X courses available over the Internet, as well as to Geek Cruises' Mac Mania cruises to Alaska and the Caribbean. He is also the first author of a technical book to be published both on paper and as an e-book.
Active in the community, he is past president of the Mid-Hudson Library System, Chair of the Philmont Comprehensive Plan Board, founder of the Philmont Main Street Committee, and treasurer of the HB Playwrights Foundation. He is a regular on public radio WAMC's Roundtable program.
The picture of an author sitting alone in a room day after day may be true for some authors and some types of books, but it's not true for this author or for technical books in general. Many people have provided invaluable assistance to the creation of this book.
First and foremost, the FileMaker team has worked for more than twenty years to combine the power of personal computing and database technology with an unequalled interface both for developer and user. Their choices have consistently struck the right balance between complexity and ease-of-use.
As always, Carole McClendon at Waterside Productions has nurtured this project into being (and completion).
At Sams, Betsy Brown first brought this book into being. As it was being written, technical editor Jim Kirkpatrick provided excellent feedback to help make the book as accurate and complete as possible. Under the excellent guidance of development editor Scott Meyers, they, the project editor (Matt Purcell), the proofreader (Elizabeth Scott), the copy editor (Geneil Breeze), and indexer (Chris Barrick) did a great job in shaping the book.
