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On July 10th, 2001, at its monthly General Meeting, Danbury Area Computer Society, DACS will introduce its members to FileMaker, a database program. The meeting has been moved to the second Tuesday of the month due to the 4th of July Holiday. Activities begin at 7 p.m. with a computer related question and answer session, followed by brief club announcements. Jane Lafrance will be describing FileMaker starting at 8 p.m.

FileMaker is used by both the Mac and the PC platforms. FileMaker provides help in managing, organizing and sharing information. FileMaker covers the spectrum from novices to professionals. It can be a simple contacts database or a powerful digital photography/video storage and cataloguing program. Databases can easily be created. Data can automatically be published onto an intranet or to the Internet.

Databases can be shared with web browsers, without programming, with the built-in web server. One of its features is instant web publishing. FileMaker can convert Microsoft Excel files by dragging and dropping the files onto FileMaker Pro 5.5, the program can instantly create functional databases ready to be published to other FileMaker Pro users or on an intranet. Other formats can be accessed such as Text, Lotus, CSV, DBF, DIF, SYLK.

FileMaker is easy to use from a template and by using simple dialogs to create your objective. Use the built-in Layout/Report Assistant to quickly and easily create useful reports and summaries. FileMaker integrates with business applications such as Microsoft Office. Import data from Microsoft Excel including named ranges within spreadsheets, use Excel’s graphing tools to chart FileMaker Pro data, mail merge in Microsoft Word with FileMaker Pro records, and create large emailings to Microsoft Entourage (Mac) or Outlook (Windows) directly from FileMaker Pro.

FileMaker can manage information. For example, tasks can be automated and controlled by using new scripting enhancements. Data and scripts can be imported between files. Record by record access can be limited, by using the Record by Record Access Privilege feature to choose who can view or modify sensitive data.

If you wonder what a database can do for your personal life or for your business, you will not want to miss this meeting.