Hard at Work. Just wanted you to know that we are still here and working hard on Studio Manager. We’ve not only refined Studio Manager 11 in many, many small ways but have added more layouts to the iPad version and modified the iPhone version. We aren’t going to build a whole new point release until we get a fix on when and what will come in FileMaker 12. We will begin the work on big new features for Studio Manager 12 once FileMaker 12 ships. It is not an option to work with beta software on something as important and rock solid as we require Studio Manager to be. We are sure that FileMaker 12 will ship some time in 2012, but that’s all we know. Software development schedules ebb and flow in mysterious ways.

Studio Manager 11. Meanwhile, if you own FileMaker 10 or 11, you can run really well with Studio Manager 11. We do advise, though, that if you are going to run Studio Manager or any FileMaker application under OS X Lion that you use FileMaker 11 since FM11 has been upgraded to ameliorate some ahem minor anomalies. See our blog posts on this page about Lion compatibility.

So… no big news right this minute. First thing you need to know is that if you buy Studio Manager 11, you get our up to the minute current version with all the refinements we’ve made to date — beyond what has been written up here. Since we’ve been almost a year since the last release, the product is very mature and bug free. As all computer owners know, buying the brand new release of any software isn’t quite as perfect as it will be a couple months later. So let’s just say that Studio Manager 11 is well-honed.

Really Cool Manuals. One thing that isn’t sexy but is pretty great is we’ve done some excellent work on our documentation. When Studio Manager 11 was released with our cool iPhone and iPad support running on FileMaker Go, our documentation was pretty sparse. Well, that has changed. Scout Tomyris has done a phenomenal job on SM Mobile documentation and has rewritten a lot of our other documentation.

Your Questions. Don’t hesitate ever to contact us with your questions or feedback. We love to talk to our customers and prospective customers. We are trying to get away from AT&T land line service and experimenting seriously with Google Voice. Try out our Google Voice number if you’ld like to speak: 415 937-0393. The advantage is we get an email and notification when you call with a rough approximation of what you said. This helps us respond more quickly to urgent matters like your call.

Pre-2012 Deadlines. If you need to place an order before January 1st for tax reasons, please get in touch via email and phone with return contact info so we can fulfill your order before the new year. We are at the ready and standing by to take your call.

Enjoy your New Year’s celebration and good tidings for the new year!

We released the last full version of Studio Manager 10 in December 2009. Since then FileMaker 11 was released and we made some tweaks to support its changes. We also have been slaving away on the Studio Manager 10 User Manual and now that is done. Current customers of Studio Manager 10 will be receiving a download URL shortly.

All during the year, we make minor tweaks and additions to Studio Manager. None of that was reflected in the demo that’s been up. Sorry about that, time only goes so far. But we now do have a new demo up that reflects the product should you be interested in knowing exactly what it does and how it feels to use. Today. See the top item in the right sidebar for the link.

Next up is the Studio Manager Demo Getting Started manual. That should be done next week if the stars align. You can get by with the Studio Manager 9.2 version of the Getting Started manual but we won’t rest until we get these auxiliary manuals done.

The Studio Manager Demo is recommended for anyone evaluating the product. The Demo Getting Started Manual, now available online, is not only fabulous as try-before-you-buy, it also excels as a training tool for anyone new to Studio Manager. ScreenSteps is the tool we use to bring you this step-by-step, fully illustrated guide that you can read online or download as a PDF.
Getting Started with Studio Manager 9 Demo

Now when you download the demo, you will get both the Getting Started 12-page tutorial and the 24-page Demo Manual for Studio Manager 9. If you already have the Studio Manager 9 demo, you can directly download the SM9 Demo Manual here without filling out the form again. We just finished version 2 of the demo manual today.

We have a download for you. Number 2 team member, the brilliant Kathy “Scout” Tomyris, has written a new Studio Manager 9 instruction guide to supplement our existing Studio Manager 8 Manual until we get the rewritten SM 9 Manual out the door. Here’s the first version of the SM9 New Features Manual. Control- or right-click and save the file to download it right now. The experience with the downloaded pdf is a little nicer than the experience with the web version. For example, on my 24″ iMac, the document is shown with a 2-page spread while the web version is one page at a time.

Important Tool for Evaluating and Understanding Studio Manager 8. This short step-by-step hands-on tour through the Studio Manager 8 demo is up and available for download. We are going to go easy on you on this one (no form to fill out) and give you a direct link right here. Download Now.

If you’ve never written a software manual before, you have no idea how much work this is. We don’t just cut and paste. We examine every sentence and screenshot and make the words sing (or at least make sense) and make the page designer-friendly. All done. Now we can get back to the software part like we like. Customers: drop me an email to get a copy.

We have rewritten our 23 page Demo User Manual. This short manual gives you an overview of Studio Manager and includes lots of screen shots. If you haven’t already done so, you can download the Demo User Manual now.

We have rewritten our 11 page Getting Started manual and modified the demo data to match. This short little guide walks you through some typical things you can do with Studio Manager. It’s quick and, by the time you are done, you’ll have a sense of what owning Studio Manager would be like. If you haven’t already done so, you can download Getting Started now.