FileMaker Pro 12, FileMaker Go 12 and FileMaker Server 12 are all available for purchase today. I bought it within moments of the release and have already begun the invigorating process of updating Studio Manager to take advantage of new features. I know that you’re eager to upgrade too, but before you click the buy button, read my hands-on review here.

FileMaker 12 is a major release that changes the file format. It is easy to open an existing FileMaker 11 or earlier file in FileMaker Pro 12 and only takes a minute or two to convert even for large complex databases.

However, once you convert a Filemaker database by opening it in FileMaker 12, it can no longer be used by any previous version of FileMaker.

That means that if you have several copies of FileMaker, you’ll need to upgrade each one, including FileMaker Go, in order to access and use a FileMaker 12 database.

The last time we had an upgrade of this magnitude was FileMaker 7 released in 2004. We’ve had a nice long run without a file format change, but it is inevitable that eventually a file format change is needed to introduce really big improvements. This is such an occasion.

FileMaker Go 12 is Free

Fire up your iPhone or iPad and download FileMaker Go 12. You’ll be able to see some sample files that take advantage of the much improved user interface. FileMaker databases now look like other iPhone and iPad apps!

FileMaker Pro is $299 for a full new version.

If you have FileMaker 9, 10 or 11 you can upgrade for $179.

Key Features of FileMaker Pro 12

1. 40 high quality Layout Themes that can be applied to your existing layouts.
2. More powerful layout tools including gradients, image slicing, and alignment guides to get the design precision you need.
3. Much better container field functionality with better performance to manage images, PDFs and documents.
4. iOS design and development tools to help you develop for iPhone and iPad.
5. Window styles allow you to deliver custom dialogs in a variety of ways. Supports modal dialogs and floating “palette-type” windows.
6. Emphasis on easy, effective deployment to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
7. New built-in SQL capabilities that offer the possibility of much faster performance when dealing with large data sets.
8. And more. See the full FileMaker Pro version comparison list.

Studio Manager 12 Development Will Begin

We have begun to experiment with the new capabilities of FileMaker 12 and will post updates as we learn more. Janet has already opened up Studio Manager 11 in FileMaker Pro 12 and has applied a standard theme to see how it looks. We are extremely pleased to have gradients, image slicing and other more advanced design tools at our disposal to give Studio Manager a face lift in our next release.

Stay tuned for updates. It will take at least 3 months to incorporate new features, revise documentation and release Studio Manager 12. The first step is experimenting with new features. The second step will be to develop specifications. After that the heavy lifting will commence. We will keep you posted on our progress.

Now is the time for you to send in your wish list of new features and layout design ideas. Imagine the satisfaction of seeing your dreams come to life. Email or Twitter Janet today.

Studio Manager 11 Status

Can you Convert an Earlier Version of Studio Manager to FileMaker 12?

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!

FileMaker Inc. recently released an update to FileMaker Server 11 that solves all deficiencies with web publishing and leaves only one final concern that may apply to those who authenticate using Microsoft Active Directory. If you are running or want to upgrade to OS X Lion, make sure you apply this update. Full details are available here.

Use of FileMaker 11 and FileMaker Server 11 with Lion looks pretty solid at this point. Make sure you do meet FileMaker’s minimum requirements. And, it is a great idea to have a top notch and conservative backup system in place when you do any type of system upgrade.

Today, FileMaker, Inc. released the update to FileMaker Pro 11 that was promised at the time of Lion’s release in July. I just downloaded the software and plan to apply the upgrade. Other Lion-related issues are bound to surface eventually but I expect them to be minor.

The update is recommended for all FileMaker 11 installations. You can download from the FileMaker site here.

FileMaker identifies the following fixes:

• OS X Lion only: Addressed an issue with some date field formats showing Asian characters.
• OS X Lion only: Addressed an issue with not being able to use zero or negative numbers in data formatting in the Inspector and in some controls in the Chart Setup dialog.

The prudent among you will take your own sweet time upgrading to Lion. I really don’t recommend upgrading to Lion as yet in a mission critical situation such as a Studio Manager installation. For one thing, the promised update to FileMaker Server 11 is not due until October and Lion itself is still Quite buggy.

Lion 10.7.1. Some bugs were addressed today with the release of Lion 10.7.1 but there are still lots of people online who’ve downloaded 10.7.1 who are saying their Lion-related problems remain.

FileMaker Inc. has updated their support articles with a lot of Lion compatibility information. FileMaker 11 was given a qualified green light, but known issues may be deal breakers for some users. The 2 things not supported in FileMaker 11 under Lion right now are (1) The Excel xls format is not supported and (2) Lion’s resume feature doesn’t work. Two other issues noted were: “Within the Inspector, number fields are unable to set a fixed number of decimals to 0 or a negative value” and “When formatting dates, the year may show incorrect dates with Asian character”. An Update for FileMaker Pro 11 is scheduled for August 2011.

FileMaker Server also got a qualified green light from FileMaker Inc. today. However, the big feature not supported right now under Lion is web publishing. An update for FileMaker Server is scheduled for October.

FileMaker Inc. has a table showing older versions of filemaker and issues they know of.

Think about whether you can tolerate those issues before proceeding. My Studio Manager customers should not be upgrading this early in Lion’s life cycle. Let other’s be the guinea pigs.

OS X Lion is due shortly and FileMaker user’s need to know what to expect before upgrading. FileMaker 8 or lower will not run at all on Lion. Only FileMaker 11 will be certified and supported. A small upgrade to FileMaker 11 that will support Lion is in the works.

Here’s what FileMaker says about Lion as of July 8:

FileMaker is excited about the powerful features in OS X Lion and iOS 5. We are committed to be compatible with the latest Apple operating systems and the shipping versions of FileMaker products will be updated to support OS X Lion and iOS 5.

Bottom line:

FileMaker 11 needs a minor update for Lion which is not yet available (as of July 16 2011).

FileMaker 8 will not run at all on Lion. It was developed as a PowerPC app. It is not a Universal App so requires Rosetta which is not supported in Lion. This means any version of FileMaker prior to version 8.5 will not run under Lion.

You need FileMaker 11 to run Lion. We may learn in the trenches that the bugs you will encounter running a lower version of FileMaker are tolerable, but we don’t know that yet and FileMaker Inc. does not have the resources to make sure that FileMaker 10 or less will run well on Lion.

I’ll update this post as more is revealed.

We haven’t done our own FileMaker Go videos – yet! But, FileMaker Inc. has. If you haven’t seen their video, you may not yet understand how big a deal FileMaker Go is. You may not see why you might want a customizable tool that can bring your data with you or grab data from the web and make it into useable information. Watch the video and then consider the possibilities…

The video shows a lot in about 4 minutes. Just click the View Demo link.

FileMaker Go gives you a leg up when it comes to going mobile with your data. It’s way easier to build a FileMaker app than an iOS app. Maybe you will want your own iOS app some day. It may be commonplace. Meanwhile you can try it out now with a simple FileMaker app called FileMaker Go.

By the way, you can buy a copy of FileMaker Pro for 1/2 off ($150) when you buy a copy of FileMaker Go for $20 (iPhone) or $40 (iPad). You may be able to save a few bucks. Click this link and scroll to the bottom of the page to see the Special Offer on the right.

We are still adding details and screenshots, but the SM11 tab above is now fleshed out. It gives you a good birds eye view of Studio Manager 11′s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad functionality.

We’ve included a category link to our 10 and counting blog posts about Studio Manager 11 as well. Enjoy!

In our travels building Studio Manager 11, I came across an annoying little bug that makes the refresh of job status for job assignments a sometimes kind of a thing. It doesn’t refresh when you login, which is how it is supposed to work. My mistake. Mea culpa. It was a proofing error that I just couldn’t see. But finally got it. If you are making the effort to assign your people to each job, please contact us and we’ll give you 4 screenshots that illustrate the small fix that makes all the difference. We’ll walk you through it over the phone — whatever you want.

You can download the demo of Studio Manager 11 now. You’ll need an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch running FileMaker Go to see the meat of this release. If you have FileMaker Pro 10 or 11, the demo will work as well — it just won’t be very different from the FileMaker 10 demo.

Fill in minimal required fields and the demo will be yours in a couple minutes! I just took this screenshot from my iPad. Click for full size.

FileMaker Go is $40 for the iPad and $20 for the iPhone. Right now FileMaker Inc. has a deal where you can buy a copy of FileMaker Pro for 1/2 price – see below.

When you have FileMaker Go, you can get the demo on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch directly from the download link on our site (minimal registration required). You can also download the demo to your computer and then transfer the demo to your device via iTunes. If you have dropbox and the free dropbox app on your iPad or iPhone, you can open the demo in dropbox and then send it over to FileMaker Go.

We are now turning to finishing up documentation for using Studio Manager 11 on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. Work continues… We are working on an eBook that will be readable in iBooks. The iPhone version is about done, so that may be up later today. The iPad version is more extensive in scope so it may be a while longer. If you have an iPad and iPhone, do try Studio Manager 11 on both.

If you have FileMaker Pro 10 or 11 and an iPad or iPhone or iPod touch, try it on everything you’ve got.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. The readme you get with the demo has phone numbers and email.