Installing Studio Manager

Studio Manager belongs to a class of software generally referred to as a template. As such, it requires that FileMaker Pro 10 or 11 also be installed. For details, consult the FileMaker, Inc website for the software and hardware requirements for your vesion of Mac OS X or Windows.

We recommend that you have at least 512 mb of RAM to run Studio Manager as a client or on the server. You’ll need more in larger installations (say, over 20 users) to get good performance.

Although you can scrape by running Studio Manager on an older CPU, given that you can buy a new Mac mini for $699 and get a 2.4 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, we see little justification for doing so. On a PC, look for a 1.6 ghz processor or higher.

Studio Manager 11 was developed using the FileMaker Pro 11 application from FileMaker, Inc. You’ll need FileMaker 10, 11 or higher to run it. Prior to using Studio Manager, you must install FileMaker (if it is not already installed). You can purchase or upgrade FileMaker Pro directly from FileMaker, Inc. or from your favorite software store, catalog or website. Prices, deals and discounts change over time. Always check before making assumptions about what you will pay.

To be completely clear, the price of FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Server or FileMaker Go is NOT included with the price of Studio Manager. You are responsible for purchasing, upgrading and installing the appropriate version of FileMaker.

As of this writing (June 2011), the current version of FileMaker™ Pro is 11.0v3. Make sure you are running at least version 10. A separate installation code is required for each computer used concurrently. Check the Downloads page on the FileMaker, Inc. website to determine the latest versions and to see whether or not you need to run an updater on your application. The graphic above shows that you can easily download the updater.

Studio Manager uses the fonts Lucida Grande for entry and list screens, and Arial (1) for reports. Both fonts are typical on both Macs and PCs.

But we needed a condensed font that would be legible in a small point size for the schedule report, so we chose Adobe’s Futura Condensed (2). This font is NOT supplied with Studio Manager, and is widely available. If you do not have Futura Condensed, then substitute another condensed font or use a smaller point size of a regular font like Ariel. You may also want to apply the Condense style if you use a different font. The condense command in FileMaker isn’t all that pretty. You have been forewarned.

Be sure to install the same version of each of these fonts on each computer that will be used with Studio Manager. You may of course customize Studio Manager to use any fonts you wish, just be sure that these same fonts are installed and open on all the computers that will use it.

We deliver the Studio Manager product to you via a special URL as a zipped archive. As soon as you click on the link that we send to you via email, the download begins automatically.

Before you do anything else, make a duplicate of the zip file onto a backup disk.

To expand the archive, double click the icon.

The zipped archive expands to a folder containing three files. Move the folder to a desired location, most often the main hard drive of the computer or server.

The folder contains a PDF ReadMe file that we recommend you read, a PDF of the user manual and, of course, Studio Manager.

We make the assumption here that if you are setting up Studio Manager, you are going to follow the set up steps sequentially. Instructions for certain tasks (like making entry option changes withing Manage Database) are shown only a few times. The manuals assume that after you’ve read a general instruction more than once that you know how to do it.

If you are updating from an earlier version of Studio Manager, refer to the separate document on that topic. There is a set of recommended steps to take to prepare your older Studio Manager file for conversion. Please read that information carefully before starting the conversion, then use it to guide you.