In geekspeak, the headline news about FileMaker Pro 7.0 is that it finally supports multiple tables within a single file. In real world terms what that means that the average user no longer has any reason to struggle with Microsoft Access.

Or if you are a Mac user and never had the "pleasure" of working with Access, you have gained added power in the dominant Mac database software.

FileMaker always has been one of the easiest-to-use database managers, making it simple to take raw data and turn it into everything from reports to mailing labels. Prefab layouts and project templates make it even easier.

However, there always has been a little bit of a debate as to whether it was fully a "relational" database, a term that simply means it can extract information from multiple sources of data -- or let you break up a mass of data into components.

For example, if you were maintaining a mailing list of a dozen people, you probably would put their contact information all into one table and edit as needed. But if the list ran to thousands, you might want to put names in one file, say, the locations of your various company offices in another, and tie the two together so that if the office moves to new space, updating that address corrects the address of all the workers at that site.

FileMaker began life as a "flat-file" -- one-table -- database and up until 7.0 there still was only one table in each FileMaker file. Its relational capabilities came via its scripting language, which allowed users to pull data from other ("external') files. Which actually is the same way Access works -- it generates "queries" and such by using scripts to pull data from the multiple tables inside an Access file and also from external sources.

But it is a little easier to sort out the relationships if the tables all are in one place and you can visually plot them out (see illustration above), So now FileMaker does this.

Another valuable change is that users now can open multiple windows of FileMaker database "views" -- any of the various ways you have sliced and diced your data. Again, this adds a capability previously limited to Access.

FileMaker has made it easier to publish data to the Web and has added support for more file types. You pretty much can stick anything you want to put in your database -- graphics, music, video, documents -- that you conceivably want to put into a database.

Now that FileMaker has attended to its multiple table and multiple windows problems, it would be good idea if they attend to the program's long-standing weakness: data importing. That function still lives in the flat-file era, operating on the assumption that you already have a table and just want to import more records into it. FileMaker lets you easily open up an Excel file (the most common source for data users want to convert to a database) and will automatically convert it to FileMaker format. But if you then want to add another Excel file as another table, the process is cumbersome and tedious.

FileMaker's new Access-esque features are especially marketable these days now that Microsoft has decided that Office 2003 Student and Teacher Edition is now the home and consumer version. Access is not part of the bundle and buying Office Professional instead more than doubles your price.

For individual and small business users, FileMaker Pro more than ever is the way to do databases.

(c) 2004 Al Gordon.

In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a principal in the Boston-area strategic consulting firm, Mary Fifield Associates, www.maryfifieldassociates.com

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You can reach Al Gordon at:

al@tnpcnewsletter.com