This product is a relational database program, with this version having Web publishing capabilities. (Note: For publishing your database on the Web, this program requires Windows 95 or newer, or Windows NT 3.51 or newer, and a host computer with access to the Internet or an intranet via TCP/IP.)

Installation went very quickly and easily; just follow the instructions on the CD. There are three installation types; Typical - installs the most common options and recommended for most users, Compact - installs the minimum required options, and Custom - you choose the options you want to install, for advanced users. I used a Pentium 166 machine, with 32MB or RAM and an 8X CD- ROM drive, as my test machine and I did a Typical install. Installation took about 20 minutes and approximately 25MB of hard drive space. The Typical installation provided me with the program, templates, examples, dictionaries filters, and a tutorial.

Even though I have used both the Macintosh and Windows previous versions of FileMaker, I ran through the tutorial, which took about 2 hours, done in 4 sessions. The tutorial is a FileMaker 4.0 database, and provides hands on examples of using the program, it even explains how to plan a database. I strongly recommend that anyone getting this program go through the tutorial, to familiarise yourself with how everything works. I found this tutorial to be very informative, even though I have been running previous versions for years. The printed user guide is a little harder to work with, but comes in handy when you have a specific problem.

I played with a few of the 48 predesigned templates and found that there was very little adjusting that had to be done to make them work for me. There are business, home and education templates. The templates I played with were Film & Video Library, Home Inventory, Personnel Records, and Projects Systems.

My main concern was compatibility with previous versions, as I deal with people having version 2.1 and 3.0. If you open a version 2.1 file, this program will automatically convert it to the new format while leaving a file with “OLD” attached to the name of the original. Version 3.0 files opened with 4.0 have no problems; the one caveat being the new 4.0 features will not work. I have been working with and exchanging 3.0 and 4.0 files for a couple of weeks now and have had no problems with the transfers.

I have not been able to check out the web publishing features, as I do not currently have access to the Internet nor the intranet. I have been hearing through the grapevine that eventually my location will be hooked up to the intranet and will probably be using FileMaker 4.0 for databases.

All in all, I did not find all that much difference between this new version and version 3.0, except for a little more functionality and some better templates. This opinion might change once I am hooked up to the intranet for database publishing, but I won’t know until that time comes.

If you need a relational database, this is a good one, due to ease of use and setup. For more information visit http://www.filemaker.com.