Rating:  - Good product, bad upgrade policy
I have had Filemaker Pro 6 for years on my Mac. Use it daily. Never upgraded, but now needed new DB features, and was told by my programmer friend to get the new one. So, I bought the upgrade. It's fine except that you can't convert files from 6, because they changed the platform--something I found out after the fact, of course. My problem is that there was no warning that upgrading wasn't the right thing to do, that I should have bought new. I ended up having to upgrade the upgrade before opening it--for another $120, and with a bunch of rigamarole that included strings of ID letters/numbers longer than my arm. Just plain a hassle. The company should have clear policies on what CAN be upgraded, and not put people through this.
Rating:  - Gold Standard
I've never used FileMaker Pro until I started working at my current job. They started off with FM3 and I came in under FM6 then upgraded to FM7. We now got FM9 and wow, what a difference! I'm working on the conversion from FM7 to 9 (there is really no need to convert your prior databses, I'm just adding features) and already it's looking better! Conditional formatting is a lifesaver...I have certain fields go "RED" when they are missing something that the DB user needs to see. Then for some fields I have blue or red text to indicate active or some sort of inactive status.
Further is the existing tab control and web viewer. Beautiful things you can impliment. Since we use some mandatory 'webware', I can have my DB users access from within our database so they can do what they need to do there while viewing the record (instead of toggling back and forth).
Let's not forget the export to PDF feature has been advanced to allow multiple reports/PDFs to be put together. Perfect!
I'd love to do the SQL import/connection but it's not allowed, but I'm sure this is a super feature for anyone who wants to have one super easy to use database.
FileMaker Pro is simply awesome...I was able to get a database completed in under 24 hours that was taking the place I worked for over 3 years in planning and meetings. Although it could never be the final solution (since we max out at the time 5 concurrent users and we needed unlimited), it got the job done. That's the power of FM...allowing the USERs (not IT) to get their databases up and running and the flexibility to modify as needed without IT involvement. Now IT can always be involved when you want to get complex, etc. But the power to build your own database for any project is there (I've done it for several).
If you are using FM7 or below, this is a no brainer upgrade. For those with 8, it is a recommended upgrade. For those with 8.5 it's your call. The new features make it worth it and the upgrade pricing should meet everyone's budget.
If you wan to do more with FileMaker databases, however, look for FileMaker Advanced (formerly known as 'Devloper' prior to version 8+). Upgrade: Filemaker Pro 9 Advanced Upgrade or Full:Filemaker Pro 9 Advanced
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