PDF Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 4 minutes
On April 20th, FileMaker released a new update for their FileMaker Go product for iOS. The first update since September, this release adds a number of welcome new features as well as some performance improvements. I won’t go into everything, but I’ll touch on some of the bigger additions below.
Charting
This is a feature that I was hoping would have been included in earlier releases, but it is finally here. It works exactly the same as it does in the desktop version – all types of charts of available, labels, legends, etc. The charts update live, and it seems to work pretty seamlessly – I tried this out with a file hosted on FileMaker Server, and changing data from my desktop changed the chart on the iPhone pretty much instantaneously. If you are using charts on a solution for the iPhone, I’d suggest using a layout that’s pretty much devoted to the chart, since charts tend to need a fair amount of screen real estate, which is limited on the iPhone. Of course on the iPad this isn’t as much of a problem due to the larger screen size.
Printing
Back in November, Apple released version 4.2 of iOS for both iPhone and iPad. Among the features it added 
was AirPrint – the ability to print from the iPhone and iPad to AirPrint-compatible printers. FileMaker has taken advantage of this and added in the ability to print from FileMaker Go. It’s pretty simple to use – just click on the Menu icon and chose Print. This brings up the print screen, which brings up a number of options, including paper size, orientation, page range, etc. There is also an option to create PDFs from this page (as a side note, printing PDFs has been improved; it generates a standard 8.5 x 11″ PDF). The biggest limitation with printing lies with AirPrint itself; right now, only certain printers actually support it. Since I don’t have one of these, I haven’t had a chance to test this out yet.
Capturing Signatures
This is an interesting addition, unique to FileMaker Go. This is a new option added to container fields. If you select a container field, you will now see an option called ‘Get signature’. Clicking on this takes you to a new screen which lets you write in your signature with your finger. Saving it will capture your signature as a PNG file and save it to the container. Works pretty well on both the iPhone and the iPad, but it’s probably easier to actually write your signature if you have a stylus rather than using your finger to write it.
There are more features than the ones I mention above. To get more details on FileMaker Go you can check out FileMaker’s TechBrief.
