Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       We’ve all been there at one time or another.  With confidence we go and make a change and voila, it looks beautiful.  After we celebrate our prowless, a few days later we go over what we did and notice that something just isn’t right.  Why are all my people at the wrong location?  Why are they assigned to the wrong school? At times like these, the existence of a good backup and recovery strategy is paramount.  In the case above, the creation of a ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       With each new version of PD-Place, many new and exciting features are added. These features range from minor adjustments to large scale changes. How does the PD-Place team determine what new features are added? When the PD-Place team receives a new feature request, the request is recorded in a list of changes. This list of changes is reviewed by the PD-Place team between releases. If the request is a feature that many clients will find useful, the feature is ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Last month I read a great blog post about “Positivity in your Workspace” that you can read here.  It got me thinking about my own workspace and how I can create a “positive” atmosphere.  The blog suggests having pictures or reminders up about your “whys”.  Your “whys” are things that are most important in your life and the goals you want to achieve.  Also, you should have inspirational quotes and iPod playlists that are sure to get you pumped ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       Criticism. We’ve all faced it in one way or another. But what happens when social media is involved? With the recent logos unveiled by Gap (and we saw how well that went) and Starbucks, it’s been interesting to see how companies are managing the firestorms brought on by Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more. While fake Twitter accounts have popped up to add some levity to the discourse, it seems companies are starting to understand that communication is a ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       (Source: formrouter.com) Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a very relaxing and fun-filled holiday. The time off was certainly welcome as it gave me time to think about many of the everyday items that we use; items, for some, that haven’t changed for many years. The thing that came to the forefront for me was the use of traditional paper-based forms. Paper-based forms, originally designed by hand and now commonly designed in many popular software applications ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 3 – 5 minutes       When FileMaker Inc. released FileMaker Go for iOS 4 devices in July, it changed things for developers. All of a sudden we had a new platform for which to develop, and one that has unique opportunities and capabilities. It also left many of us scratching our collective heads after we played with it for a while and realized that using the same layouts designed for the desktop version of FileMaker Pro wouldn’t always be practical. I say scratching our heads ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Growing professionally through training and development is a crucial piece of the success pie. After all, you can’t move forward using the same old bag of tricks. If we’ve heard this time and time again, why is it so difficult to buckle down and complete that online course, or sign up for that workshop, or read through that new procedures manual? We all start off with good intentions. We even schedule time to devote to professional development and training, but ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 3 – 4 minutes       Have you ever created a FileMaker calculation that was a little complicated but it made sense at the time? And a few months later you look at that calculation again and you can’t figure it out? I have to admit, my memory is pathetic. If I don’t write stuff down or put it in an email, it’s gone by the next day. Same with constructing calculations: if I don’t document them or format them in such a way to make them easier to read, I often can’t understand ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       Communication is very important in all aspects of a project – from discovery and requirements gathering, to the final implementation. A Project Status Report is just one tool that CoreSolutions has as an avenue for providing a formal communication of the current status of a project, not only to our clients, but our own management staff. There are basically three main components of a Project Status Report: Overall – starting with the over-arching health of ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Confidence – it’s one of life’s most useful (and at times, hard to muster) traits, and is one of the most important aspects of being a good sales representative. While it’s true that I’m new to the sales game, it’s also true that I know the secret to being a confident salesperson. I didn’t read it in a book though; it came from within me. I love taking on new challenges and experiencing new things; however, I also have a profound need to be ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       In this post, I am going to cover the new Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) features that were added to PD Place™ version 3.7.1. This is especially of interest to PD Place users who are considering integrating their installation with LDAP servers such as the Microsoft® Active Directory® service (or have already done so). The LDAP Preference Area There’s a new area in PD Place’s “Preferences” screen, dedicated to LDAP-related ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 1 – 2 minutes       People often interchange price and cost, but it’s important to recognize the significant difference between the two. Remember the old adage, “Beware the cost of the lowest price”? Well, it rings true. Just because a product is less expensive than its competitors’, doesn’t mean you (or your business) save money in the long run. Sometimes, perhaps most times, you end up spending more in part because of time and efficiency lost to a mediocre product. Or, ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 3 – 5 minutes       We recently celebrated the success of three of our FileMaker developers becoming FileMaker 11 Certified Developers.  We always knew they were certifiable but now they have a certificate to prove it! It got me to thinking about what that certification actually means to us as a business and to our clients.  Let’s face it – before FileMaker introduced Certification back in 2004 with version 7; pretty much anyone could hang their shingle out as a FileMaker ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Many of us set personal and professional goals for ourselves revolving around our careers.  Not only is it satisfying to be able to tell family and friends what your new (and most likely improved) job title is, but it’s the challenge and chance to learn and grow that really motivates me. Recently I accomplished a career goal, one I set for myself last summer when I first joined the CoreSolutions team, as I was promoted from Inside Sales Representative to Account ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       In the last year I faced a challenge like none I have ever faced before. As I celebrated my 40th birthday and mourned the loss of my good friend to breast cancer, I decided to sign-up for a 200KM (124 mile) fundraising bike ride. To take part in this ride, I knew I’d have to train and prepare myself mentally and physically to be successful in my adventure. After months (and months!) and hours (and hours!) of sweat, perseverance and effort, I found myself facing ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 4 – 6 minutes       At a recent PD Place User Group meeting, the subject of the in-service Meta fields was raised and I promised to write a blog to expand on the purpose and usage of these fields. I hope this article sheds some light and helps unravel the mystery surrounding Meta fields. The Meta Field functionality was added in PD Place Version 3.6 to meet the reporting needs of a new client. The client had a number of parameters that they wanted to track for each in-service that ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Using portals in FileMaker Pro is a great way to view a lot of related information on a single screen. For example, if you’re sitting on a contact record, you can have portals that let you view activities, invoices orders, etc. for that contact, all at a glance. If you have a lot of records in your database, you might have to do a lot of scrolling to find, say, an invoice from a few years back. FileMaker 11 has introduced a new feature called “Portal ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 10 – 16 minutes       I stopped wearing a wristwatch the day I resigned from my job at the bank. Safely tucked into my purse on that Saturday in August, it symbolized my perception of a life of freedom from the confines of a job where I answered to others. Time was definitely on my side… or so I thought! As a business owner, you soon realize that the work day is a 24-hour clock. And if you are married to your business partner, there is really no escaping. Over the years ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 minutes       Do you ever think there are not enough hours in the day to get your ever-increasing work done? By the time you finish one task, you have 10 more emails and three co-workers asking for assistance. I sometimes get overwhelmed with the sheer number of small, but still important, tasks to complete on a daily basis. To help keep productive and remain sane at the same time, try some of these time management tips: Try to plan out your day. Write a to-do list and record a due ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       I was lucky enough to take a” trip-of-a-lifetime” vacation last week to Europe.  My husband and I and his family flew to Barcelona, Spain for a cruise on the Mediterranean with stops in Toulon, France, and Pisa, Florence and Rome, Italy.  It was like nothing I have ever experienced before!  The cruise ship was our home where we dined nightly in the amazing three-level dining room.  On our first night we were seated at a nice table by a large window ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 2 – 3 minutes       Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m a big believer in product training. Why? I will never forget sitting by myself at table in university, pondering the mystery of abstract algebra. Several cups of coffee later, I was dazed, confused, and not much farther ahead in my pursuit of…wait, what was I pursuing again? I didn’t even have the answer to that question. It was not until I met with my professor and several other classmates that I could put the pieces together. Why? ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: < 1 minute       Make sure you have good backups using the built-in backup schedules in FileMaker Server. Take a copy and save them as clones with no data, especially after you’ve made changes to layouts, scripts or relationships. Clones will be essential if you develop any kind of corruption in your files. Periodically save your files as a compressed copy. This keeps the data but has routines that clean up the structure of the file. It’s the kind of practice that takes about ... Read More

Estimated Time To Read This: 4 – 6 minutes       FileMaker Inc., with the release of FileMaker 8 and FileMaker 8 Advanced has significantly modified the ways scripts can be written and tested. It is worth it to rethink our approach to scripting from the ground up. Scripting philosophies and techniques might differ user by user, developer by developer, but there are a few common principles worth considering. FileMaker 8 Advanced introduced several new tools. Copy/paste tables, scripts and script steps, ... Read More