Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
If you need a database to manage personal info , but you ca n’t see shell out hundreds of dollars for a version of either FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Pro Advanced ( , December 2005 ) , the $ 70 iList Data might be your solution . Its ten guide will serve the needs of most users , but mind : The programme miss a lot of the graphic campana and whistles you ’ll find in FileMaker . So if you want to make a database that ’s very different from one of the template , you ’ll need to be familiar with basic database conception and be unafraid to roll out up your sleeves and do some scripting .
The programme is chiefly project for educators ( two of the guide are school - focus ) as well as for personal or small billet / abode office use of goods and services . iList Data is for undivided users only ; the $ 90 iList Studio is the multi - user version of the practical program .
Building the database
iList Data ’s guide represent a pretty good cross - section of typical diligence . These let in modeling databases for contacts , fitting , tasks , sale / order tracking , educatee grades , and CD and videodisc inventories . The Survey template , plan for hoard data point , is challenging .
If you desire to plan a database from scratch , choose New Custom Database , then begin typing the names of your table and fields into a dialog corner . It ’s easy to edit table gens by double - clicking on them , and start with version 3.2 , you’re able to qualify the field type as well . So if you ab initio leave to specify that you want a area to hold , say , a number rather than the default option case of school text , you may go back and exchange it .
Modifying the predetermined theater names and property ( such as whether it ’s show - only or watchword - protect ) is relatively prosperous , although you have to get to the attribute from different carte du jour . For instance , you rename fields via the Administer carte , yet you change field properties and appearance using program line under the Edit menu .
unluckily , you ca n’t customize the smell of individual databases — the appearance preferences you put , such as face and eccentric size , give to all of your databases and tables . The View set characteristic makes a bit of customization possible — you could change battlefield width , backdrop color , and which fields appear onscreen — but I would rather have the ability to interchange the look of the main window for different databases . In addition , Window Sets let you bring through various arrangement of window sizes and emplacement , a bit like saving dissimilar workspaces in some computer programme .
iList Data 3.2 ’s Find Relational command lets you opt William Claude Dukenfield from multiple tables to include in your search .
The dialog - boxful and text - stimulant method of create tables and field is simple when starting out . And version 3.2 includes a raw characteristic that make believe it easy to set up a relational database ( one with multiple interrelated tables ): When you control - clack on the New Field dialogue box , a leaning of field names in other tables pop up up , so you’re able to opt one of them .
Finding your data
iList Data ’s Find office , though simpler , works likewise to FileMaker ’s . You place up both simple searches and more - complex queries using the breakthrough menu ; to create complex queries , you must write a statement using either the Find Relational or Find SQL dialog boxes . These boxes let you choose the available search fields and show you the wheeler dealer ( such as “ equals , ” “ greater than , ” or “ like ” ) you’re able to use in your affirmation . you could view illustration inside the dialogue corner while you ’re establish your query , which is very helpful .
When doing a simple search for records , iList Data does n’t mechanically look for fragments . So if you may commend only a partial record album name from your compact disc database , you have to put % signboard around your lookup - term fragment , like this : % Nothing Left to Lose% .
Data entry
It ’s easy to do data entrance in iList Data ’s default panorama , the Record List view , as long as you set your fields so that you may edit out them inline . This get you press the course and begin get in data , rather than having to double over - click to start the Edit Record window . Unfortunately , in the templates , fields are not set that elbow room by nonpayment — not even ones that would be convenient to edit inline . alternatively , you have to launch the View computer menu and sic them up to be editable .
In the Edit Record window ( the typical data - incoming blind ) , there are no pointer for navigate among records . There ’s also no “ New Record ” push button — but you could set a preference so that clicking the Create release generates a written matter of your fighting disc , which you could then edit .
Importing and exporting
iList Data imports delimited text edition files , but not .csv files ( a common file format for export tabular material ) . So , for example , if you have information in Excel that you want to put into iList Data , you ’ll need to relieve it as a delimited schoolbook filing cabinet first . Other database programs can spell .csv , .xls , XML , and other format that iList Data ca n’t .
iList Data ’s Import File Paths characteristic countenance you catalogue documents , pic , or medicine files and set in motion them with a carte du jour command . The Images database template is a good model of how to utilize file paths — to set up a catalog of photos , create a new database from the Images template , then choose Paths : Import . iList Data automatically sets up records for every simulacrum that you specify , and you could specifically constringe down which image paths you import . pop out with version 3.2 , you could spell and view image thumbnail inside records . When you choose Launch Path for a given record , the picture unfold up in your nonpayment image viewer ( such as Preview or iPhoto ) .
The syllabus ’s readiness for publishing reports are no - frill . you’re able to save phonograph record lists and account in text or PDF formatting , or transmit record book list to Microsoft Excel or Word . You ca n’t craft highly initialise write up or publish to HTML , as you may with FileMaker , but you may set up a styled papers in Word , then use Word ’s merge function with an iList Data composition as its datum rootage .
You build composition much the same path you construct search queries — by writing humble scripts in the Report Palette .
Macworld’s buying advice
Even if you ’re inexperienced with database , iList Data 3.2 pass water it ready to get started , and its templates are relatively easy to customize . However , the limitations of its interface hinder productivity . If you ’re a do - it - yourselfer with modest needs , iList Data could permit you build the personal database that suits you just veracious .
[ Rebecca Freed is a free lance writer cover Mac hardware and software package . She writes about Macs on a regular basis forPC World . ]
