About FileMaker Pro databases
A database is a collection of information, or data, that you can organize, update, sort, search through, and print as needed. A FileMaker Pro database is a file or files made up of one or more tables. A table consists of records and fields, which store and display your data.
Each FileMaker Pro database file contains information about the file’s structure, like fields and their definitions, passwords and access privileges, calculations, layouts, and scripts. A FileMaker Pro database file also contains the data you enter and work with.
FileMaker Pro includes an interactive tour that helps familiarize you with the product. To start the tour:
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Choose Help menu > Product Documentation > Getting Started Tour
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Choose Help menu > Quick Start Screen, and under Getting Started Tour, click Start now.
What are tables?
Tables contain all the records, fields, and data in a file, for example a Contacts file, which holds information pertaining to your friends or customers. A file can also contain multiple tables that, together, contain all the information about a particular topic, or related topics (a relational database). For more information on tables, see Defining database tables.
What are records?
To enter data in a database file, you make a new record and enter data into the fields that belong to that record. After you create records in a file, you can work with them in various ways: you can edit them, sort them, find a group of records that contain a particular value or share the data across a network. For more information on records, see Adding and duplicating records.
What are fields?
Fields store, calculate, and display the data you have entered into a record. The information you put into a field — by typing, pasting, or importing from another application — is its value. Field values in a FileMaker Pro file can be: text, numbers, dates, times, timestamps, pictures, sounds, movies, enclosed files, calculated values, and summary values. Each piece of information in a record — like a name, address, or telephone number — is stored in a field. For more information on fields, see About defining database fields.
What are layouts?
FileMaker Pro layouts present data (the text entered into fields) contained in a database. Layouts determine how data is organized for viewing, printing, reporting, finding, and entering data. Layouts do not store your data; they just display it. When you change the design for a layout, it doesn’t affect the data or other layouts in the file. However, when you change data in a field on a layout, the changes are reflected in the same field on all the layouts in the database. You can set a layout to display and print one record, or as many as can fit on a page.
Within one database file, you can design separate layouts for entering data, summary reporting, printing mailing labels, or publishing a database on the web. You can have as many layouts for each file as disk space or maximum file size allows. For more information on layouts, see Creating and managing layouts and reports.
In a layout, you:
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choose which fields to display
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arrange and format fields
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add or modify field labels
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create reports to group or summarize data
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specify how records are printed
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add graphics and text to add emphasis and interest
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