Research Notes: FileMaker Pro 12 Starter Solution

The Research Notes Starter Solution makes compiling all related information for your project easier. It's one of the 16 pre-made templates that's available for you to start using for your database requirements. It's fully unlocked so you can view and modify the database tables, relationships, layouts, and scripts.

When you start out FileMaker Pro 12, just click File > New From Starter Solution… and select Research Notes. Type the name you want for the database (in case you'll have multiple of the same database), specify where you want to save it, and click Choose.

You'll be presented a new record where you can begin typing in the project name, category, topics, and description. You'll have three tabs to enter text-based notes, document attachments (such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF files), and Media (such as Sound or Video clips). A Research Report button shows you a printable view of all the research information, and a Send by Email button creates a PDF version of the Research Report and attaches it to a new mail message using your existing email client.

The Research Report.

You'll also notice a "Search Selection" button on the screen, as well as small globe icons all over different fields. This highlights a cool feature of FileMaker Pro: the Web Viewer. With this function, you can have a built-in web browser from within FileMaker Pro, which saves you from switching between FileMaker Pro and your web browser.

The Research Notes starter solution has a built-in web browser, with quick links to Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, and other Search and Information services.

Clicking the Research List button shows you a list of all records you've created, with an option to sort it by Category, Date, Project, or Research ID. You can also import and export item records to any of the file formats supported by FileMaker Pro, or print out the project list.

The Research Notes screen.

Aside from the professionally designed templates that look great on the desktop version of FileMaker Pro 12 (for Macintosh or Windows), additional layouts for FileMaker Go 12 for iOS and built-in scripts in the Starter Solution automatically show the best layout based on your mobile device (either iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch). Here's what the iPad layout looks like:

You can work with this starter solution in your iOS device in several ways:

• You can sync it with your iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch using iTunes.
• You can email the file to your iOS device and open it with FileMaker Go 12.
• You can enable FileMaker Network Sharing in FileMaker Pro 12, and open the file remotely using FileMaker Go 12.

Enjoy!