VISUAL QUICKPRO GUIDE FileMaker Pro 7 Advanced FOR WINDOWS AND MACINTOSH [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Using Excel Data in FileMaker

The FileMaker company has done a great job of making FileMaker and Excel files easily interchangeable. For example, in the section "To export summary data," in Chapter 5, we show how easy it is to save FileMaker databases as worksheet files using the File > Export Records command.

But did you know that you can also open Excel files directly in FileMaker to create a new database? This allows you to create a new FileMaker file with all of the spreadsheet data included. You can use column headers from the Excel file to automatically create FileMaker field names. Use the drag-and-drop feature in both Windows and the Mac OS, and the whole process can be virtually effortless.

To create a FileMaker database from an Excel file

1 .

In Windows Explorer or the Macintosh Finder, arrange your windows or desktop so that you can access the Excel file and the FileMaker program icon (or a shortcut/alias) at the same time (Figure 11.47).

2 .

Drag the Excel file icon on top of the FileMaker program icon (Figure 11.48). Doing this launches FileMaker and automatically opens the First Row Option dialog box.

If you don't have a FileMaker program icon on your desktop, start FileMaker and choose File > Open. Choose Microsoft Excel Files in the drop-down list (Figure 11.49). Double-click the name of the Excel file.

3 .In the First Row Option dialog box, click the "Field names" radio button if you want to use the first row in the spreadsheet as your field names (Figure 11.50). If not, click the Data button. Click OK.

4 .In the "Name converted file" dialog box, type a name for the new database. Click Save.

5 .

The new FileMaker database will open with all of the data from the spreadsheet.

If you choose the "Field names" option in step 3, the field names will be created from the first row of the spreadsheet (Figure 11.51). Otherwise, your fields will be given generic letter/number codes (F1, F2, F3, etc.) as field names, which you can edit in the Define Fields dialog box.

Tips

If you convert an Excel spreadsheet that contains formulas into a database, the formula results will be displayed in the fields, not the formulas themselves. Alas, Excel formulas don't translate into FileMaker calculations.

In Macintosh OS X, you can drag the Excel file onto the FileMaker icon in the dock.