Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible
By Galen Gruman, Mark Hattersley, Timothy R. Butler
Paperback: xxxvi + 804 pages; published September 8, 2009 (language: English)
Price: $39.99 (US)
Publisher: Wiley
http://www.wiley.com
ISBN-10: 047045363X
ISBN-13: 978-0470453636

Race in the Snow
There are three ways in which a book on something as potentially ephemeral as an operating system (that’s no denigration: we love our big and powerful cats!) deserves success:

• comprehensiveness
• accuracy, being well-conceived and written
• being published first

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible by Galen Gruman, Mark Hattersley and Timothy Butler certainly wins on the third count. At the time of writing (just ten days after the book’s publication) there is no available competition… the relevant volume in the ‘Missing Manual’ series is still a couple of weeks off, although it’s apparently 200 pages longer. One or two smaller, lighter-weight titles make have been published already – less than a month since 10.6 was made available by Apple – but they don’t try to compete with this excellent Wiley offering in scope or depth. O’Reilly’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard Pocket Guide (ISBN-10: 0596802722; ISBN-13: 978-0596802721) seems to have more material relevant specifically to Snow Leopard than to other versions of OS X.

And this is the key point: you have to turn to the outstanding PDFs made available by the TidBits people for a true distillation of subject matter dealing (almost) exclusively with (the very few material changes introduced in) Snow Leopard. The over 800 substantive pages of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible address much else besides.

Context
That’s no bad thing though: the book is aimed at anyone using OS X from beginners to advanced users. It provides details on navigating the Finder (for instance, there’s a nice little sidebar [on page 40] providing the rationale for the Menu Bar – something with which Windows users may be unfamiliar). The new system’s architecture is laid out, and a good explanation of what is and what isn’t (true) 64-bit is given. There’s a lengthy and reassuring description of installation – important, of course, because this differs from the procedure with earlier 10.n upgrades.

Nor is the breadth of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible’s coverage of the operating system in general something to criticize: given that there are so few really new features to Snow Leopard, it would be unreasonable to expect 800 pages to be devoted to them. Rather, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible is a worthy introduction and reliable reference source to using Apple’s latest operating system – almost whether or not you’re familiar with Leopard (10.5) or earlier versions.

Clearly, much of what’s covered does apply specifically to 10.6 (installation, Spaces and Exposé, Services, some troubleshooting routines, Stacks, the new QuickTime and so on). So, although much of it does not, it would make little sense to buy this book if you’re still running 10.5, 10.4 or earlier – unless to provide an in depth and authoritative insight in what awaits you once you do decide to upgrade (to 10.6).

Snow Leopard-only features, procedures and tips for its use are flagged in Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible with a ‘New Feature’ subheading; they are also set in bold. Usefully, differences between the way things work in the new OS and previous ones are also detailed: e.g. "The Input Sources pane in Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard had been called Input Menu in previous versions, and now has several new controls. Also, the Character Palette is now called the Character Viewer (but is otherwise unchanged)" [581]. These changes are not – unfortunately – aggregated anywhere such that you could gain instant access to everything that’s new in Snow Leopard. There is a ‘Cross-Ref’ icon, but it’s not so widely used as one might have expected, or hoped.

So, if you already own, or intend to own, OS X 10.6, this well-written book is as good an introduction and reliable a reference source as you can currently get and can be thoroughly recommended for all but the most specialist and knowledgeable users of the Mac.

Structure
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible is divided into five main sections: Getting Started with Snow Leopard (or about 46% of the text of the book); Networking and the Internet (18%); At work with Mac OS X (just 8%); Maintaining your Mac with OS X (17%); and Beyond the Basics (11%). In each section are from three to nine chapters – each further broken down into subsections which deal with specific topics. There is a comprehensive index of 25 pages, and 30 pages of glossary.

This typical Bible arrangement works well and provides ample structure and mileposts, should you decide to work your way right through the book, rather than dip in for topics in which you were interested, which is also possible, given the non-linear narrative and ways in which concepts and terms are covered.

Quality
There are plenty of black and white screen shots, though their reproduction is a little on the small side at a times. Each is referenced sequentially within its chapter – something that might usefully have been done with subsections too… iTunes as music library could have been 9.1, iTunes for podcasts 9.2, for radio 9.3 and so on. Not that the book shows any signs of having been rushed.

Indeed, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible easily meets the other two criteria outlined at the start of this review for success: it is comprehensive (a page and a half is devoted to ‘Enabling Keyboard Assistance’, for example; almost a page to Safari’s ‘speciality’ controls; half a page to the location of fonts on your hard drive etc). It is well written and largely avoids that annoying, ‘chatty’ style which bedevils other authors’ attempts to sound ‘accessible’. At the same time, the language is not forbidding; difficult concepts are explained well. With plenty of white space, topics use clear, consistent and pleasing typographical conventions which make use of bold, indenting, bullets and simple, short paragraphing with plenty of white space.

Using Snow Leopard
Probably the reason that most people will buy Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible is to learn how to make (better) use of the amazingly sophisticated and flexible operating system – in all its complexities. This, indeed, is the declared aim of the authors… "As a new authors team, we have focused much more on providing tips and how-to context so you can get more out of your Mac than ever before" [xxxi].

Since a tutorial approach has been avoided, if you want to skip the chapters on scripting, Automator and the Unix shell script, for example, without then being left high and dry because a step is missing, you can. If you want aggregated in one place many of the keyboard shortcuts useful in navigating the file system, it’s there – actually, in two places. If you need to set up Wi-Fi from scratch, there’s more than enough to get you going – with a nice little introduction to IP addressing [p.441] at the start. Small steps, maybe, but no attempt to infantilism the enthusiast. Most sections conclude with a simple, useful summary. And those procedures and applications (such as printing/faxing and Mail, say) which are more complex are in fact covered step by step; often menu item by menu item. A true (Wiley) Bible.

All the major Apple utilities are outlined – proportionate space being devoted to those which most would agree are of greatest important – Mail, iTunes, Address Book etc. There’s a whole chapter [16, pp 487-476] devoted to Services. MobileMe is covered in great detail; though only a couple of pages devoted to synching in that context. The fact that there are lengthy chapters (of 55, 20 and 22 pages respectively) devoted to system preferences, fonts and security makes it clear that Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible is about the operating system – in the widest sense of the word – and not about all the things like multimedia, twitter, web design and databases that you can do on a modern Mac.

Conclusions
Once you understand – and are satisfied with the fact – that Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible deals with OS X from the point of view of users of the Mac’s operating system, which is now 10.6, Snow Leopard; and that it is not devoted exclusively to the operating system’s new features, you are likely to be impressed by its standard of presentation, handling of the material, comprehensiveness and ease of use. At present this book represents the best available printed resource on Apple’s latest operating system.

Pros: Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible is comprehensive, accurate, accessible and well-researched. It will answer most users’ questions and guide most users – new and ‘seasoned’ – towards getting the best from Snow Leopard.

Cons: For those who are very familiar with OS X, the absence of an aggregated list of new features and functionality in 10.6 is a missed opportunity.

MyMac.com Rating: 4.5 out of 5

email – MyMac Magazine – Twitter – Advertise – Reviews Archive – Podcast

GarageBand 09 (Apple Training Series)
by Mary Plummer
Publisher: Peachpit
Price: $39.99 (US); $47.99 (Canada); £28.99 (UK)
Paperback: 312 pages; published May 11, 2009 (language: English)
ISBN-10: 0321648528
ISBN-13: 978-0321648525
http://www.peachpit.com

History

GarageBand is a music-making application that has grown significantly since its first appearance at MacWorld San Francisco in January 2004. Apple developed it under the lead of Gerhard Lengeling of Emagic, a specialist company which had been acquired by Apple 18 months previously. GarageBand 2 came in 2005; GarageBand 3 a year later. GarageBand 4 (also called GarageBand ’08) two years after that, in 2008.

This year the fifth iteration, GarageBand ’09, was published. In common with the other four versions, GarageBand ’09 forms an integral part of the iLife (in this case, of course, iLife ’09) suite. New in this latest version are the abilities separately to record individual sections of a piece; to create and export iPhone ringtones; support for automated tempi and instruments; a ‘Magic GarageBand’ feature… a virtual ‘jam session’ with a 3D view of the instruments. For electric guitar players there is now a dedicated 3D track. The interface has been redesigned and is easier to use; there are also project templates. Significantly, too, GarageBand ’09 includes its own music lessons and allows the user to buy instructional videos by contemporary musicians.

These – and the rest of GarageBand ’09′s features – are the subject of a new, comprehensive and very well-written and produced book by Mary Plummer.

Despite the bundled tutorials, paper-based instruction is still very useful. Such a book as this is particularly welcome to anyone new to the software, which requires Mac OS X 10.5. or above. The GarageBand ’09 software’s functionality and interface can be confusing or slightly overwhelming. A guided, graded introduction is a boon. And if it takes you further into the less immediate features of the software, as this book does, so much the better.

‘GarageBand ’09 (Apple Training Series)’ is written by experienced musician and (Apple Certified) trainer, Mary Plummer. It’s clear from the first word that she knows her subject; and that she understands teaching and learning… for instance where the absence of small reminders (such as that 10.5.6 is needed as you consider an interface for your instrument because that’s what GarageBand ’09 itself needs) would confuse, she gives them. You soon feel in very safe hands.

This Peachpit book is also part of the Apple Training and Certification Program. The material it contains has been certified by Apple and aims to leave you sufficiently well-prepared to take the necessary qualifications for Associate-level proficiency in the relevant entry-level examination for the iLife ’09 product suite. It offers a discount of 30% on the exam costs. The book can also be registered with PeachPit as a Safari Book Online and viewed online for 45 days.

Lessons

The book is divided into eight lessons, all the material for which is on the accompanying DVD. These lessons cover: Learning to play music; Jamming with a virtual band; Recording Music; Scoring a movie, arranging loops; Creating a ringtone; Mixing music and effects; Podcasts; and Sharing your work – as well as a 30-page appendix of bonus lessons/materials. The shortest lesson is just 16 pages and the longest 51. The progression – essentially from installation, first time opening, connecting a MIDI keyboard through to publishing via iWeb or iDVD – is a logical and realistic one. The steps between stages are neither too steep nor do they labor points when to do so would irritate.

Typically each lesson contains one or more sequence(s) of a dozen or so tasks broken down into from two or three to up to 20 steps. The layout (with clear, color screengrabs and (close-up) photographs where needed) facilitates navigation through these steps… white space, alignment, numbering, use of meaningful color, consistent conventions for menus and so on all mean that you should in theory be able to complete what amount to project assignments simply and without error. Fortunately this isn’t one of those books which merely teach you how to complete itself.

There is enough contexualising detail to explain why and how you are being asked to work through the exercises. It has to be said that these steps – rather than background and more focused explanation and theory – do constitute the bulk of the book’s material. This is deliberate: the approach is unapologetically ‘hands on’. What’s more, each is designed to build on material covered previously. If this is your learning style, then you will be well-suited to ‘GarageBand ’09 (Apple Training Series)’.

Rich Text

At various points throughout the lessons appear Notes and Tips – e.g. to the effect that you only get the ‘My Recordings’ track if you have first recorded your instrument in a lesson; that ‘M’ and ‘S’ toggle Mute and Solo; how exactly to crop an Artwork image… inexperienced users my not be familiar with the conventions: that they are catered for this way is all to the good.

What’s more, the book isn’t a glorified walk-through the menus of GarageBand ’09. The lessons take real world projects and guide you through their satisfactory completion from the point of view less of the tasks involved as of the objectives. Like all successful such approaches, you get to know the files with which you work. To that end there are almost always introductory paragraphs (or sections) explaining why and how you’re going to tackle what’s next. At the end of each, moreover, there is an informal summary of what you’ve just done – as well as a formal review of the material covered. This would serve as (the basis for) a useful checklist.

Each actual lesson contains at its head reference to the three or four files you’ll be using; an estimate of the time needed satisfactorily to complete it (that ranges from 30 to 90 minutes – and is particularly useful since the number of pages in the book allotted to each topic doesn’t invariably correspond to the time needed) and the half dozen or more goals. That’s all equally useful; and sound pedagogically. The index at the back of the book occupies nine pages and was found to be more than adequate for locating subject matter outside of the lesson sequence.

Conclusions

Pros: GarageBand 09 (Apple Training Series) is clear, comprehensive and well-paced. If you learn best by doing, by following tutorials that lead you through the software’s functionality, it will work well for you. It’s cleanly produced, well illustrated, simply written and relies on thorough explanations just when you need them.

Cons: If you prefer more of a narrative, a description and explanation of what Garageband 09 can do with projects taking a back seat, then the style of the book, no matter how well produced, may not suit.

MyMac.com Rating: 4.5 out of 5

email – MyMac Magazine – Twitter – Advertise – Reviews Archive – Podcast

Run Windows on your Mac without rebooting!  Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac provides the complete suite of essentials to run Windows on Mac the easy, fast and powerful way.

Sonicfire Pro 5

System Requirements:
OS X 10.4.0 or higher
Intel or Power PC (G4 or better)
DVD drive
256 MB available RAM
50 MB hard disk space

Bundled with this release of Toast Titanium 10 come two excellent applications to enhance, manipulate and edit sound files.

SonicFire Pro 5 is marketed by SmartSound and is a competitor to GarageBand. It claims to be ‘the most innovative music scoring software in the world’. It’s a relatively complex package aimed at users who want to produce and output sound files (to accompany videos, for example) made up of canned effects and tracks.

Yet the interface, menu structure and workflow have been so well built that what could have been a series of bewildering procedures with many options really does sponsor greater concentration on your creative ideas than on having to pick your way through perhaps bloated features. Once you have become sufficiently familiar with it SonicFire Pro 5 allows you to strike an excellent balance and achieve professional output that sounds well in most appropriate contexts… you’ll hardly write a string trio; but you will make a convincing pop video.

Complex
Yes, it does take some time to work your way through the various components of the package. There can be up to six floating windows open at any one time with various degrees of interrelatedness one to another.

There are also various ‘editions’ of the software with a variety of new features:

Express Track is a searching tool that allows you to incorporate effects, snippets and short musical themes into your score from an online collection of (purchasable) music: scoring for SonicFire doesn’t mean the same as it does for a stave-based program like Sibelius. (The search for) these ‘mixes’ can be enhanced and refined: you advise SonicFire of musical characteristics (faster, slower, more with this instrument, more by that composer etc.) which you would like to emulate or have reproduced in your piece and it matches them. The software emphasizes mood – again not something that will be of immediate appeal to all music lovers; but as a way to put sound with vision, it more than does what it’s supposed to.

‘Tap Tempo’, for example, lets you state how many beats per minute you want to use. The Jukebox playback feature previews a set of search results without a break. Your resulting piece (whose tempo and pitch can easily be changed) can then be exported to work with a variety of industry-standard video and audio editing apps. (The documentation says "all" such software.)

The Scoring Edition additionally has a timeline-based editor further to customize your composition. This supports keyframes, timing controls (to sample a beat and alter it to match a video), offset from the start, spotting and timing even more precisely to synchronize points in a video (such as ‘hit points’) to markers in the soundtrack.

A network add-on is available for a further $99.95, which will allow you to share and distribute your work amongst multiple users.

When first run, SonicFire Pro looks for available data and program updates, downloads them and invisibly installs them. This is typical of the streamlining that has gone into making the product as easily usable and flexible as it is.

Most of your work will be done in the main project window. It’s a testament to the conception and design of the package that the documentation (which runs to under 150 pages) can nevertheless thoroughly explain its use and features. You quickly get used to a sequence of add – listen – refine – listen – export without interference from controls and options. Commendable.

If you have a need to work with a highly transparent and simply thought-out music editing application, SonicFire has a venerable history, was robust and reliable during testing and may well be for you. As a bonus when buying Toast Titanium 10, it’s hard to turn your nose up at.

SoundSoap

System Requirements:
G4, G5, or Intel-based Mac (> 500MHz processor recommended)
Mac OS 10.3.9, 10.4.3, 10.5.1 or higher (Intel-based Macs require 10.4.3 or higher)

SoundSoap (the SE edition – which is standalone) is the second audio product to be bundled with Toast Titanium 10). It’s a noise reduction and sound restoration tool. And a good one.

The idea is that, using as few controls as possible, hiss, ambient noise, rumble, (electrical, 50 & 60 Hz) hum, clicks and pops, crackles, and other background noise can be removed from files now digital of course and likely originally to have been analog… those from tape cassettes, vinyl LPs and conceivably broadcast material spooled to your computer. Their tone can even be ‘enhanced’ using a slider in the same way as graphics software boosts colors and contrast etc. This version also allows the mouse scroll wheel to control knobs and sliders.

Using a single window you control all the features of SoundSoap. In fact, it could hardly be simpler to use. A rather attractive, ‘brushed charcoal’ interface has two ‘knobs’ – for noise ‘tuning’ (threshold) and noise reduction. Two vertical sliders control the degree of click/crackle, and enhance the result. Six buttons then allow you to reduce broadband noise (more random: the interference doesn’t respect a regular time frequency) and hum.

Intelligence
Given the fact that almost every sound source will be different, such tasks as those performed by SoundSoap are likely usually to be manual. Nevertheless, the software also has a ‘learn’ feature that automates the process: from even a short extract it anticipates the cleanup likely to be needed throughout the rest of the file.

Similarly, in the case of media with prominent voice content, a specialized filter, ‘Preserve Voice’, preprocesses such sound to avoid the risk of losing the unique profile of the voice when other imperfections are dealt with.

This software is a pleasure to use – not only because of its simple interface, but also because it is as effective as it is. There’s rarely something for nothing in life. And to remove something almost always results in less than you started with. But if you want to improve on old, treasured media with all their imperfections, this is as good a way to do it as anything else of its kind available. And to have it ‘free’ with Toast makes the bargain especially sweet.

The documentation is thorough and easy to use: the induction into this area can be painful – it’s technically quite complex. But by using ‘real world’ examples and illustrating all the steps carefully, you quickly become something of an expert. Or enough of an expert significantly to improve on your older and noisier media.

email – MyMac Magazine – Twitter – Advertise – Reviews Archive – Podcast

Filemaker Pro 10
Company:
FileMaker, Inc.
Pricing:
FileMaker Pro 10: $299 ($179 upgrade)
FileMaker Pro 10 Advanced: $499 ($299 upgrade)
FileMaker Server 10: $999 ($599 upgrade)
FileMaker Server 10 Advanced: $2999 ($1799 upgrade)
Volume, Education and Non-Profit licensing available
www.filemaker.com

System Requirements (Tiger): PowerPC, G4 or G5
Intel-based Mac
256MB RAM
CD and hard disk drive

System Requirements (Leopard): PowerPC G4 (867MHz+) G5
Intel-based Mac – 512MB RAM
CD and hard disk drive

History
FileMaker Pro has long been the database of choice for users needing scalable, reliable relational performance. Slowly evolving under the wing of Claris in the pre-OS X days, FileMaker Pro has undergone many overhauls since it was first released (as long ago as 1990). Some of these have been major – that from version 6 to version 7, in particular. Others have seemed to seasoned users hardly to warrant the new release, sometimes with attendant conversion headaches and always with the financial outlay: FileMaker is not cheap

But on balance, FileMaker Pro remains without doubt the most versatile and feature-rich product of its kind for serious database users. The release of version 10 only confirms its position as market leader with many more real advantages than drawbacks. Within days (hours at times) of the announcement and release of a new version, users fill the bulletin boards and blogs with laments about what’s missing and what ‘should have been fixed’. In the end these subside: FileMaker gets the job done, and done very well indeed.

Advanced?
Power users of FileMaker will still want to go for the ‘Advanced’ version of the product: it has a script debugger, supports the creation of single-user standalone databases and has a custom function editor. In some ways this actually makes the data easier to work with. So for ‘Advanced’ read ‘Enhanced’ but without any implication that the non-’Advanced’ FileMaker Pro 10 is in any way to be looked down upon.

This review concentrates on what’s new in FileMaker Pro 10. This means a closer look at four areas, which are by now quite familiar to FileMaker users since they have been the main areas for change and improvement in recent upgrades:

* interface: it’s much improved
* connectivity and interaction with other systems: further deepened and widened
* reporting: streamlined and made more flexible
* for developers: new functionality – scripting and functions in particular

Detractors may well say that the totality of what’s offered in FileMaker Pro 10 either constitutes nothing more than a set of minor tweaks, list all the things the software does not do, or complain that some of the changes are overdue.

Yet when you have a great product in the first place, and one which is so stable as not to need updating and patching every other week, and when you are as responsive to improvements that the actual users of FileMaker want as FileMaker Inc. is, it’s quite legitimate to version the product as the company is doing this time (and in recent releases). This is a release that existing users should certainly buy and is comprehensive enough for those users new to FileMaker not to regret an upwards or sideways move from competitor products.

Let’s look at what’s new and improved.

Interface
The interface has been redesigned completely. That was long overdue. Previous versions looked quite outdated and crude compared with most other Apple applications. This is a vast improvement. The changes are mostly for ergonomic reasons (fewer and more memorable clicks and sequences). At first it may take a little getting used to. But it emerges quite quickly that those buttons in the new, fully customizable, Status toolbar at the top of each window (to cancel a find, to show all, for example) are the ones that are the most needed.

This horizontal Status bar has elegant, understated yet communicative icons representing much of what used to be lined up vertically on the left. Tooltips (descriptive text that appears when users move the pointer over layout objects) help until you get used to these. In the files area there is also a magnifying glass icon to indicate each field that you can use to search on. You can now also add your own tooltips in Browse or Find modes.

Very usefully, you can save your finds: often performed searches such as the number of sales made in the ‘past week’, or the percentage of users’ with last names between A and K who still owe you money after two months can be always to hand ready to re-run. A real boon!

This fresh look, which matches the way many browsers and other productivity suites look, also applies to the 30 Starter Solutions in the new FileMaker Pro 10. There are 10 new themes with pre-defined colors and fonts. Your forms can take on more of a professional look if you have neither the time nor skills to design them yourself. A new ‘Resource Center’ contains multiple well-constructed video tutorials on the new and familiar features. An ‘anomaly’ with tab-setting has also been fixed.

Scripting: the ‘Manage Scripts’ feature (formerly ‘ScriptMaker’) is now used to display a default script that can serve as a template for a script of your own; the area will also provide feedback on whether individual script steps are supported in each area of FileMaker use. There has also been a small but significant fix: the ‘Manage Scripts’ dialog box no longer opens in a maximized state when the FileMaker Pro 10 window is maximized.

In Browse mode, sorted records stay sorted such that a new added record immediately and automatically occupies its rightful place in the sort. Sub-summary reports can also now be viewed in Browse mode.

If you spend more than a few minutes a day in FileMaker, these changes – not revolutionary, but very pleasing, contemporary and plush – are bound to enhance your experience.

Outward-looking
With FileMaker Pro 10 you can now create databases from existing Excel or Bento 2 files. Bento is FileMaker’s ‘consumer-level’ database product more in the spirit of iWork than FileMaker Pro. Many users run either parallel databases, dual sets of data, or need to migrate between them. To have made Bento’s files available to FileMaker from within the latter is a good move that will benefit each user base. Significantly, since Bento can natively and directly read other Mac OS data sets such as that of Address Book, so now FileMaker Pro 10 has direct access to those without third party plug-ins.

Similarly those who use Excel can migrate up to FileMaker with ease. Since version 8, FileMaker has been able to export to a .xls format. Now it can convert the other way. In each case, too, the New Layout/Report assistant speeds up the relevant process.

SMTP: FileMaker Pro 10 now supports inbuilt emailing via SMTP such that you don’t have to leave it for Mail (or another dedicated email client) to send personalized mail. If FileMaker is being used as the back-end for a website, you could script an automated and customized response to incoming orders/inquiries, for example. Most FileMaker Pro 10 dialog boxes with IPv4 addresses also ask for IPv6 addresses.

Additional External SQL Sources (ESS): support has been added for SQL tables in – among others – Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Oracle 11g, and MySQL 5.1 Community Edition. This is another trend in recent releases of FileMaker. However good the software is, it is sometimes necessary to use data from other systems. That heavyweights like the latest version of Oracle are included is all to the good.

Recovery: it’s rare that FileMaker fails. (The product performed impeccably throughout testing for this review.) But if it does, data integrity is suddenly your priority. In FileMaker Pro 10 you cannot only check possibly corrupt files for consistency, but also identify specific components for recovery. Significantly, you can also inspect files’ statuses and a detailed log both during and after the recovery process.

In a mixed environment you can now remotely deploy FileMaker Pro to multiple Windows users’ desktops rather than installing it on each user’s workstation individually.

Reporting
Dynamic: FileMaker Pro 10 has introduced a dynamic reporting capability… in List or Table View any changes that you make to your grouped data appear in real time: as if in a ‘Smart View’, any and all changes made to a record include or exclude it in or from the data set you’re viewing immediately. This is one of those changes that will quickly make you wonder how you managed without it: overdue and very welcome.

Similarly, you can modify Table View on the fly; previously you would have had to switch to Layout View. Now the Modify button (top right) shows a list of fields; deselect those you no longer need in that particular layout. FileMaker has anticipated the scope for accidental or ‘honest’ user errors: this ability to modify is absent from Form View. Again, almost essential for seamlessly presenting data.

Not of huge value but nice is the newly introduced (optional) pie-chart that indicates the proportions of found and not-found records during searching. This will be a useful ‘sanity check’, for example, when you work with a data set regularly and know its size: you can now be sure you haven’t inadvertently searched for something in a subset.

None of this is earth-shattering. But most of these changes will make use day in and out easier. Repeated tasks, checking, using FileMaker at the hub of a net with significantly extended functionality are things that users have asked for. And here they are. They’re also the kind of enhancements to workflow which are quick to assimilate, and become second nature to the regular user.

Developers
Script Triggers: rather like a spreadsheet macro, you can now specify that a FileMaker script run whenever users perform a certain action in Browse or Find Modes; these might include clicking in a field, or swapping modes, for example. There are five object-based and seven layout-based Script Triggers in this release. When planned carefully, this feature now allows developers to have (non specialist) users perform all kinds of calculations, sorts – printing even – without having to initiate them with a button. These can be timed (scheduled) too.

There are also fixes: the latest error is no longer lost in control script stepping; and new scripts and steps: to run a script at the specified interval; to open and/or edit Saved Finds; and one to let you use a calculation to dynamically specify a field name instead of having to specify each possible field name in an if-else construction; and improved script printing.

The following functions are new too: Char(number), Code(text), GetFieldName(field), Get(DocumentsPathListing), Get(DocumentsPath), Get(TriggerKeystroke), Get(TriggerModifierKeys). Again, nothing spectacular. But they represent ways to deepen the capabilities of the product.

Conclusions
Watching the FileMaker Pro 10 installer run through over 10,000 files, it’s tempting to wonder just how much of a difference this upgrade – and a minimum cost of almost $200 – is going to make. On first use of the software, it is equally tempting to think, "Not much".

But then – slowly and pleasingly – the power, sophistication and flexibility of FileMaker Pro 10 becomes both apparent and welcome. Then nigh indispensable.

The new interface; the ability to save search sets; ways in which extremely sophisticated applications can be made swiftly and reliably (scripting) and harnessed to real everyday uses (via an inbuilt SMTP client, for example); the ease with which field names can be manipulated and triggers controlled; the fact that other industry standard formats present even less of a challenge; the added comfort of enhanced (failure) diagnostics; the way updates increasingly happen on the fly; and the ways in which reports appear even more under your control.

All of these combine to make this an outwardly unspectacular update. But that’s misleading. It is a significant one that really builds on some of the advantages of Mac OS, responds to users’ wishes, makes their lives easier and – ultimately – represents a big step forward for end users. Recommended.

MyMac.com Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Pros: many precisely targeted and carefully conceived improvements and enhancements over FMP 9; clean new interface; robust; flexible; easy to use; well supported; huge, energetic developer community; integration with OS X and other OS X applications; improved integration with other industry-standard products

Cons: perhaps a little overpriced

email – MyMac Magazine – Twitter – Advertise – Reviews Archive – Podcast

ChronoSync 4
Company: Econ Technologies
Price: Single license: $40
Upgrade from version 3.n: free
Price of 3.n before release of version 4.0: $30
http://www.econtechnologies.com

System Requirements: Macintosh PowerPC™/Intel® G3 or better

The moment you start to use more than one computer is the moment when you should plan to keep any data that changes on one system synchronized (‘in sync’) with its counterpart on the other system(s).

To do this can be as simple as to overwrite older with newer files manually. But that’s neither an elegant nor an efficient way to avoid at best frustration and at worst the disaster of data loss. It’s likely, for example, that file ‘a’ on computer ‘x’ in may be changed independently of file ‘b’ on computer ‘y’. But both files may reside in the same parent directory on each machine.

It’s necessary to have a system in place to compare files one at a time on each system before working on that machine; to compare them according to multiple criteria of which you are in full control. An ideal system will then copy (or not) and correspondingly delete (or not) only the files which you want to be so synchronized (‘synced’); and in the right direction; and the system should report anything that doesn’t go exactly as predicted and/or desired; and it will offer you a variety of corrective measures. Better still if the sync can take place unattended and/or at variably scheduled times.

All of that is what Econ Technologies ChronoSync has been doing efficiently, elegantly and with great flexibility for almost every possible set of circumstances since 2002. Version 3 was released as long ago as March 2005. Now here is the latest – and certainly the greatest – version of this comprehensive market leader, ChronoSync 4.

Interface

The major change you will notice in ChronoSync 4 is to its interface. It’s sleeker, nicely toned down, and altogether more professional in appearance than was that of ChronoSync 3.

There’s no extraneous detail; menu options are placed in tabs, buttons and bars which are logically arranged, easy to find and to remember. The new interface has clearer graphics indicating the direction of the sync, for example, and such functions as ‘schedule’, ‘log’ and ‘options’. And all in a palette of quiet grays, whites and blues that are easy on the eye, softly fade from one to the other as needed – and really inspire confidence in what is – after all – a mission critical application: if mistakes are made, data can be lost. Being able to see what you are doing (or about to do) – and getting predictable, legible, comprehensible and yet sober feedback as things are set up, and then as syncs run, helps this. Admittedly you can set an option to archive any deletions. But it wouldn’t be long before mistakenly overwritten files can propagate over your two or more systems – and be lost, if you don’t attend to what’s about to happen (ChronoSync 4′s ‘Trial Sync’). So it’s as well that it’s all made as clear and unambiguous as it is. After a few monitored syncs, it really is safe to set it and forget it.

Just what counts as a ‘changed’ file is determined with almost infinite care. How and when to trigger a sync (which file attributes will mean it needs to be replaced or replace another one) and such nice touches as email notification and optional archiving of any files which ChronoSync replaces are all handled elegantly. The several clearly-explained options in each context are also simply annotated on-screen.

Rules

‘Rules’ make even greater granularity possible: there are three ‘Rules’ modes (‘Simple’, ‘Intermediate’ and ‘Advanced’). They control syncing by Filename, Extension, Size, Date/Time modification and FileType/Creator. It is hard to think of a single circumstance which cannot be catered for – not even to sync all Aperture libraries in ~/Pictures/temporary but not in ~/Pictures between 26 and 35 MB in size modified by a guest user within ten days of every second Thursday of the month and excluding all non-jpeg graphics files which begin with an ‘a’ or a ‘k’ in the same folders!

Documents

ChronoSync 4 continues to employ a document metaphor: you build, fine tune and save each sync operation typically by first navigating to your ‘left’ and ‘right’ (usually corresponding to source and target) directories. Most of the defaults can safely be accepted, though – as in previous versions of ChronoSync – you have a very large degree of control over error handling, reporting, exceptions (invisibles, packages, aliases, empty folders etc).

Most of your time after setting up your document(s), on which you can double-click to launch a ChronoSync session, will be spent in the tab still called ‘Setup’ because it’s from here that you invoke the sync itself; view the log (if necessary); see feedback; make temporary adjustments (to change the direction of the sync, for example, or force a sync from one direction to another if there should ever be a conflict – usually two files which have been independently updated); or perhaps to eject backup media immediately on completion.

Feedback is superb: you get multiple messages on readiness for syncing, progress, success (or failure) and during the processes necessary to set up a connection across a network where remote volumes need to be mounted, for example. In the case of conflicts and apparent anomalies, ChronoSync 4 again delivers superbly: isolate the files, examine just which of their properties clash and make an informed decision accordingly – for this sync only and/or all future such syncs. There is excellent inbuilt Help.

Pleasingly, individual ChronoSync 4 documents can be aggregated into ‘Containers’ which will then execute with as much control as you would ever want. You use a Container sequentially to run a series of individual sync documents. These are typically for different directories on the same pair (or more) of computers; or even on on a set of documents distributed across multiple directories on multiple computers. Again you have all the necessary control over how this works.

Documentation

Indeed, three-way syncing is just one of the more complex operations expertly explained in the thorough and clear documentation of three dozen or so pages that comes with the product.

You are also walked through some of the most likely user scenarios in the documentation; common errors and problems are also outlined and solutions suggested. Such issues as file permissions, dealing with the inevitable conflicts, connection over a network (which can be automatic and transparent – the new ChronoAgent may be employed here) and the commonest types of anomaly. ChronoSync 4 is particularly good at recognizing oddities and non standard situations, then dealing with them on the user’s terms – rather than by brute force.

Conclusion

It’s clear that after this amount of time evolving and refining software to accomplish all the quite complex syncing tasks which ChronoSync 4 does, it ought to be good at doing so. And so it is. Yet for the relatively modest price of $40. ChronoSync 4 is still far and away the most reliable, flexible and user-friendly application of its kind.

In fact, it may have more features and functionality than you need if all you want to do is bring backups of half a dozen directories to and from work via a thumb drive. In that case, though, the way ChronoSync 4 makes the features you actually need incrementally available (those options you do not need are context sensitive) will still serve you well. As you get to know the product, you may even find it can do things for you that you didn’t otherwise know you wanted to be done.

There are a couple of improvements that could be made – and may very well be forthcoming in future releases: it’s necessary to keep the ChronoSync 4 application itself at the root of your Applications directory. If you like to group such associated files for your apps as their documentation and .dmgs, should you ever need to reinstall them in a single directory, ChronoSync.app must reside outside this.

It’s not possible to sort on the various columns presented to you in a ‘Trial Sync’ report – it would be useful to group together, say, all the files in a large fileset that were about to be deleted, before doing so, or display together all files going in any one direction. But these are truly minor points and do not interfere with the smooth and utterly reliable operation of ChronoSync 4.

It almost goes without saying that performance during testing for this review was exemplary; that the explanations given by Econ Technology staff when queries did arise were dealt with plainly and effectively; that the product just just what it claims to do in every way – reliably, quickly and consistently. And – importantly, for setting up and maintaing this kind of software is more of a chore than an act of primary creation for many people – becomes, if not enjoyable, easy, manageable and familiar. Recommended without hesitation.

Overall

Pros: Extremely versatile. Utterly robust. Comprehensive functionality for almost all conceivable syncing situations and environments. Very pleasing interface for such a potentially ‘mechanical’ application. Yet easy to use with well thought-out menu structures, tabbing and choice of interfaces.

Cons: ChronoSync is so full of features that it may appear intimidating at first; inexperienced users may find setup and fine-tuning the options time-consuming.

MyMac.com Rating: 4.5 out of 5

email – MyMac Magazine – Twitter – Advertise – Reviews Archive – Podcast

Bento
Company: FileMaker, Inc.
Price: Single license: $49; Family Pack: $99
http://www.filemaker.com

System Requirements:
Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 processor, at least 867 MHz
512MB of RAM; 1GB recommended
CD drive required for installation of the boxed product; download (109 MB) also available

Bento was released by the makers of FileMaker Pro with a very specific purpose. Interestingly, Bento was the name given to a layer in Apple’s visionary OpenDoc architecture launched with System 7.5 in the mid 1990s.

Bento is a personal (as opposed to “enterprise” or networked) database that’s meant to be as easy to use as the Mac itself. It has a carefully-identified set of features. These run parallel to those of iWork’s Pages and Numbers. It could have been called i(Data)Base to aim at a comparable niche in the market. Bento complements Pages and Numbers nicely. The criticisms that some users (and reviewers) leveled at Bento, that it lacked, for example, scripting, Automator and network support, miss the point. It was never intended for those sorts of uses – or those types of users; look at FileMaker Pro for such extended power.

Bento was specifically designed and released without such features in order to concentrate on the less-experienced consumer and SOHO user. Some missing areas of functionality might be useful to the non-specialist user. On the whole, though, the balance between price and feature set, not to mention features, means that Bento can be safely recommended.

Bento is designed to accomplish everyday tasks using a pleasing and straightforward template-based interface The very fact that it is simple, has only one window, and just the right number and design of a few uncluttered menus adds to its accessibility and effectiveness as a flexible and powerful tool.

It only takes a quick glance at the lively, comprehensive and very well supported and moderated Bento forum to see how easy it is to achieve sophisticated date calculations and many-to-many implementation; Bento’s apparent simplicity can be deceptive. Bento Users is another useful site. The documentation that comes with the product is excellent.

Everyday
FileMaker has compiled a list of some of the more likely projects that Bento can handle. These include:

• what FileMaker, Inc. calls “virtually unlimited” contact details
• coordinating events, parties, and fundraisers
• tracking projects, assignments, and deadlines
• prioritizing tasks; Bento has been used successfully in a Getting Things Done task management context
• inventories, donations, and items for sale
• track hours worked, payments due, invoicing
• rate service providers and sellers
• libraries for music, movies, and media
• store files and photos related to projects and events

and, rather cryptically, since this ought to be part of any good data model:

• connect related information together to see more details.

There are ample standalone products to achieve many of these tasks – Project Managers like OmniPlan and task management – the same company’s OmniFocus. Bruji’s outstanding BookPedia and CDPedia. There are dedicated time management and billing/invoice suites like TimeNet Pro – though none without some flaw; and iPhoto, Address Book and iCal themselves, with the last two of which Bento integrates closely.

It is what it is
So the criteria for MyMac’s evaluation must not be, What’s missing from Bento? Rather, how well does this reasonably-priced and robust Leopard-only product do what it’s been designed to do?

First and foremost, then, is a courageous – and largely successful – attempt to make database design and management accessible to those who are not specialists or experts in such software, but who still have demanding needs such as some of those just mentioned.

Bento’s main window consists of three panes:

The leftmost pane is the Source List of all your data Libraries. Libraries are Bento’s top organizational level – like iPhoto 7′s “Events.” One Bento Library is for one set of data or project. Under these in the Source List are Bento’s Collections; these are like iTunes’ Playlists – subsets of the data in the Libraries. Then Smart Collections behave just as you would expect: they’re Views updated in real time and as your filter criteria – or the records that matches them – change. You might, for example, want to create a Smart Collection of all unpaid invoices – as they get paid, they disappear; or of all unsold artifacts in a craft store – as they are sold, they disappear.

The records area is in the middle and is the largest pane. Data can be presented as a form (an individual record) or table of as many records as will fit into the space. You can have more than one form for any Library (each may display different fields – in different orders). This is emphasis on the user experience again; it drives the way you work. Each view is satisfactorily editable – columns can be dragged horizontally for display; you can chose which you will view too. The principles, of course, are analogous to those in FileMaker’s “Align” routines and fit well with the sophisticated controls that Bento offers.

The Associated fields list for each Library is on the right. Fields are created here and dragged and dropped onto the Records area. There are only three attributes for each. There is also control over how many of these three panes will appear – you can focus on what you’re doing.

This is a familiar interface; and it preserves the metaphors for data handling on which Bento rests. Similarly, searching, sorting, and summaries are all swift and intuitive. Searching can be very sophisticated and saved as a Smart Collection.

Note, though, that this means that there’s no concept of separate datastores in Bento. All the data which you use Bento to maintain is managed in one place. You can still share Libraries with other users. Yet if you organize your data according to “domains” within your life (household, work, hobbies, friends, you may find it a disadvantage to access it all in and from one place by launching the Bento application itself as opposed to separately-located data files. On the other hand, this is very much in keeping with current Mac practice: it is the way that iCal, iPhoto, iTunes, iWeb (though not Pages or Numbers) all work. More evidence of the perceived target audience; for them it is assumed the task in hand is more important than file names, file management.

Data Types
Given these intentional restrictions, the substantial variety of data types (nineteen of them) which Bento handles is impressive: basic text, numbers, dates, drop-downs, Booleans, graphics, sounds, movies, ratings, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses and more. There’s also a FileMaker-like calculation field which can, for example, concatenate text and multiple fields values as well as perform simple mathematical operations. Inevitably there will be some function missing for someone, but on the whole it’s comprehensive – and very easy to use.

Templates
For all its transparency, Bento is not a glorified Wizard. Fields can be controlled – use drag and drop. Fields are rearranged and resized with the mouse – usual Mac style. Some positioning and alignment of text is possible using a toolbar – though probably less than most people will come to want: five text sizes, no choice of fonts. One of the biggest hurdles that the marketing of Bento has to overcome is to make it plain that these are flexible means to an end – although the (new) user’s first contact with the program will be the 20 templates that come with the software. These templates are shells; they are not one and the same as the data which they are used to present. If the designers of Bento have understood just what it is that a majority of users want in terms of the payoff between interface and ease of use as opposed to in depth functionality, then they have surely got a winner on their hands. The number of downloads (a quarter of a million) in the first few months since Bento became available suggests that is the case.

Address Book and iCal integration
By default Bento has Libraries for contacts, events, and tasks. These are the same as those in Leopard’s Address Book and iCal; they are not synched. Although these Libraries can be removed – “Disconnected” – from Bento in its “Home” menu, to do so is to lose access to those applications’ data. What’s more, to edit in Bento – or worse delete – data that’s derived from Address Book and iCal is to lose it directly from those same applications actually outside the Bento environment. Integration is tight: you could drag and drop a set of contacts from the Address Book Library right into Bento’s Source list to create a Collection. This “disconnection” could usefully be supplemented by a preference letting you work from a duplicate and/or advising you that you could conceivably lose permanently (unless backed up) data of which you might have thought you were only working on a copy.

Import-Export
Bento supports only CSV (Comma Separated Value) for import and export of data, although there are ways aplenty to convert that after or before the fact. So that’s a limitation only inasmuch as you may need another utility and two steps. The importer is drag-and-drop then Wizard-based and worked very well in testing. The Wizard asks which values from the file to be imported should correspond with which fields in Bento.

Relations
The way that Bento handles relations – the fields in other tables whose data you need to appear in the current one – is one of the program’s main limitations: it’s not a conventional relational database. But, again, it’s an approach designed to give the greatest likely desired power with the simplest steps.

In your “local” Library you create a field of type “Related Records List”; then you indicate from which Library you want to use data. Dropping that field on your form displays a small empty table corresponding to the “remote” Library. You click the “Add related records from a list” icon at the bottom of the inset table to see actual data. Bento displays the corresponding list of records from the associated library. Changing records in the one changes them in the other. Deleting a record in the “local” Library only deletes it only from the Related Records List (the “local” dataset) and not from the associated Library. This more closely follows the practice of removing a record from a Smart Folder, Collection or Playlist. It’s a way of preventing mistakes – although not entirely logical, until you’re used to it. It’s also another example of ease of use; accessibility takes precedence. Note, too though, that Smart Collections cannot include data from related tables. That may be a significant restriction for some.

What is likely to be a real drawback, though, is the fact that by “Related Records” Bento means essentially a “Portal” to all the records in the “remote” Library. There is no concept of a “Join” using Primary and Foreign Keys. This means that you cannot be selective in the way you relate and view such records.

Conclusions
Bento is a package. A compromise. MyMac’s advice is that – after reading this review – you match what it can do against your needs. Almost certainly you may have requirements which Bento seems unable to meet. But look closely. Sure, its interface is user-friendly – and more important, perhaps, Bento itself is easy to use. But this doesn’t mean it’s in any way crippled and “less than” comparable databases of this level of complexity – relational features aside.

It’s much closer to Pages, Numbers, iPhoto, iTunes in feel and scope than it is to FileMaker. But prolonged use for this review has revealed that Bento can easily be made to do more than might be apparent even from glancing familiarity with the delightful sophistication of the interface.

Given some of the things that Bento can do, there’s a remarkably high ratio between effort and result. Whether or not it’s for you will depend firstly on whether you have Leopard. Then on your data handling requirements: total size of data set, complexity of relations and perhaps the way (or whether) you use iCal and Address Book. Then you should decide whether one of the absent features (scripting, full control over template fonts, a missing calculation, say) rules it out.

For many users the extremely pleasing appearance of Bento will be a winner. How nice to be able to work in a fully Mac-like environment using an inventory of – car parts.

A balance has been struck: users with complex, evolving and intricately relational databases may still be best with FileMaker Pro. Those for whom the lure of an elegant user interface is important and/or who want a direct equivalent of Numbers, Pages and iPhoto/iTunes and/or seamless integration with iCal and Address Book should look seriously at Bento. Download the trial, use it carefully and draw on the many sources of online help, remember its very reasonable price, decide whether you’ll be able to make Bento do a variety of things for you larger than the dedicated software mentioned at the beginning of this review can do – and see!

Pros: the interface – it’s good-looking, simple and easy to use; many data types supported; integration with Address Book and iCal; templates work with many types of file; works with iPhone and .Mac

Cons: the interface – the changes you can make to its appearance are somewhat limited; poor relational capabilities; mass updates to records not supported

MyMac.com Rating: 4 out of 5

email – MyMac Magazine – Twitter – Advertise – Reviews Archive – Podcast