FileMaker announces widgets, Automator actions
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jun 6, 2005 at 7:44am
As Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference opens today, FileMaker has announced the immediate availability of the new FileMaker Datagraph Widget, a Mac OS X 10.4 (“Tiger”) feature that provides bar graph views of FileMaker Pro based data via the new Tiger Dashboard.
The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple, also announced a set of new FileMaker Automator Actions for use by FileMaker users and developers to create a workflow of FileMaker scripts. FileMaker is introducing both FileMaker Datagraph and FileMaker Automator Actions as Technology Previews now available here.
FileMaker Datagraph Widge lets Tiger users get bar graph views (up to five bars based on up to five fields of data) of their database records. For example, a tech support manager can instantly check on customer service call transactions in real time. With a glance at the FileMaker Datagraph bar graph on the Tiger Dashboard, an Accounts Payable clerk can immediately see the status of paid or unpaid invoices.
The FileMaker Automator Actions allow a FileMaker 7 user to create custom workflows by dragging items from the Automator Actions Library to the Automator window. A set of Automator Actions based on common FileMaker scripts (such as Perform Script, Show All Records, Close Database, etc.) are provided. Publish to InDesign Pict Frames and Publish to InDesign Text Frames Automator Actions are also offered to simplify exporting data to Adobe’s InDesign Creative Suite design and publishing environment. Once a Workflow is created it can be saved for subsequent access or modification.
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
