Request for Help from Fans of Filemaker Pro

[jcogie@siu.edu (Jane Cogie)]

To Any and All Filemaker Pro Users:

I recently persuaded my department to purchase Filemaker Pro to help us run
a more efficient data base (We had been using the old Apple IIe database
program on floppies--definitely an adequate program for its era.). And I
seem to recall that back last spring several people on Wcenter talked about
Filemaker Pro in glowing terms.  So I am hoping that someone out there will
be able to answer one question we have now that we have data entered.

We are having trouble finding out whether and how Filemaker Pro will
provide totals for non-numerical fields, such as the student's current
course or professor.  In other words, will it calculate the number of
English 101 entries we have (under the field "Student's Current Writing
Course"--or the number of students referred by one instructor (field:
Student's Instructor)--even though the heading for both fields is not
numerical?  And if it will, how does one persuade it to do so?

I'd appreciate any help you might be willing to give me on these questions.
Making one's life easier with technology can sometimes be hard.

Jane Cogie

Jane Cogie
Director of the Writing Center
Department of English
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Carbondale, Il 62901-4503
Work phone: (618) 453-6863
E-mail: jcogie@siu.edu