If the skills required on either of these are daunting, you’ll probably end up with the second method, which is to use one of the Web services companies that are geared towards sharing spreadsheets and tabular data. Here is an example of one of the screens that shows you the kind of programming you need to understand for Alpha Five: But it has a high entry cost in terms of skills and may be more than you want to deal with. This method has the advantage that you are running a real database program and has the most flexibility. Here is a link to a series of video tutorials on how to do this with Alpha Five.) You will also have to learn their programming language and be comfortable with how they produce reports. ( PointInSpace is one provider that offers a Filemaker Pro hosting account for $40 a month, and ZebraHost offers Alpha Five hosting starting at $30 a month. Until the day comes when three people are working on the same spreadsheet or database and make conflicting changes.įor both products, you will need to make use of a hosted Windows or Mac machine at your Internet provider or else have some other means of connecting the machine that you run your database on to the Internet. And since most of us are comfortable with email, using it as the transportation system isn’t all that taxing.

Look at how many people still use Lotus Notes for email and not much else. Second, the database collaboration tools are tough to learn and use. Tables are more than many people – especially those who don’t have a lot of formal IT training - want to deal with. A spreadsheet is usually contained on a single screen, so it is easy for someone to figure out its logic, and the grid of rows and columns is also easier than the typical relational database with a series of tables. While this isn’t the best method, it has withstood more sophisticated competition for several reasons:įirst, databases are still tricky for some people to understand, and spreadsheets are more obvious.

In the past, the easiest way to share a small database was to create a spreadsheet and email it to your collaborators. If you are part of a business, sooner or later you want to be able to collaborate on a database with a colleague or customer.

How to share a filemaker pro database