FileMaker Pro 9, the best database program for Mac users, comes with some fantastic new programming features and some nice new features for those who use FileMaker databases created by someone else. If you do not have FM Pro, this review may make you want to run out and purchase it. If you have FM Pro and write databases with it, you probably will want to run out and purchase it. If you have FM Pro and use it to work with databases created by others, well, you may or may not be motivated to purchase the new version. And, if you upgrade to Leopard, you may have to upgrade, which is a whole different issue.

One of the most powerful productivity tools for OS X, and DEVONthink Professional Office adds email archiving, OCR, scanner, and Web sharing support

Many years ago, you purchased Acrobat so you could create your own PDF documents. For a number of versions now, Acrobat has been so much more than "just a PDF creator" that it's hard to pin down what it is and/or should be called. I think that Acrobat 8 could be called Office 8, but that would be ignoring all of the print features built into Acrobat. And if you called it Print 8, you'd be ignoring all of the legal features within Acrobat. If you called it Legal 8, you'd be ignoring the document reviewing features, etc. But despite all of what Acrobat 8 Professional is called, the obvious question is "does Acrobat 8 provides what you don't have in Acrobat 7?" Acrobat 8 has some very nifty and great features, and there is a lot that Acrobat 8 offers if you can get past the new user interface...which is dreadful.

DEVONthink Professional adds email archiving, OCR, scanner, and Web sharing support - a major update well worth having

The king of the hill in personal computer database programs gets some powerful new features

It's time to unshackle the chains that bind you. Well, at least you can now leave your computer when making a Keynote or PowerPoint presentation. With a stated working distance of 60 feet, the Keyspan Easy Presenter lets you run the controls of your personation and provides a pointing laser. While the new Keyspan Easy Presenter is not perfect, it is inexpensive and it works.

Over the 20 some-odd years that FileMaker has been around, there has been perhaps a handful worth of fingers of major upgrades. FileMaker 3 was one, FileMaker 7 was the latest. While there is little change to the internal database creation and/or design structure, the changes in FileMaker 8 are extensive and broad. FileMaker 8's main goal is to improve user productivity.

With FileMaker Pro 7 Developer, FileMaker is proving to supply the professional database designer with superb tools needed to create powerful database solutions in an efficient manner. My only complaint is the documentation. FileMaker should not be so dependent upon 3rd party books, support services and outside help. This update to the Developer version of FileMaker is as good as the update to the regular version of FileMaker.

A cool Cocoa database for organizing your stuff

A personal memory manager on your Mac

As mentioned in my review of FileMaker 6, that was the last version of FileMaker that would run in Mac OS 9. If you have no plans to upgrade to OS X and are happy using FileMaker 6 in Mac OS 9, you might want to stop reading now. On the other hand, if you've enjoyed using FileMaker 6 in OS X and want to enjoy the new features of FileMaker 7, get ready for a treat. You will be mostly glad you did, as this new version of FileMaker has the most user-level benefits in a long time. This is one of the best FileMaker upgrades for the general user since FileMaker went relational.

Do-it-yourself business card creation program is slick, intuitive, easy, and fun to use