Frequently Asked Questions

Answers To Commonly Asked Questions About How To Deploy And/Or Use Our Tools

I keep on hearing the terms ||Run-Time|| and ||FileMaker Powered|| being mentioned. What do they mean?

Simply speaking a 360 Difference “Run-Time” solution has a FileMaker engine built in to the program whereas our “FileMaker Powered” solutions require a separate license of the application of FileMaker Pro to run.

While basically the same there are just a few limitations to our “Run-Time” solutions:

First of all they are single user only and are not networkable at all. If you need to allow multiple users to share access to the database system across either a peer to peer or LAN or WAN you will the FileMaker powered versions of our programs
While they can create Filemaker print out reports if you want those reports as PDFs to email to clients and associates you can’t automatically create and the file PDFs from within the 360 Difference application. Run-time user need to go to the print window and click save as a PDF on a Mac or use a utility program to create the PDF on a Windows machine

What is iOS?

iOS is the short name for Apple’s mobile operating system that they use to run applications on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad (and Apple TV too). (for more information try : iOS (Apple)—WikiPedia)

Why wont my 360 Difference Windows Run-Time solutions run on my iPad?

Unfortunately the Windows version of the FileMaker Run-Time engine is not iOS compatible whereas the Mac Run-Time engine is. If you need to move your program back and forth between your Windows desktop or laptop and an iPad you will need to use a FileMaker Powered version of your 360 Difference application.

If I purchase a 360 Difference Runtime application now what will it cost me to upgrade to the FileMaker powered version sometime in the future is I decide I want those additional features? ( the ability to create Adobe® PDF or Microsoft® Excel files)

At the present time the 360 Difference portion of the upgrade if FREE. You will have to make arrangements with us to move your data over into the new system but even that service is free.

You would obviously however need to purchase a copy of FileMaker Pro 11 to power it. Typically you can purchase FileMaker Pro from Amazon our Amazon Store for around $265 to $275 but making the 360 Difference switch is free and we’ve made it like that to help encourage the switch. We think the PDF and Excel creation capabilities are well worth it plus there are other FileMaker powered solutions that come from FileMaker Inc as well as many other 3rd party vendors that businesses will find very useful. Visit Made For FileMaker to see some of what’s available out there.

Will 360 Difference run on an Android Tablet?

YES. as of FileMaker 14 using FileMakers Web Direct you can now run 360 Difference as a web based application in a browser on an Android device.

There are some limitations however

You can’t use rich text styles in fields.
There is no table view available for viewing your data
There is no support for using multiple windows
The is no Preview mode available to view reports before printing
You cannot importing data from External Data Sources (Bento, XML, ODBC)
Charting is limited
Single Sign-On (SSO) is not available
Using the keyboard arrow keys to navigate checkbox and radio button sets is not available

If that is something that interests you please contact us and we can talk about what it would take for us to get that up and running for you.

Are there any tutorials on how to use 360 Difference?

The 360 Difference help system with tutorials is being completely revised since the whole 360 Difference data structure and look and feel are being updated to utilize the tools and features that the latest versions of FileMaker are giving us as developers. Until such time basic instructional support on how to use the program is provided FREE using either GoToMeeting or Fuze meeting software and in fact one of the things we do is we create video recording of our training sessions and then give them to you so you have something to refer back to and also we then use those sessions to help us write the scripts for the tutorial system we are creating. We expect to start publishing our tutorials on our support site and on YouTube sometime in the winter of 2017. If you have something in particular you would like to see please contact us because we are always interested in your feedback and advice.

What is the difference between Cloud-Based and Web-Based?

The truth is they are incredibly similar and often the terms are used interchangeably but one might argue that the difference while subtle is important.

Cloud Based means the software is operating off of a remotely hosted server either your company’s hardware that is co-located in a off-site server farm or on a server provided and maintained by a third party vendor (we often use and recommend Point In Space FileMaker Cloud Hosting) .

A Web-Hosted application resides and works off of your own in-house on-premises server and network and can be accessed remotely from the field via an internet connection through a web-browser.