April 12, 2012 
The @ symbol used in email addresses has a use in FileMaker that predates email. FileMaker started using this symbol as a wildcard to search for missing characters. For instance if you were looking for something that ends in ‘smith’, you could search for @smith, which would bring up silversmith and goldsmith etc. Apparently, database guys are old school and not into changing things just because the whole World Wide Web thing came along.
Workarounds
For example, if you were searching for the email address: joe.blow@idaho.com, here are four different methods to use to find the record you are looking for:
- Field Contents Match search uses the double equal sign: ==joeblow@idaho.com
- Use a Space where the @ symbol would go: joeblow idaho.com
- Using the Literal Text search, put quotes around the email address: “joeblow@idaho.com”
- Escape the @symbol like this: joeblow\@idaho.com
Thanks to Six Fried Rice blog for suggesting these different methods.
Related Articles:
Macworld Article: When and why to use group email services
MailChimp Integration with FileMaker Pro – Part 1 of 3
HomeBase Software 
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