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FileMaker 14 introduced a new layout object called a Button Bar. It’s essentially a wrapper around multiple buttons which can be used as either a conventional button or a popover menu.

The great thing about button bars is they respect a hierarchy. If you hide the whole Button Bar, then nothing shows. If you hide just one segment, which is what one individual button within the bar is called, then the bar will retain its size and simply not show the given segment.

All button segments have style properties for icons, text and allow you to use Conditional Formatting. When combined with the ability to hide/show whole bars, or any given segment, you can use Button Bars for more than just, well, a Button Bar.

So what to do with this knowledge? How about create a very flexible and portable user notification technique. That’s what this video is about. Using Button Bars creatively in order to provide user feedback within the user interface.