Calculation Engine (Define Fields)

I am creating a ledger-like environment to enter fees that our clients accrue. I not only want to keep track of their credits & debits, but also keep a running balance. I was thinking maybe I could create a global that keeps the previous balance in mind and add it to the current balance, but before I knew it, I was lost. If you have any ideas, please let me know. Thanks! KC

Strange, I've been trying to store a calculation(to create a relationship) that looks like: field 1 &"_"& field 2 &"_"& field 3 All fields are number fields and indexed. A similar calculation: field 1 &"_"& field 2 stores without any trouble. Filemaker allows me to check the "indexing on" button. Even mentions that it's indexed but when I open the define fields dialog box after closing it, the indexing is gone. Field 3 is a number field with a calculated result that's being inserted. Does anybody know what's happening here? I'm working with fm5. Thanks for reading and eventually answering my question. Mich

OK, ppl. I know I must be doing something stupid because this is just not working. I am building a ledger-like layout so that the company I am consulting for can interact with a computerized billing system. Anyway, it was moving along realy well, until I reached the weirdest situation... one I originally thought would be cake. Before getting into the situation itself, let me first explain a bit about the files I am working with: In this one db called Ledger 2002, I have many fields, two of which must be created so that they interact with each other: Date of Fee - Date field.<br><br> Billing Cycle - Calc field. This field is related to ano…

I am having a problem creating a mailing list. Can anyone tell me how to ensure that when entering a record that it is unique. I have set up a text field to be calculated. This is "Title & Sirname & address1 & Address2 etc" I have also set the options that this field should be unique. My problem is when I enter two records with the same details nothing happens???

Hello! I've recently posted this problem a couple of times on comp.databases.filemaker, but haven't figured out a solution yet. I have a mailing list database. Two related files: "household" and "dancers". The mailing address is in the household file, individuals are in the "dancers" file. Each household is related to one or more individuals. Now, I want to create mailing labels and send only one letter to each household. However, I wish to list the names of all of the individuals in the household on the mailing label as well, like this: Bev Jones and John Smith 123 Maple St. Toronto ON etc. or Bev Jones, John Smith and Sharon Smith 123 Maple St.…

I have a Repeating Field that has 10 repetitions. I would like to has a calc that enters numbers into the field. I have a script that does it but I need this calc for Lasso. here is what I want to enter: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 each digit goes into each repetition. IS there a way to enter like this? "1", GetRepetition(fieldname, 1), "2", GetRepetition(fieldname, 2), "3", GetRepetition(fieldname, 3)

Hello, I have a question. Is there any way to either have a field validated by a script, or else to have the normal validation trigger a script if the field is invalid? Here's the situation: My users enter a phone number into a field, it is then validated to make sure the dashes are in the right place, and the area code exists in a seperate DB of valid area codes. Now, if the dashes aren't there, it should tell them to reformat the number, and not let them have the data they entered. If the Area code is not recognized, it should give them a choice, to reenter it, to add the area code to the dictionary or override the problem. Thoughts?

How do you calculate the sum of all repetitions of a repeating field? Yes I know repeating fields are a bad way to go... I'm just trying to make a simple modification to an existing database which happens to use repeating fields. Thanks!

I have a calculation field in which I have: ID & "Management". I also have a calculation field: ID & "Employee". I use these to find all contacts belonging to either the Management or the Employee group. But I also want to be able to find both. How do you combine the calculation so that it picks up both Management and Employees.

Hello, I am working on a fairly complex events calendar where I am using complex compound keys. One of the keys I need however needs to be the combination of two fields, regardless of the number of keys in each field. For example: alphaField: A B NumberField: 1 2 CombinedKey that should result from calculation: A1 A2 B1 B2 however, substitutions will not beable to get all combinations possible. For example, I can get A1 2 B1 2 If worst comes to worst, I will have a script generate the key but I rather have it more automatic. If anyone else has dealt with the same problem I would love their input…

Is there a way to maybe click a "Clear Fields" button to clear ALL fields (that have been typed in) on a record? I guess this might be some sort of a script or calculation. thanks, Harry

Is there a way wherein you can make Filemaker to automatically play a .wav file even without pressing any "field" or button? As if it was invoked to do so... (i.e. when no key is pressed or idle for a certain time?) O/s: Windows 2000

I have a database to track work requests. In the database, I have a calculation field named

Hello, I have a database called document inventory (our document management system). I'm working on Windows, using FMP 6.0 (FMP 5.0 server) in a multi-client environment. I am attaching word files into container fields, and all works well to retrieve these documents, except that the security access saved with the word file (requiring password to edit, or open as a read-only file) seems to be disregarded when the document file is opened through FMP. Does anyone know what else I should be doing? I have experimented with both "linking" it and not, and either way seems to disregard the word security access I already saved in Word with the file. Thanks in adva…

Quick question: is there any way to change the clock settings on FMP. Here's the problem: the business I work in has a day starting at 6:00 am and ending at 5:59am on what would technicaly be the following day. Is there a way to format the database so that it recognizes this as the normal day (as opposed to the normal 12 to 12 day). I don't know if this needs to be a script or what. Any help would be greatful? thanks, jack

I have a DB of product names that are entered by about 15 users. In trying to standardize on the look of the names, we would like them to always be in all caps. I was in good shape when everyone was using FM clients, because I could set the fields to display all caps. We have now branched out to the web and the names are being displayed exactly entered. Some caps, some not. Is there any known way to store the product names as all caps within the database?

O/S: Windows 2000 [Arabic enabled] FileMaker Pro 4.0 Running my program to Windows 2000-ARABIC ENABLED, I get "garbaged letters" on the date format when I use the SET SYSTEM DATE [ON]... I would like to know is there any "fix" to this or is there any font or any support for this. Date format dd/MMM/yr

How do you set up a calculation to show

I know that I am going to feel very foolish when I get the answer to this one but I am trying to create a sales entry system. Quite simply my relationships seem to be OK as I have lookups that work in a portal. But one of these will not work. It is driving me crazy!! It is a simple =field value calculation from the same database. Can anyone tell me why it isn't working!

Debated over where to post this topic, but since it covers fields, what kind to make and where, I have put it here. Situation is: FileMaker Server 5.5, clients using FM5. A mailorder system is being developed, the files concerned here are the invoicing files, header and lines and the product file. My employers want to offer some of the items in our catalog on sale. Like "buy 4 or more of this item get it for this reduced price." I have placed fields in the Product file, Sale field: toggles between Yes or No to set the item on sale or not. Sell Number field is a number field which determines the number of the item they must buy to qualify for the sale price. And Sale Price…

Okay, Here

I am using fp5 in Australia. I have a db for creating court documents. The documents contain various dollar amounts eg a court filing fee to commence a court claim and a court fee to get judgment. The dollar amounts vary depending on the amount of the claim eg: Range 1 = amount in dispute 0 -$1000 then fee is $100 Range 2 = amount in dispute 1000.01 -$2000 then fee is $150 Range 3 =amount in dispute 2000.01 -$3000 then fee is $200 I need:- (a) The filing fee to be auto entered. ( The filing fee to be capable of change ie when the Court increases the fees © The filing fee to remain unchanged in existing records when the Court does increas…

This may be a basic one, apols if it's too much so ;> Anyway I have two files (Organisation and Entry). Entry is the file that the data entry people will see, and Organisation is the list of the organisations. Entry is related to Organisation by OrgID, present in both files, and is a unique serial generated in the Organisation table. The field OrgName is in the Organisation table, and embedded as a portal in Entry. I want to select a OrgName from a value list (defined as listing values from the Organisation table), and when an OrgName is selected the OrgID field is updated to the relevant serial number. At the moment when I select an OrgName from the …

I am not sure how to do this, every way that I have came up with is very very long winded but heres the problem. I work in a college that has started to electronically collect attendance data for the students. This is then imported into the attendance file, this file contains three main things, the first is the student id, the second is the lesson/subject id and the final is the date and time. I need to present this data in a register format, so I wanted within the lesson/subject file have a portal showing whether the student attended on a specific date for that specific lesson. Does anyone have any ideas of how I can present this data in a register type for…

I am creating report cards for my elementary school using Filemaker V5. I want to do a drop-down box for grades where one of them is a checkmark. I can't figure out how to add that character to the drop-down list. I am creating the files on a pc running Windows 2000 but they will also be used on Macs. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I want to automate a function to show the proper order status. I use FM 5.5

I had a calc field that calculated amount of days from the current date to the entered in another date field (Date_Grad). Recently, I had to change the calc to figure to reflect months instead of days: (Date_Grad - Status(CurrentDate)) / 30 result is a Number The field was reflecting an extensive decimal value. For example, 71.366667. So I went to Format/Number and set the fixed number of decimal digits to zero. This seemed to fix the problem, but I also have a merge field on another layout, but it still says 71.366667. How can I change this merge field to eliminate the decimal digits? Thanks Ken

I created a global field and it will only allow for the one entry. It will not change the data. How do I get it to change the data. It keeps defaulting to the original data imput into the field. Thanks in advance. -Morning Man

i have a master file with companies which has an order form with line items to a child file.. the master file has a check box whether tax should be added for orders from this company. the child file has the following tax calc field: If(IsEmpty(company::taxOption), 0, subtotal * (company::tax rate / 100)) so if the check box is empty, don't add tax, otherwise if the box is ticked, add a global tax rate which is in the master file. the order form has the line items in the body part and the subtotal (summary), tax (calc), and total (calc) in a trailing grand summary part. now for the question: when i have the child file order form visible in browse mode, i can…

I want a field to display one of two numbers - both of which are in caluclation fields called "Override Commission" and "Total Cycle Balance". I want it display the field that holds value. Only one of the fields will have a value, the other will = $0.00 So, i started with this calculation: Case( not IsEmpty(Override Commission), Override Commission, not IsEmpty(Total Cycle Balance), Total Cycle Balance, "" ) The problem is that my Override Commission Field is a calculation and when it ='s zero it displays $0.00 and is not empty. So this doesn't work. Any suggestions?

I have a problem that I am sure has been posted before, but I can' t find it. I have a contact database in which I may have several records which have the same mailing address. When I do an export from these names, I wish not to duplicate mailing address records. Is there any way to do this? thanks

Is it possible to have a field/calculation that shows the date that a particlular text field is modified? The reason I want to do this is so I can have a layout/table that I can look at and see the dates that text has been entered into this particular text field. I know I can show the date modified for the entire record, but don't know if it can be done for just a particular field. LR

We are creating a database where we will need to enter pages of data into a single field. Actually it will be a depositions taken by attorneys. I am aware of the 64000 size limit per field... Is there any way around this? Or any creative solution anyone can help me with Thanks Stu

I have a simple database with 12 billable days fields (Number field), one for each month. That field is used by other fields for calculations. The problem is the data in the billable days fields often disappear. I say often because it does not happen all the time and it seems almost if it is entered often enough it sticks. These are the only fields in the database that this happens to. Any ideas?? Rick

I am trying to print a shipping list from lineitem file that has multiple line items for each invoice/order. I want only those items that are shipped to show up on shipping list. My portal shows all the items related to that order. Is it posible to use script to pick only the items from product code or item#s?

I have a [Phone] file with over 2500 numbers with all different types of separators. Some area codes are separated by ( ), others by / and still others by -. I currently use the following calculation, "(" & Left(Phone Numbers::Communication Data,3) & ")" & Middle(hPhone Numbers::Communication Data, 4, 3) & "-" & Right( Phone Numbers::Communication Data, 4) That makes all phone numbers look the same (800)555-1212. But all the phone numbers are still the way they were initally entered into the [Phone] file. I want to be able to go into the [Phone] file and take out all separators so I just have the numbers like 8005551212. What is a good…

hi there in need to be able to save word docs as attachments within my fm database... can anyone tell me how this is possible?? ss

Is there any way to limit the amount of text entered into a field. Such as a certain number of characters or lines. Thanks

hi guys i need to make a couple of fields (one drop down menu and 2 alpha numeric) REQUIRED fields such that the user cannot move on until the data is collected. I cant find how to do this in the manual. I'm not particularly technical, so if anyone can describe how to do this i will be eternally greatful. kind regards soot

Hi, I'm making a DVD Library database with a second related database for users so I can track movies they've borrowed. On the library DB I've got a field called "Availability". I want it to show either the text "Available" or "Checked Out", depending on whether that particular title is listed in any of the 10 borrowed title fields on the user's DB (the user's DB is called "DVDLibUsers" and the borrowed title fields are called "Title01" through "Title10". These fields use a pop-up relational value list from the field "Film Title" on the library DB). I've tried using the "If" and "Case" functions, but to no avail. Example: If(DVDLibUsers::Title01, "Checked Out"…

A customer of mine installed ADSL telephone lines to allow personel to work from home. Everything runs fine and fast as usual but when opening some databases the database starts calculating (for example the date of today???) and that can take up to ten minutes. They have a filemaker server and everything runs fine in the office. What's happening? Thankyou for reading and eventually answering my question. Mich

Hi, i want to know if i can drag and drop pictures from explorer into filemaker. I tried and i only see in the container filed the path of the picture and not the photo itself.

Hi Geeks Forgive me for the long explanation but it is necessary. Alright, I got POS that depletes line items (one to many files). In Invoicing, I use a portal that comes from the Stats db. The Invoice Code is used as relationship. Information like pricing, qty, product description is shown in the portal. So far, so good. I got a Customer db where I store client details. I also use a portal for information like Date, Invoice Code, Balance and Discharge. That portal is relational with the Invoicing db. It works perfect. I got a second portal for purchasing details like Date, Qty, Description and Pricing. It displays the items bought by the client. That infor…

How can i add a field and NOT Have it automatically be put into my layout?

I'm having serious problems with dates on my system. When I update a system and substitute it with the new version sometimes the dates that were using a dd/mm/yyyy format only accept mm/dd/yyyy. Sometimes some fields accept one format and other fields accept the other format. I don't know what do I need to be carefull when updating the system, making clones or doing any other change on the system. Does anyone have a clue to help me ? Luiza

Hi, Does anyone know if you can place an Is(Empty) conditional on a container field? When I try it it doesn't work. Perhaps there's a workaround? Thanks.

Hi, I got a really long age calculation from FileMaker's web site which returns results in a "36Years, 6Months, 14Days" format. This is working ok but isn't the best solution for my data base. I would actually like two results based off of my birthdate field; one that returns just how many years old the person is (with out the months and days), and another that returns an "age nearest birthday" result. For example, if the persons birthdate is 1/1/1980, on July 2nd of 2002 they would be 23, age nearest birthday. But on June 29th 2002 they would still be 22. Does this make sense? Here is the calculation I got from FileMaker: NumToText(Year(Today) - Year(Birth…

Is it possible to have a font color change by what a result of a calc is? Or is there a better way to do this? If "X" field is empty, I'd like a font on a tab to be grey, of if "X" is not empty, to make the font black. Thanks.

If anyone can help me on this it would be greatly appreciated. Two databases (A and which are 1 to Many. If a number value exists one time per record in A, and the users have rights to create/edit/copy that number field within A, yet the number field is shown in database B but we do not want the users changing that value there, but we DO want them to be able to copy the value and search within the value. Locking the field on the layout is no good. (can't copy/search it) Can't set restrictions via access privileges on the value in database A because there shouldn't be any restrictions within database A Can't set any access privileges in database B be…

When I use actual text in a calculation there are times that I would like to format things (Bold, Underlined, Italicized, etc...) I have been unsuccessful in all of my attempts. Does anyone know if this can even be accomplished?

Just need to do a simple calculation but I never d calculation so i'm not sure how to write it out. I need: If "FieldA" is Greater than "FieldB" show "FieldA" Else Show "FieldB" i mean basically thats it I just can't get the calculation to read. do I use = instead of Show ?? I'm just not entirely sure. Thanks Dudes.

I want to preface this with secure knowledge that it has already been addressed somewhere on these boards. I cannot find the threads; so, here it is again. I have some very large related databases that are running on a network. I have had the luxury of having a secretary that arrives prior to anyone else to launch the program. It's a pretty spiffy network so it doesn't take too lone to calc the Today feature in two of the files. It's time to lose it and internalize the Today feature. What do I do? Any answers? Even if someone could direct me to an existing thread. Thanks much.

This is probably a pretty easy question for al pros around here. Here it is: I have an invoicing file, containing all the sales of a company. This file contains (among other fields) article#, serial# (unique), sales date and client name. I would like to make a listing showing how many items of the same article# have been sold. That is, something like this: Article# Items sold 512-121 2 545-236 65 343-656 12 Total items sold: 79 The thing is, that I would like to do this when doing a find. I would like to be able to search in different date ranges and the respective results should show then. Is this possible, and how should I do it? …

Hi, I am looking for a solution for the following problem: - I have three fields. date revised date freeze Freeze can have value yes or no. In the layout the user cannot edit 'date' Case 1: Freeze = no If the user changes the value of revised date, the value of date should also change. Case 2 Freeze = yes Whenever the user changes the value of revised date, the date should remain the same. Does anyone have an idea of how to implement this? Hope someone can help me , Thanks, anyway.

I have a calculated field that concates several fields into one. I want some of the text to be bold. Is there some tag or something I can put in the formula to specify bold text?

Well, the USPS has decided that all their Priority Mail is now zone rated. Whereas it used to be the same low price to ship to any US state or territory, there are now 8 different ship zones, each with their own price. Well, I've entered all these zones into a spreadsheet--it covers every zip code in the US--and I put together a little "Case" function so that each zip code will get the proper USPS Shipping Zone assigned to it. It looks something like this: Case((zip91900 and zip92199), 1, (zip90000 and zip93099), 2, (zip86300 and zip86499) or (zip88900 and zip89199) or (zip93100 and zip93599) or (zip93600 and zip93899), 3, etc, etc... Well, every single o…

Can anyone help. FMP heldesk couldn't. Have data in File 1 which I need to display in File 2 (and other files). File 1 has Field ('need met or unmet') which can contain either the value 'Met' or the value 'Unmet' which is unique to a record for a particular client, identified by their unique ID number.. I have been able to create a calculation field that will Count(File 1::need met or unmet) and returns the correct numerical answer for a given client, for example 8 (which comprises 3 'Met' needs, and 5 "Unmet' needs). I require to further refine this calculation to count/display ONLY the values 'met' or 'unmet' and return the numerical results 3 or 5. I have tried to nes…

Hi i do have formula with several if()'s which put together the contents from several other fields. I would like to have those entries seperated by a paragraph (enter) each, but i dont know how this should work properly (in my examples somtimes there is a paragraph sometimes not - just by chance) thanks for help

Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way: I have a Student Database that stores name and address information. Each student, ideally, has a unique SSN as an identifier. Unfortunately, not all students provide a SSN. For any student that doesn't provide a SSN, I want to check to see if the student exists in the database. I store the first and last names separately as StuFirstName and StuLastName, respectively. I want to use the field Whole_Name to add StuFirstName and StuLastName, and ensure the sum is unique with the Field Validation option. I've been using: Field: Whole_Name, Auto-Enter Calculation: (StuFirstName & StuLastName), Do not evaluate if all…

I need to make a report which consists of three fields of three different databases. I want to see on my report 1) the name of the job (1 record) 2) the knowledge you need for this job (several records) 3) who does the job (several records) So it should look like this: 1 2a 2b 2c ... 3a 3b 3c .... "next record" I can't seem to get this report right. I succeed in getting the first two levels right, but I can't show all the persons. Thankyou for reading and eventually answering my question. Mich

An hour or two it seems like an easy task to create a message "Record x of y for UserName" I've learned that Status(CurrentFoundCount) is a one shot deal - it isn't dynamic and change as the found set changes. Using the @@ for "x" is fine but any clues as to what I can use for "y"? I was surprised went I did a forum search and didn't find a similar question/answer. That is most likely because the answer is obvious and right under my nose ! Any clues will be appreciated. Ed

Is there any way to define a field that will get information from a vertical portal and then show it in this new field horizontally. ie: info 1, info 2, info 3,etc. not: info 1 info 2 info 3

I presume the menu duplicate records option copies a record with all data in it. I have a database with rather a lot of fields defined, and I notice that using this command duplicates not all of the fields. Some formatted numeric fields in the record are not duplicated, some others are, and all text fields are copied as expected. All this in browse mode of course. Said in other words, when I duplicate a record, and I compare the both of them, the copy has some formatted number fields set to 0,00 where the original record had a number. (No globals, no calculations, just number fields formatted as money-decimal) I can't figure this out. As there are often reasonable exp…

I have a repeating text field with 3 repeats. It is basically for entering email addresses. so the three repeating lines would have something like this entered: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] I want a calculation field that links to the above email field, and some sort of calculation that can look at the 3 repeating lines and return something formatted like this: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected] Anyone have any thoughts as to the type of calculation that would show the information in all 3 repeating fields? LR

I search a way to format automatiquely phone numbers. I mean user enter 0102345678 in the field, after he leave the field the value is displayed ass 01 02 34 56 78 (but if possible without change of the value put in the field 0102345678, then when user need to edit this field, he will get 0102345678 to modify). Thanks every one

Please advise proper method for calclating the "time in service" in years, months and days for an employee. Taking into consideration any leap year days. I can arrive at the number of "days" by using the Date2 -Date1, but need to display years, moths and days Thx

I need to decide whether the FM application I'm going to build should be built on a PC or a Mac - I have the option of both. I also need to decide whether to use Developer 4.0 or upgrade to Developer 5.5. The application will be multimedia heavy i.e. lots of full screen graphics, sounds, voice recordings, and probably some movies in various formats. My concern is mostly with cross platform capatibility. 1) Will a multimedia heavy FM application built on a PC using FM Developer 4.0 run ok on a Mac. 2) Will a multimedia heavy FM application built on a Mac using FM Developer 4.0 run ok on a PC. 3) Will a multimedia heavy FM application built on a PC using FM Deve…

ok... I have a number field on one layout and i want it to display as a text on another layout. I need it to be a number field on the first layout so i can't change the field to text. So, i created another field that is a calculation field and used the NumToText and checked the caluc. result as Text. But, it doens't work. It still shows as a number. What am i missing?

Is there a way to write a caluclation where a field CONTAINS, as opposed to equals? I would like to have a calculation based on data from check boxes where I have multiple possibilites and I can only get it to work with radio buttons where there is only one possibility.

I use a global field in several layouts. Why I cannot access the content of that global field in all layouts ?? I have access to this global field only in one layout. Could not even figur out why only that layout

i am creating a newsletter db to go one the web there will be three issues a year for 30 different countries which i want to keep in the db for people in the office to browse. but i only want the newest one for each country on the web can any one think of a way to self relate the same countries and calculate by issue number the newest record

I have a field that contains many different checkboxes , each of which represents a geographic area. Also, there are three checkboxes in which I would like to automatically fill in several checkboxes with cheking one of the three boxes. For example: If check box "All city except for 2nd street", then it would auto select checkboxes 4-12 but leave out checkbox 13. Another autoselect box would say "select all college areas" which would select boxes 4,5,6,7 and 8. Understand? Can I do that within the same field? This is my first large account, so I am newbie stage and making money at it! Heheh. But I will be attending the conference in LA and hopefully joining the allianc…

I want to be able to show a running 12 month sales total. Where at the end of each month the new month is added and the oldest month is dropped off. Thanks for your help, HJ

I am trying to create a report from a running balance field. The things is that I only want to list the records with names and balances that owe money. In other words I only want to list records with balances above $0. How would begin to create this calculate this? RET

i have an inventory system that deals with strictly 8-digit numbers. so i want to be able to have leading zeroes to display something like 00002367. i can enter that into a number or text field, but if the number is changed via a script, FM always truncates the leading zeroes which results in a correct number, but incorrect display. is there a nifty text function perhaps, so that the output will always have 8 digits?

In a start-up script I have some globals which I initialise, by clearing them. I use the command Clear [select,"globalfield"] I found out that the fields are not cleared. I suspect, that the clear command only can be used when the actual field is on a lay-out, or am I wrong? When this is so, of course there are workarounds, using Setfield[global,""], but with date-fields, to empty them completely, (to avoid that question mark in the field) I know of no better way then Clear.. (edited later) In the meantime I found out that the clear command indeed does not work when the field to be cleared is not present on a lay-out. For clearing date-fields in an effe…

I am trying to use Substitute to replace "-signs in a text by nothing. But FM does not accept a formula like Substitute (Text; """"; "") Is there another way to remove " signs from a field via a calculation? Ton

Hi, I am trying to set up a date field in a products db that lists when a item was last in-stock. I have an If statement that when positive it inserts todays date, but I want it to do nothing if it is negative so the date remains for good. I have inserted a "" if the result is negative, but it replaces the contents of the field with a blank. Thanks in advance guys. John.

I'm not sure where this question belongs - but thought I would start with it here. I have a consultant friend who has a client who has 4 Mac's running FMP (current version). One of the machines is also running Virtual PC(VPC). If FMP is running in the background on the VPC machine then FMP hangs whenever doing a look-up until FMP is brought to the front on that machine. FMP acts like it is waiting for FMP to be in the foreground so that it can check to see if the Look-ed up record is already being accessed? Have you heard of this or a good way around this? Thanks for any advice or opinions you might have.

basically, the question is simple. . . I need to make a directory of sorts of companies. Each record will hold the companies address info and special features, etc. so each record would have all the same fields, but not all the fields would be filled out for some companies. . . so far, easy. . . next we put them into columns, three per page. . . Problem #1 - can i do columns with records in filemaker? i haven't ever had too. . . Problem #2 - if i can, then i don't want records to wrap, i.e. - if it doesn't fit in the alloted space at the end of the column, the WHOLE record goes to the next column. after that. . . we need an index. Problem #3 - pagi…

In my two database files (Contract) & (Contract Log), I need to be able to count the number of related Contract Logs per Contract, which fall in between two date fields (defined in Contract). At the momemt this isn't working because I suspect I'm miss-using the count command. The two files are related via a (Contract Ref No). This is the calculation field i've been trying within Contract which returns a number, however, it seems to count all records in Contract Log, not just the ones within the date range: Case(contract log::log date >= date1 and contract log::log date < date2, count contract log::contract ref no)) What is the correct way to do t…

I'm trying to create an invoice for a small library. There are several related DBs including a Name/Address, Catalog (for books and videos), and Shipping and Handling. The database with the invoice is a Reservation DB and is a "join" database for the Name/Address and Catalog. I have a sub-summary part with the fields "SubTotal" (which is a Summary Field; Total Of), which works fine. In the same sub-summary part I have the field "ShipHand::ShipHand.db" (because several items will have one S/H charge). That works fine too. Now I want a field to add these two afore mentioned fields. So, I made a calculation field "Total Balance", which is: Total Balance =…

Is there anyway to auto generate a preview of a Corel, Freehand or .eps graphics? One of my businesses deals in a ton of graphics. I'd like to be able to develop a database to keep track of them, but there doesn't seem to be any easy way to thumbnail the designs and get them into a database once the artist has created them. Thanks!

I am working with a client who is having a problem with certain fields having missing data when he accesses from home. It is set up on a FM Server and he accesses over the internet directly to the IP address using FM. However, certain fields (mostly portals or Summaries) appear blank. When he prints out a report (these Summary fields are placed on a sub-summary section), the blank fields print out as negative numbers. In addition, one field (a long text comment field) will not print out at all. I cant reproduce these effects on my computer (a PC) and neither can my colleague (on a MAC). The client is using version 5.5v2 at the office, Im not sure which version at hom…

Hi, I need help to understand how can I export sub-summary field to another database. Let me explain with an example. I have two databases , let us say Orders and Inventory. In orders database I have more than one record for same product and in inventory database I have one record for each product. What I am trying to find out is how many orders I have for this product and would like to compare with inventory I have. Say Orders have Product Units 1. Prod 1 5 2. Prod 2 1 3. Prod 1 2 when I use summary layout, I can see that Prd 1 has orders of 7 units and Prod 2 has rders of 1 unit but, I will be thankful …

On our client db we currently have a field ClientRecordNumber which auto enters a serial number upon record creation. My bosses now want 'potential' clients putting on the db, but I want these people to have a seperate serial number. So basically I want a serial number for clients and one for potential clients. Can anyone suggest the best way to go about this?? Thanks

This should be fairly simple, but I can't get it to work: I have a "Contract Start" Date Field and need to calculate the "Contract End" date based upon a "Contract Period" (Months) field, but I'm struggling to get calendar months to increment. If you attempt this using days, you get a different date next year. For example, if the contract start is 14/06/2002 and the period is 12 Months, the Contract End needs to be 14/06/2003. Hope this makes sence - thanks.

Just writing a message that everything I wanted in Filemaker till so far, I got it to work exactly my way, but there is one thing that I could not solve and is not solvable either, I think.. I have a database with clients (pupils), and in the former (non Filemaker, written in basic) version I had a total count of all the pupils, the amounts payd by them. In the written output I had subtotals below each page with the subtotal until that page, to conclude with the total on the last page. In filemaker of course I have used subsummary parts to calculate the subtotal for each page (running total). But the subsummary parts must be sorted to an item. In my case I sorted them…

I have a field that is used as a check box. I want it so that anytime the user either checks or unchecks the box a pop-up message window appears with a text warning. Any thoughts as to the best way to do this? LR

Hi, I found this calculation on FileMaker's web site and it's the coolest thing since pork chops on a stick. It formats Social Security numbers with hyphens so you don't have to manually enter them. I understand most of it but would like to understand it all. Here it is: left(SocSec, 3)&"-"&middle(SocSec,4,2)&"-"&right(SocSec,4) Ok, I understand that the first part of this calculation takes the first 3 digits in a social security number and places them to the left of the first hyphen. The opposite happens in the last part of the calculation with the last 4 digits of the social security number. What I don't understand is what the number "4" in t…

What is the best way to add a field to a header that will always display the current date, and that changes each day to always show todays date. LR

That was quite a drag. Browsing the forum I was warned against using repeating fields, and I avoid them, but I have a situation in which the use of repeating fields is the best solution. I have a database in which each records contains 12 months, each month filled with identical data, received amount, date of payment etc. All these fields are not repetition fields. They are named amount01, amount02 etc. I needed a way to make the user choose from different proposition sets (3) for the proposition_amounts to pre-fill the database in an easy way. To make 3x12 different fields for that option was overkill; so I used repeated fields for that. And for some reasons these r…

Don't know if I'm posting in the right forum, but here goes. I work in the entertainment industry and I use a Filemaker DB to track the movies that air on our network and live in our library. Each movie title has it's own record and in that record there is an "AirDate" field, which corresponds to the date in which that movie airs on our network. However some films air more than once, so I find myself constantly rewriting the date in that field. I'd like to find a way to enter multiple dates in that field so that not only can I track when the film is going to air but when it HAS aired in the past. I'm not a FMP guru and very few people here are. So I'm looking for …

Hi- I'm trying to write a calculation function using arc cosine. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it. I've been able to find arc tangent, so thought that maybe arc cosine also existed in FM. Am I assuming incorrectly? If the arc cosine function does not exist, does anyone know how I could still use the same formula with the provided functions?

I have a database here with over 6000 records. We have a range of users using the database, and some of them over time have played around with the text formatting in certain fields. QUESTION: Is there a way of restoring all the records to their original intended formatting? (Short of browsing through the 6000 records and doing it manually). Maybe through a third party utility or script?

ISSUE: My users use abreviations when they type some things in. I figured out how to use the "Substitute" function, but I can't seem to get it to replace more than one at a time example: Field 1: We all say "TGIF" but some say "Agh". What do you say? Field 2: We all say "Thank God it's Friday" but some say "Ahh Go HOME!". What do you say? SETUP: Administrators are able to enter in the acronyms in one field and what it should be in another. FIELD 2 will then search the string and change out all the acronyms and display the correct results... Can anyone help?

Hi, I'm trying to format a number into a currency within a text calculation field. For example, "Government Fee : " & GovProcessingFee would result to "Government Fee : 75" I wish to obtain "Government Fee : $75.00" Isn't there an easy way to do this ? I COULD do the whole calculation using a case, patterncount and position but it seems there SHOULD be an easier way to do this... Thanks

i have a field with a strict restriction calculated using the result of another field. i don't want the user to be able to proceed if the condition is not met. it would work fine if the 'revert field' wasn't an option on the strict message. any way of not showing it?

i need to create a field that shows a running_count and the sum of the count. eg parent_id=9011 record_id=1090 count_calc = "1 of 4" parent_id=9011 record_id=1095 count_calc = "2 of 4" parent_id=9011 record_id=1168 count_calc = "3 of 4" parent_id=9011 record_id=1247 count_calc = "4 of 4" i can get the sum_count by using the sum function in the parent file but i'm having trouble with the running_count. any help would be greatly appreciated.

If zero set zero.. Some funny thing. I wanted to force a number field always to show 0,00 instead of nothing. When using if [not amount] SetField (amount, 0) Nothing changed. The condition was not met. When using if [amount = 0] SetField (amount, 0) the thing works. An empty amount shows 0,00 Is there some funny explanation? Harry