Calculation Engine (Define Fields)

Hi everyone. How would I enter a date range? For example: I am trying to enter years like 1995-2005 or 1998-2001. So lets say I perform a find for a 1999 and the date range entered in the record is 1998-2001, I want it to pull up that result. I think if you manually entered it as 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and you did a find, it would pull up....but for stuff like 1975 - 2005 that would be out of control. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

Just found this forum - what a great place! I wonder if anyone can help? Excuse me if this is a really simple question - I'm relatively new to FileMaker. I'm building a website and for part of this I need to create about 150 simple pages, each one listing a different business. I'ts a one off job that doesn't need a 'live' database online or anything complicated like that. I'll receive the database in a spreadsheet format and have no problems getting this into FileMaker. To makemy life a little simpler I thought that I could simply add some need fields to the database, so that I can add little bits of HTML code before and after each field, i.e. &lt…

Every month I need to calculate the Internet charges for my guests, the monthly rate sometimes differs from guest to guest. I currently have the following fields in my db: IntBeginMonthly = The Internet contract beginning date IntEndMonthly = The Internet contract ending date IntCharge = The monthly Internet charge *(monthly = from 20th - 19th next month) IntChargeProrated = THIS IS THE FIELD I NEED TO SET-UP I want to define a field that will calculate the Internet charges for the month based on the contract dates, if the Internet contract end date is after the 19th of the month and the start date is before the 20th of the previous month then there wi…

I have done some searching here but can not find any help... I want to use a db (FMP 7) to collect scanned documents in pdf-format. I am thinking along the lines of embedding the files, and when the db reaches around 600MB I'll make a backup on CD for the archive. This all seem to work ok But then I wanted to be clever, and have a field in every record with the imported file's file size, as well as a total current file size indicator. Sounded easy enough! I have tried using a field with "Get ( FileSize )" and then have a new record's file size minus the previous one's in a calculation... But as far as my trials show, the calculation field with Get ( Fil…

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum or not. This problem seems to fit in several. We have a database called Spec Sheet. For each job that comes through our company a new record is created. This record gives all of the specifications for the new job. This was fine while we were doing mainly art jobs. Now we are also performing data pulls for customers. I have created a new layout in this file that will contain information specific to data jobs, versus art jobs. Here is my dilemma. Data contracts can have different terms. Some may be one time, some one year, 2 year, or three year. The update schedule could be different as well: One time, anually, semi-anually, qu…

hi to all, i'm trying to build a database with the balance of products in my lab, (ex: i have 50 bikers and i buyed 10 more and 2 are broken, so i have 58 bikers, but i buyed 5 more and now i have 58 + 5) I tryed to do this, but always i put another value i loose the older one, so i never got the total of produts, How can i do that database? Thanks for your help in advance!

I know this is covering old ground and I've checked out other posts, but still can't figure it out. I need to calculate someones age in days months and years. I have a date of birth (DOB) and an Age field. If I just calculate Age something like Get(CurrentDate) - DOB everything is fine as long as I store the result as a number. If I store as a date, the year part of the calcuation gets screwed up. Anything less than 12 months old shows 1 in the year. How do I get this to work correctly?

I am a "newbie" to the Filemaker System. In the Filemaker Pro 7 System, I am using the Course Tracker inside of the Filemaker K-12 Starter Kit. Can anyone explain how to have the system accomodate the PASS/FAIL designation in the calculation of the GPA. Thank you for any help. Kevin12

Hi there, I want to get a calc field that will display the month name in two months ahead. If I use this calc, I know that January will be displayed: MonthName(Status( CurrentDate)) What about March? Mike

Hi everyone, I have a calculation field that has text and numbers in it. It is basically a conversion field. The user enters one value in the "Qty Convert" field and then chooses the unit in the "from" field and the unit in the "to" field. The calc field displays something like: 100 Kilograms = 3527.396198 Ounces My problem is that I have to make the calc a text field not a number field so I can't format the number to include the thousand separator. I have a fairly long calculation to do this but is there an easier way? I would also like to add a million separator in the unlikely event that it is needed. Any help is greatly appreciated

hello, this simple task may have been asked many times before, however, let me ask it again. How would i set up the define field to automatically change the color of a specficed text in a field. ie. i want a red text for the text entered "estimate", i want a green text for a field entered as "actual". Do i really need a script for this or can i validate this in the define screen? And will this text color change instantly when the text is typed over a field? I don't have the delevoper program which some of you talk about. thanks corey afk

Hello ! I am here again with my existencial problems with FM. I want one of my users to be able to define fields, but I don't want him to be able to delete any record ? Is it possible? Thanks for all you help Vicky

Hi I'm trying to write a time card db, and I don't like the template, so I'm going to make my own. I need it to run 24 h ours so how would I write a calculation so if someone clocks in at 23:00 and out at 7:00 it will show as 8 hours instead of -16 hours? Thanks... Vandy

I have a opener file that opens that enables my hotkey program to run. This opener file has one script which is: open ("file") close () file: is a quick note update file and as soon as this is open I have it run a script which directs to a layout and then enters a couple of default values and the last action is go to field. This go to field works fine if I run from withing filemaker but if I run it from the file opener it won't focus. Is there anything I can do to get this to focus / go to a field?? Thanks

Basically this is what I'm trying to do. I have a text box thats set up as a check box titled keywords that shows items from a value list. I have 5 other fields. Titled category1, category2, category3, category4, category5. What I need is, when an word is typed into one of the category fields, if that word is in the keywords checkbox I need it to automatically checkmark that word in keywords. Any ideas? Any help given is much appreciated.

I have a calculation field(A.) that checks to see whats entered in another field(B.), and if a specific word comes up(in B.) it turns the text in it (in A.) white. By doing this I run into the problem that I can't type into that (A.) field. Is there a way to make (A.) typeable and yet keep the script to change the text in it's color? Thanks for any help you can give.

I have just searched for hours and still cant figure out the best way to charge sales tax. I have a solution in FM 7 with tables for Contacts, Invoices, Invoice Line Items, and Products. I have to charge 6% sales tax for people in NJ. The only exception is when a dealership (non-taxable) is located in NJ. I was thinking the best way to handle it is to automatically fill in a checkbox (IF State = "NJ") that says "Charge Sales Tax". This would allow me to uncheck the box in case its a non-taxable dealership. Is this really the best way to handle this? If it is how would I go about automatically adding the sales tax amount to the "TotalOrderPrice" field? I wo…

Hi, I have a rather complex POS system I have created, and I am stuck in the creation of a certain report. I know there must be a simple answer, but for the life of me I can't quite get it. The report I wish to generate is a total income collected. And, I need to break this up by cash, check, charge, gift certificate. The other reports start off with a date sort, so that is in place. In the order page I have subtotal, subtotal after discount, tax, total. So these fields would obviously be used for the calculation. I hope I've given enough information. Any help would really be appreciated. Thanks again, Stephen

Hello, I searched the forum but cannot find any notes on how to calculate a person's age based on his/her birthdate. I also cannot find this in any of the documentation I have which is surprising as I thought this particular calculation would be very commonly used. How would I do this? Thanks! rlbryant

When one stores an image in a container field with the option to store a 'reference only', it appears that the 'reference' is the full path on that particular computer. My question is, can we make it store only the relative path reference similarly to what can be done with 'file references'? I am having a problem moving a solution between computers with images stored as 'reference only' and the actual files stored in a folder that accompanies the FMP solution on its travels. When the solution is moved, FileMaker can no longer find the images because, apparently, it has stored the full path starting with the drive on the original machine. If the 'reference o…

Ok, I have a referral system set up on Filemaker, but I need help with automating part of it. Each person gets a serial number when placed into the database. This is the referral number. Here is my setup: Date Ordered: (Date) First Name: (Name) Last Name: (Name) # of Referrals: (sum # of people this person has referred) Referred by: (the user's ID# whom referred this person) User ID #: (this person's unique ID#) Users Referred: (User ID #'s this person has referred) Each person will get a database filled out with this information. I need help automating the User ID's. Example: 1st DATA ENTRY Date Ordered: 1/13/05 First Name: Joe …

I'm having no success updating a script that I moved from FM6 to FM7. Previously I used AppleScript to copy and paste a QT track into a container field. Not anymore. The problem I'm having is that the Insert QuickTime command only seems to open a file locator window - rather than letting me indicate the file path from a field. So, I'm trying to do this: Insert QuickTime [clip_location] and the command won't facilitate that. Help...

I need to make a calculation to round to the highest (not nearest) 9.99. In order words lets say a retail price is 500 and I take 10% off, but round to the nearest 9.99. This would be 500 X .9 = 450

A while ago in a different discussion group, I got into a discussion with some folks about use of repeating fields. Someone had set up a simple database that used repeating fields to hold information about daily events. I politely suggested he might want to consider using a separate table to hold this information, but I then went on to explain how he could achieve his goal with the repeating fields. Suddenly, I found myself being chastised for "encouraging" the use of repeating fields. This led to a lively and slightly rancorous discussion of the whole question, so now I'm wondering how folks here feel about this subject. I've created a poll just for fun, but I'm really i…

I have 2 tables. one with student names and the team number that each student is on, another with an advisor's name and the team number that that faculty is advising. I created a relationship between the two so that i could create a portal from the advisor table to show all of the student's that are in a particular team. However, I want to be able to e-mail each advisor and include the full list of student's on each team. How can i define a single field that contains all of the student's names that correlate with each team #?

I have a report I run weekly. Right now, I export one field from the database, open it in Excel, copy the data from that one field from about 300-500 records, and paste the data into another application. I would love to be able to skip the export step to just do a search, copy the summary-style results for the appropriate field from my found set from one field, and paste into another application.. Is it possible to have all the data from a calc field be displayed in one field for the found set. For example, if field X was a text field and field X for the found set has the following values: record1="cat", record2="dog", record3="bird". Can you create a summary-ty…

Hello, how can I receive a value from another database file inside a calculation? My calculation e.g. shows = If( FIELD_A = "YES" , "value from data.fp5 FIELD_X" , 0) The values that I want to look up in data.fp5 are $$prices. The purpose is not having to go inside the complex formula to change the value/price but go to data.fp5 and change the price there in FIELD_X. Maybe I'm still thinking excel too much... Thanks Andy

I need to find out if it is possible to calculate norms in FM. Here's my scenario: I've got 30 records in a portal that displays scores on Test A for all third graders in School 123. Three students received a 98 on the test, which was the top score in the class. If I were calculating the norm by hand I would write the following equation: ((.5) 3 + 27)/30 (3 is the number of students with the score, 27 students fall below the score, and there are a total of 30 students in the class. In other words, the calculation would be (.5x +y)/n where x equals the number of students with a particular score, y equals the number of students with scores below that particu…

In this example if have 3 simple number fields and 1 calculation field. A--number B--number c--number AA-- Calculation Problem: (B*C)+A=AA what i would like is if A=0, then i want AA to be 0, otherwise follow the calculation. I would like this requirement to be included in a define situation and not a script, and i am willing to add fields to make this situation work out. I tried taking another field say BB and multipling A and then dividing by A, however when you divide by zero in filemaker it gives an error or the question mark, just like a calculator (E). any suggestions would be greatly appriecated. Thanks Corey

Hello all, I currently have a software db with all the software my company has. I have added price db and set up a relationship between them both. Inside the software db I created a portal for the price db to show up. I need some year to date field that has the total cost of what I spend/spent for the year for each idividual piece of software. What type of calc can I use for this? I have been struggling with this for a while and it's been a bit hard since I'm new to FM. Thanks, Jay

Surely i am missing something but how can i do this X is a global repeating field Y is a caclulated repeating field How should i set up the calculation so that Y = X. The obove statement only copies the first element and not all. Or shoul i use a script for this ? Thanks jitse

What I'm trying to do is provide a user with a help message for the field in which their cursor is located, the help message providing a tip about how to complete the field. I would rather not place the user in a scripted loop throughout the entire data entry process. The first thought that comes to mind is a calculated field that relies on Get(ActiveFieldName) to select what help text to display. Can anyone post an easy unscripted way to solve this particular problem? It is completely escaping me how to do it other than with the Get(ActiveFieldName) command, which shamefully does not work correctly (intuitively?) in anything other than a script. I know, I kn…

Hi there, how may I add a new field to an existing Database ?? FP7 thanks in advance, Charlie

HI I would like to run a script (which refreshs an external portal) as soon as I tab out of a field..how can I do this? Thanks

I need to know how to copy field definitions into a new database other than typing each and everyone. Thanks OWP

I have a cell in a portal from a Customer table that displays the PRIMARYID of a record. When selected by script (using Set Field) it copys that data onto a field (called PRIMARYID) on the Work Order table. The problem is that my ID from the customer table are C1, C2, C3, etc. It shows fine in the portal, but it ONLY shows 1, 2, 3, etc. on the field it is copied to. I believe everything else works fine in my other relationships and portals that are tied to the field with 1, 2, 3, etc. in it. Any idea why it is not showing the letter, but still working? How can I get the letter to show? Greg

HI all, what I need to know is can I do it single field related to many field? like: -In Sales Order Field A(Unit Price) -In Product Info Field A(Agent Price) Field B(Van Price) Field C(Normal Price) What I need to do is when I create the new Sales Order, I want to select the diffent type of price from Product Info? can this done? Thank!

HI all, after I select the pop-up list, automatic enter the records and go to next field! Can this be done? Thank!

I'm developing a solution where a group of Mac and PC users will be accessing a Mac FM Server. This is no problem...but the issue is that we are storing QuickTimes on a network drive as well, hosted by another Mac. How can I get both MAc and PC to view the container fields contents without either seeing "the file cannot be found" message. So if I insert a QT on the Mac client, the PC client sees the "the file cannot be found" and vice versa. I need to be able to change the drive references from, for example MAC...Document Drive/ to PC...F: Thoughts???

I am having trouble with the document library and being able to insert files on a PC and open them on a mac, and vica versa. When I insert a reference on a PC, it will only open on the PC. If i try to open the file on the mac, it says "cannot find fil", and then prompts me for the location. Strangely enough, after I point it to the same file on the mac, neither the mac nor the PC can open the file. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi! I am trying to program file maker to link a unique logo to a a specific name in a text field. I have placed 3 name options in the text field, using the pop-up list function in the field format box. I would like to link a different logo to each of these 3 different options. Can anyone tell me how I can either do this, or suggest how I should search for my answer in the archives? Cheers! m

I have been beating my head against a brick wall for the past couple of days over a problem I have... I need (I think) a custom function that will parse a text field to populate a repeating field. The text can be delimited by <CR>, or anything else... I simply cannont figure out how to do it. Any ideas?

Imagine there are 3 fields in a table, one called _ID (a number used for finding a set of records), one called _CATEGORY, a text field that allows entries to be made as strict entries from a value list, and one called _SUBSUMMARY_CATEGORY. Now, imagine a found set of 10 records based on having a common _ID. Three records say "Box" in their _CATEGORY, two records say "Crate" in their _CATEGORY, and five records say "Drum" in their _CATEGORY. When I view the individual records in browse mode I'd like to see the _SUBSUMMARY_CATEGORY field show me the sum of similar entries from the _CATEGORY field, but only the sum relating to that particular record. In other wor…

i've posted about this one before, but want to post again, since i now have more info on the issue. it looks like on windows xp you can't use the 'insert quicktime...' command in FM6 (either as a script step or menu item) to insert a sound, like a .aif or .wav. any attempt to do so crashes FM. you can verify this with a new file which only contains a container field. select the field, choose 'insert quicktime...' from the menu, and select a wave or aif file. FM will crash. i have quicktime 6.5.2 btw, doing the same on a windows 98 machine (or mac) works without a problem. am i the only one who's bothered by this?

hi, newbie here. first off, i tried searching but gave up after a coupla hours. apologies if this is a duplicate. i'm working on creating an export file by exporting only certain fields to match a flat file layout for another application. the flat file has specific length requirements, thus my fields in FM must be padded to fit those requirements. i'm using calculated field definitions to accommodate this need, but the logic i'm using for certain fields isn't quite right. for example: Case(export_responsecat="RSVPA ", "ATTENDED", export_responsecat="RSVPD ", "NO SHOW ", export_responsecat=" ", " ") where if the export_responsecat field is …

I'd like to be able to extract the title of a file that I am storing in a container field so that I can then insert it (the title) into a text field. Anybody know how to do this? Thanks.

I am a newbie and am not that familiar wth all the functions of FMP7 yet. Our database will hopefully be used for contacts, time and billing and document management solution for a large law firm. 1) We use client codes that are unique to all open case matters, but all closed matters will have a null client code since we recycle these codes randomly. Can this be done to have zero & unique numbers in a field without the possiblity of duplicates?? 2) Also we have some clients that use multiple lawyers depending on the type of matter. Some lawyers will want to send mailings to a business address while another might want to send to a home address. Is there a …

Hello all, I think I have a staight forward question: I have a Count Function that does what is says it counts a field(s)... This works great, but when there is nothing in the field(s) or a blank Field(s) that I am counting I need it to say "0" Equation: Count ( File_Login_SubSheet_Brokers::Underwriter ) Help, Joseph

Yet another newbie question Anyways im trying to do something so simple that i cant believe im asking this but for the life of me i cant find it anywhere probably the phasing anways what im trying to do is display the current record number and the total record count on the actual layout i defined a global calculation to hold it and it reads like so : "Record " & Get ( RecordNumber ) & " of " & Get ( TotalRecordCount ) it doesnt seem to work at all for me.... Any help i would be very appriative... D

FM won't allow storage of a calculation if the calc formula includes reference to a global. How can I restructure this scenario: Calculating a payroll deduction, I use several global fields to specify things like a fixed amount for an optional retirement plan. When I then try to calculate the withholding amount on a paycheck I pull this value from the global field in the Settings file. But this must be a *stored* figure else previous checks will change if the withholding amount is changed during the year (if, e.g., the employee elects to have a different amount withheld). Any suggestions?

After an invoice has been paid I would like the record to lock so changes can not inadvertently be made to the record without a password that would give them that ability. I have an [invoice] file where the invoices are written and where the fields are for Check_number, Date_paid and Amount_paid. There is also an Order_status field that shows PAID once the Date_paid field is populated! All product information is in the [Line Items] file. Please let me know if you need more information. Thank you, Bill

Hello ! I am using some repeating fields (I know it is not the best, but It makes what I need to do much, much clear to work with), and I need to average all the "First repetition" together, all the second ones, and so on, like doing a summary of each one. I don't know how I can do a Summary of repetition fields that is a repetition, too. and if it is not possible, do you know how can I do it? Let me now ! I'll be very greatfull with you help.. Thanks, Vicky

In excell we have a date column set up to auto enter the bimonthly dates, 01/15/04, 1/31/04, 2/15/04, 2/28/04........ I see that under define fields I can set the field to auto enter a value based on a calculation but I don't see a "end of the month" calculation that I can use. Any suggestions? Still learning

Hello. I am new to FMP (7.0v2, MAC 10.3.6 platform). I have constructed a table that currently has 80 fields successfully defined. All 80 fields appear correctly in the Browse mode. However, when I define an 80st field, there is no error message, but it does not appear in the Browse mode. Is there a max number of fields per Table, or is this some kind of bug? Thank you in advance for your help!

I have a sales database where users enter the advert size as a fraction. The entry could be, for example: 1/2 or 1/16 or 1. To convert the fraction to a number the most efficient calculation I can think of is: If( PatternCount ( SizeFraction ; "/" ) > 0 ; LeftWords(Substitute ( SizeFraction ; "/" ; " " ); 1) / RightWords(Substitute ( SizeFraction ; "/" ; " " ); 1) ; SizeFraction) Is this the most efficient method, or does anyone know of a simpler calculation? Note: 1/2 is 1 word (in Filemaker 5 it was 2 words). Fractions and decimal entries can be entered in the SizeFraction field (eg: 0.5 or 1/2 will produce the result 0.5) Thanks - Peter

I have a found set list of sales in a report sorted by payment type. I have a summary field totaling the amount pertaining to the specific payment type. Now i need to do some calculations on those summary fields. Is this possible? eg: ---------------------------------- Credit - 175.51 <----Summary Field that requires calculation Item 1 - 35.12 Item 2 - 123.72 Item 3 - 13.67 Check - 100.00 <----Summary Field that requires calculation Item 4 - 100.00 Cash - 193.62 <----Summary Fiels that does NOT require calculation Item 5 - 28.62 Item 6 - 15.00 Item 7 - 150.00 ---------------------------------- …

Hello everyone, Hope everyone is well?. So im developing a db for a client who want to be able to track who does what to what record so at the end of every table i have a calculation called tracking with the following code... tracking & "," & Get ( AccountName ) & "*" & Get ( CurrentDate ) & "*" & Get ( CurrentTime ) I put tracking first so that if someone comes along at a later date it gets added to tracking and doesnt replace it the , seperates the occurances of a change and the * seperate the name date and time. So my question is ... Is there a better way of doing this as i am having difficult getting even this to w…

I'm currently using the following field definition: Let(Phone=Filter(Number;"0123456789");"("&Left(Phone;3)&") "&Middle(Phone;4;3)&"-"&Middle(Phone;7;4)) That of course does not allow for international numbers. Could someone please tell me how to incorporate international numbers into it?

Hi, I have a question about portals. I have a portal that looks up an employee's information from one table based on an employeeID. But what if that ID does not exist? Is there anyway to make it return a message instead of just being blank? Vandy

Hi, i have a very basic question, it is so basic that no one bothers disscussing it here! I am very new to DB creation, i am trying to create a DB for a community phone directory. Basically what i need to know is: How do I make a price lookup? I have a pop up list of different ad sizes in the "Ad size" field and would like it to automatically insert the price of that size into the "Price" field. I assume i have to create a separate DB or table but then how do i define the relationship to the price field? Also, an unrelated question, we have been using Quickbooks until now, is there any way to import the previous data. and if yes, can i combine it to update the ba…

Hi, I've created a small bookings system. Within it is a button that when clicked generates an email which is composed of data from various fields. The problem I have is that the email formatting looks wrong ie no 'carriage returns'. The email body is generated in this way: A field called 'Email Body' defined as a calculation has the text and the required data fields within it. All the fields appear correctly, but i can't see any way to format this text with return characters? Am I using an incorrect method? I also tried generating an email layout and then creating a script to copy the layout and paste it into a new field, but it only copys the fields within t…

Wow. I can't imagine i'm the first person to notice this, but i haven't found a reference to it here or anywhere else and i hope someone has a solution. FM version 6.04. I have a calc field, set to text, equal to: NumToText ( Mod ( theNumberField , 1 ) ) If theNumberField = .1, the calc comes out right. If theNumberField = 1.1, it comes out right. BUT! If theNumberField = 11.1, then the result of the calc field is 0.099999.... WTF? Make the calc a number field, and it's fine. Make it text but take out the NumToText part, and it's fine. Make it number and take out the NumToText part, and it's fine. But with all the conditions above, it comes out …

A little while ago I wrote in with a problem "I have a couple of fields that must have data entered in a perticular format and would like to find a way of validating the data. basicall the data must be entered as groups of 3 letters with a space separation between groups eg LAX NYC MIA There can be no spaces at the start of the field, there must be only one space between each group and the groups must consist of 3 letters, or a specific symbol (@ or / followed by two letters). The number or groups entered in one field can be anything from 1 to 40. I can subdivide the field into 40 data entry fields but since 95% of the time there are less th…

I need to show a list of dates in a value list where each date is based on the current date. I can't index Get ( CurrentDate ) as this will keep the date when the field was created. FMP7 has taken the "Today" function away. What can I do? Thanks, Peter

Hello all, I have lets say twp fields: FirstName & LastName Want I would like to do is to make a custom Unique field out of both of these fields. Maybe 3 letters from the first and 3 letters from the last ex: Ruth Chris = RutChr. Is there a way todo this? Also, I have been think of a way to prevent this from happening... What happens when a person types the name in reverse ex: Chris Ruth = ChrRut... I am guessing FM will not catch this. Any thoughts? Joseph

I have a rather long case function... Lots of and's between statements. I have notices that when I go to store (unclick do not store option under calc) it does not let me. I have other case function which are shorter that I can store or index... So my question is why can't I store and or Index a case function like this: Case ( File_Status_Broker = "Yes" and File_Status_LT = "Yes"; "Yes"; File_Status_Broker = "No" and File_Status_LT = "No"; TextColor("No";RGB(255;0;0)); File_Status_Broker = "No" and File_Status_LT = "Yes"; TextColor("No";RGB(255;0;0)); File_Status_Broker = "" and File_Status_LT = ""; "Yes"; File_Sta…

Hi everybody, I feel a little bit stupid, but I have spent hours to figure how to setup a simple stuff. Indeed, I've a record with a starting total of vacation days (how lucky, I am !) let's say field "tot_days" = 25. In this record I've a field for vacation days I take for my next vacation "used_days" = 8. So, the difference is of course the "avail_days" field. Ok, now is the trick ! In a new record, I would like that "tot_days" value = the previous "avail_days" value, which generate a new "avail_days" value available for the next record as a new "tot_days" value..etc.....until the "avail_days" = 0 Thank you for any help

I have tried to get the example that Queue posted on Nov. 22 to work on my project and have had no luck. I want to test a field for "a" and turn background Green, if its a "b" I want to turn it Red. My problem seems to be in setting up the transparent fields. What am I missing? TIA Ivan

I need to know how to do a table where it displays the field name I have typed and not the actual fild name. I have did a table for a monthly billing sheet at my company. The first Table has all the right names all the rest cay copy since they are duplicates I just want it to use the name I gave it.

I posted this on another thread, but I need to resolve this quickly. I'm making a solution which involves 5 different companies of our group, 3 of which do exactly the same work (cargo transport), 1 does maintenance and the other real estate. So, for instance, I have Purchase Orders on a single table but need it to auto-enter independent serial numbers for each company. Anyone have any pointers on how to achieve this?

Hi all, I have seen similar questions posted here but they always include a calculation in relation to the CURRENT date... this question is a bit different.... Task: I am calculating property tax schedule AGES for all of my video equipment. Problem: I need to calculate the age in years (1,2,3,4 etc) from two dates (Purchase date and Assessment date). I will be manually updating the assessment date each year as I recalculate the property tax. IF the purchase date is AFTER the assessment date, I need a "0" in the age field. IF the purchase date is BEFORE the assessment date but in the same year, I need to age field to show a "1" Then, of course, if t…

Currently I have two tables setup with users and phone numbers. Currently everything works fine the way I set it up is that if I enter a phone number it will automatically pull up all the users information and input them into the fields by using lookup. I changed the phone number field so that it automatically formats phone numbers to 000-000-0000 but when I enter a phone number without the dashes the users info will not show up anymore. I have to enter the phone number with the dashes in order for it to work. Is there anyway I can get it to look up the field after it converts the phone number format? Also is it possible to set a relationship so that it will ei…

My phone number fields are set to format the data as ###-###-####. However, when my users do not enter the area code it appears as ###-###-#. Can anyone give me an example of a validation calculation that will result in a message to enter the entire number including the area code?

Hello Everyone, I have two fields "Text Field" "Yes / No " Case ( Text Field = ""; "No"; "Yes") In excel this "" means blank... So I thought that it might mean that here in FM also. Half of the equation works... when there is something in the text field the yes no statement goes to yes but when there is nothing the yes no fuction does not do anyting but go blank... I woul like it to say NO if possiable. Joseph

Hello, I am not very experienced with FileMaker and am working on a project. We have a list of customers, each with a customer id, and want to send out a mailing with custom links for each user. We were going to send out something like www.website.com/page.htm?id=1234, where 1234 is the customer id. BUT, we dont want this number to be guessable or sequential. I've seen GUIDs (globally unique IDs...really long letter number combinations) being used by others, where each customer's ID is either GUID-like, or each customer has a second identifier for this purpose. Is there a way in Filemaker 6 to automatically generate and store a GUID for each user already in the…

Hi, I have a drop down menu identifying a person classification: Student, parent, grandparent. I need to find out how I can create totals for each one election. My database has 70 records.

Is there any way to select/copy/paste the plain text information in a "Merge Field" so it could be quickly exported to another application? For example I set up a merge field with <<contact>><<company>><<Phone>> ... which works well. But I cannot select the information to copy it over to my email program. Any and all ideas would be appreciated. Don

Hi, I am trying to create a document management system in fm 7 so I can get away from creating millions of layouts to do simple letters. One problem that we have with letters in fm 6 is combining the body of the letter with the electronic signature graphic. The problem: the text block of the letter differs in size due to the number of address lines. The graphic does not slide/move when the text block gets longer so ultimately we always had to export these letters to word. I want to be able to create a table that has one record for each letter. I have tried several different ways to create a calculated container field that combines the merged text with the si…

I need some help with Filemaker Pro 7, and was wondering if anybody can help me out. I have a drop down list of about 20 hospitals in my database. I want to make it so so that if a user clicks on the hospital name, the address and phone number are automatically filled out? Is this possible, and if so, how? Thanks in advance!

Is it possible to set a spell check to use ONLY a user dictionary and ignore main dictionaries? The reason is that I have various fields where predefined codes or groups of characters must be entered... these I can define in a user dictionary but I do not wish to allow "normal words" only these predefined ones.... a value list is not sufficient since multiple "words" can be entered in each field I have a list of possible codes (approx 2000) which i would like to use to check data entry into these fields

Apologies for my lack of experience! What I want to do is the following but I'm darned if I can figure out how to get FM to do it! If 'Date A' is between 'Start Date' and 'End Date' then list all values of 'Field A' between 'Start Date' and 'End Date' I'd then like to be able to export 'Field A' as text but that's a different story.. What is the best format to have the date in for this kind of thing? Thanks

Is there any way of using filemaker as a password generator. For my login system it is required that users have a random generated password, can I create this password in Filemaker or is there any software that can generate a password that can be placed into Filemaker Thanks

im looking to freeze my orders once complete because some info is "magically" changing, such as my pricing info. NOT GOOD. also, i was wondering if i could make a button to lock/freeze the info in my customer table once i have entered in their phone and address..etc

I have imported a PDF file in an image container in a Product Catalog template. While I can view the pdf file, it is too small to be readable. Zooming in is impractical. Id like to enlarge the image in the current view. I've tried to manipulate the pdf by enlarging its view and "saving as" but the saved pdf file reverts to the original image size. Is there a work around for this?

I have an import field with "City,State". After import, I need to split City & State into 2 separate fields. Using the comma as a delimiter, I am not sure which function(s) to use. Thanks!

Hello and thanks again for all your help! I have a friend that has made an entire database in appleworks and now wants me to help her to make it a filemaker database. She has so many pages laid out perfectly and if I have to re layout all these pages it will take me weeks.. Is there any way to just take the layouts and copy them to filemaker? I know i will have to make them work...as far as definitions and calculations...but just this layout help will really be great? Help help? thanks for any suggestions!

I have a line item file containing products (item numbers, prices, etc) from various manufactures. I needed to find the total dollar amount for each manufacturer's items listed in the line items file, so I created a self-relationship based on the manufacturer's unique ID and a calculated field to calculate the total. That works fine. However, I now need to extract the total for each manufacturer and display it in another layout. Do I need a relationship for each manufacturer? I'd like to be able to see all the manufacturer's totals at once. Thank You.

I have a small publishing business. All adverts are currently emailed to customers for approval (as low res JPEGs). I want to be able to store these on a separate computer (I have some old iMacs which could be used for this). Where do I start to set this up? If I create a separate database file to store these I would accumulate about 5000 images per annum - equalling about 60MB. I would want to keep about 5 years back-referenced, so the file would get to about 300MB max. What is the best option? How much slower will it be for users to access if not embedded? Users would ideally also view results in a portal (smaller image size) - is it worth creating a second smaller…

Hello, I have following question: I have two date fileds, one called START, the other called PICK_UP. What I intend to do is that PICK-UP automatically always shows one day ahead if a date gets entered into START. e.g. START= 5/23/2005 then PICK-UP should show 5/24/2005 I'm still learning on this software so I guess I need a little assistance even so it doesn't sound too much of a problem. Thanks for any help, Andy

this is probably an easy problem, as i'm fairly new to filemaker. I've got a database that keeps track of an employee's working hours.... Each line in the report has the info: date, time in, time out, timelunch, timedaytotal and at the end of each 7 day week, there's a subsummary that lists the total number of hours for that week. now, the problem comes when sorting by week. it is currently sorting by date, and yearandweek (year and week is a calculation of "year" combined with "weekofyearfiscal"... so, for early january 2004, i would get a value like "20047" and for a week in late 2003, it will give me "200341"... so filemaker sorts my 2003 date …

Please help me. I'm sure this is so simple it's pathetic but I can't figure out how to automatically have FM7 input today's date into a field so I can use it in a calculation. I'm sure it's a simple click of some button in some hidden window somewhere. Thank you.

I have just got Filemaker Developer 6. I am starting my own business, a publishing company, and I dont know much about Filemaker except the very basics. Does anybody know of a sales database template suitable for me to download anywhere? There is not one on the list supplied by filemaker on the CD and I need one for client information and sales calls - did they buy, date fields and the like. Is there a sales records template anywhere??? Please Help!!!

EDITED Here is what I got to work that was able to calc the difference between a start and stop time field to determine the time spent on the task. Round( Hour( Stop - Start ) + Minute( Stop - Start) / 60, 2) + If( Stop <= Start, 24, 0) Larry

I am attempting to make use of a data array contained in a single field. (a multikey) The field contains data that is return delimited. How do I go about: 1) finding a specific match to a particular line in the array 2) determine the line number of the matching line 3) return that line so i can parse out the result and do something with it

Here's my situation. I have a quote system (FM7) which uses a key field "Vendor Part #" to lookup prices from a pricebook table. I know it's stupid, but the pricebook may contain duplicate Vendor Part#s, even though the description and prices are different. Since FM will automatically return the data from the first match it finds, this may cause someone to quote the incorrect item. When a user enters a Vendor Part # in the Quote Form, I need FM to alert the user if duplicate Vendor Part #s are found in the Pricebook and give them the choice of which record to copy the data from. It sounds complicated, but the MS Access Quote System we are replacing does this. Removing…

Hello everyone, I have two fields: FirstName & LastName I can do a normal search, but what I would like to do is to beable to search for a name in both fields at one. ie: Ruth Chris well some one might put that person in the system with the first name being Chris not Ruth. Is there a way to make a script on a search that will search for any occurance of Chris? Thank you

How do I use the same field name for all the colums of 12 different layouts and keep results of each layout individual without changing all of them at same time in the same fp5 file.

I've got a field which contains a whole name (ie "John Smith" or sometimes "John Q. Smith" and I need to extract that I assume with a calculation. I saw a tutorial here on text functions, but I'm still having trouble. I'm sure it's simple... can anyone offer any guidance?

Hello everyone, I have a portal on this portal there is a field called "Broker". Is there a way to have any calc do this.... When all names are the same = Yes when all names are diferent = No Not sure how to do this: Example: "Broker" 1. Bob 2. Bob 3. Bob This is Yes all the same "Broker" 1. Bob 2. Bob 3. Jack This is No not all the same Help? Joseph

Hi all, We have a fairly simple 3 file system (invoices, parts catalog and customers). I would like to find a way for the users to update the latest pricing for items we buy, without going to the parts catalog. ex: The user enters a p/n and the looked up values are placed in the invoice including the price from the parts catalog. Let's say the price for that p/n has changed permanently. I would like to find a way for the user to enter (overide) the looked up value and have it automatically update the parts catalog when they enter the new value in the invoice. Our server is running FM4, everyone else is running FM3. Thanks for any ideas. Mike