Interface Design Discussions

Hi There, I've been working on developing a FileMaker solution for a couple years now. I've done all of the research I need to do to make everything work data-wise, it's in about 40 different pieces (from me trying to make each piece of the puzzle work without messing up something else!). What I'm designing is a student information/administratio n system that manages all of the course selection, scheduling, etc. By no means is this a small task! I'm kind of stumped when it comes to designing a layout/GUI that works for the application. I've played around with a few different ideas as far as design goes and I'm not really satisfied with how it looks. I'…

Is there a way to open a new window (sized correctly) on top of the main window. I have made a script that opens a new window but the main window resizes when I do this. I need to be able to make a new window open on top of the current window without the main window resizing. Also is there any way to take off the thick blue header on the new window -- not needed. Any ideas? Joseph

Hi, my new receptionist wants a larger interface (zoomed to 150, clicking the "big mountain" icon on all windows as they open), but the other one likes it as it is. Is there a simple way to zoom all windows at once? I know I can script each file as it opens but hoped there may be an easier way, maybe running a single script on all open windows. Thanks.

Hey there - just a quick question I have a customer who wants to have different tables be sorted differently upon startup, but it sounds like Filemaker always sorts by creation date no matter what. Is there any way to work around this and define a new default sort order? I thought about setting a script to run on login, but he wants different sorts for different tables. Any ideas?

Hi there, i was looking for some help, maybe some of you guys can help me. I've developed a relational database using FMpro 9 (i started with 7 and then move up all the way to 9 throughout the years) to manage an archaeological project in south america. So far the database is doing great and it works. I recently run into Bento and I liked the way the "Source" Menu works, making it easy to jump into different layouts and grouping things in the Itunes way. So the question might be a little challenging, I havent got the time to really look into how this menu works from the point of view of a relational database, in the next days i'll try to "disect" it, but i was wondering i…

I designed a chart solution without the need of plugin. It utilizes a html file with some javascript to create a square. Dynamic input of color, width and height is very easy. For now you need to replace "file:///Users/michiel/Desktop/chart/chart.html" with your own file path... chart.zip

I'm not a developer or a guru, but I have made several databases for my school and now I'd like to roll them into one and call it a home-grown Student Information System. Instead of my usual boring buttons, I'd like to branch out a bit. Would anyone be willing to send me a screen shot of a not too complex layout that might work? I want to give access to about 10 different DB. Thanks. Laurie

For those amongst us who are somewhat artistically challenged. I found a few great websites which assist with colour choices etc. Slayeroffice will give you 10% gradients lighter/darker (hint, change the base colour field) Colour Schemer gives you complimentary/colours of the same luminosity. Here's the original article I found the links in Enjoy

Hey there all. I hope I am posting my querry in the right area. I am adding to what i have built for my road manager reports. I'm learning how to put this all together as I go, so if you can help please use beginner terms. I have just started working with calculations and it seems to be going pretty well, considering I didn't have a clue how to make them work. By calculations I mean mathmatical functions, by the way. My question is this: I have rebuilt my settlement spreadsheet from excel into filemaker so that I can keep track of how many people paid, comp tickets and what my band actually made that night. My filemaker layout is almost identical to what my…

I'm trying to re-create a Column Sorting example from the book QUE Special Edition Using Filemaker Pro 9. Page 324. Sorting of columns works just fine but I'm having trouble trying to get the background color for the column heading to work, it will show up once but won't jump from heading to heading when clicked on and when it does show the color it only partially fills the field, even though the gHighlite field is much bigger than the column heading field.

Hello. Is there a way to make a record's recycle bin in file maker? thanks

I'am trying to create a solution where users can choose their prefered theme. It works fine, but under Windows XP, whenever I click a line in a list view (which have a button in the background)all images from the theme file disappear for as long as I hold the mouse button. I attached the files so you can see for yourselves (they are not from my original solution by the way, but a reproduction of what I'am doing). Is there a workaround for that or am I stuck with it? Thanks in advance! Themes.zip

How can i take out the dialog when i run a script with "perform find" and it doesnt has any result. I want no dialog to appear in no moment. Thanks

I have a project that has seperate "modules" (databases), 10 to be exact. When you open the program, you get a control panel with navigation buttons to the different modules; Investigation, Contacts, Research Notes, and so on. The CP is the main menu. I want to have the end user be able to pick from different looks. So I will have, say, 5 different CP's to choose from. By making buttons on them so they can pick the look, they can change to the one they like. Problem: How do I make it so if they like CP-3D, it will be the one that opens everytime first. But if they like CP-Classic, it will be the one that opens up everytime, yet still having the ability to change by c…

I've hit an interface wall. What I want is a tree table view , but I can't think of how to do this in FM elegantly. My goal is a portal of checkbox choices (the parents). Each choice has one or more checkbox choice children. A child can appear in one or more parents, but parents are unique (aren't they now : ). If the user deselects a parent, the children of that parent become disabled for selection. However, a user can select any or none of the children in a selected parent. How can I achieve this in FM? The quick way out is a portal of children, sorted by parent, I suppose. However, won't achieve the ability to disable all children of one parent with on…

basicaly i have a question in my layout and the user can answer yes or no, but if the answer is yes i would like to unhide another question(mergefield) and answer(field) in the same layout. any help? thanks for your time. mfrapp

Hello, first of all, i would like to say hello to everyone because this is my first post on this forum. i have made a toggle sort button, so when i click on it it sort Ascending and when i click back on it it sort Descending, my problem is that i would like to change the button text or image when i click on it, so clicking the button would toggle between a upward arrow and a downward arrow. Any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you. ps: pardon my english, its not my first language.

I am looking to implement an audit trail in my database, but I want it to be different from the standard audit trails I have seen. I need help and would greatly appreciate some assistance. Typically an audit trail is a text field with a calulation that copies changed data from other fields, concactenates those data, and appends it to previously stored data in the audit trail field. It might store data from several fields and tack on a timestamp. I don't want to store a concatenation of several fields in one audit trail field. I want to write changed data to *respective fields* in another table altogether. For example, I have a table of students. Each st…

Does anyone know a map program that will accept address data from FileMaker to locate address on a map? Or is there a way to import maps from a mapping program (street finder) into a FM data base?

Hi, I have developed a solution on a Mac and it is accessed by both Mac and windows versions of FMP. When moving from one file to another file (ie windows) it works fine on the Mac, however, on windows the newly opened file tends to open within the existing file/window and not full screen as scripted. This is driving my crazy. Is there something obvious that I am missing, or do I have to add the full screen script step into every navigational script to get it to look like the Mac does? Please any help will do....

I am sure there is a way, but searching has not produced the answer. : How does one resize columns in the "define database" dialogue box, - tables, fields, relationships- so that the resize (stretching, or whatever it is called) 'sticks' and is used the next time I open the define database dialogue box?

I have a FM relational database program I developed over the last year to summarize and report on company activity. We are a small railroad and I use this to update our records on a daily basis with car movement and revenue data. The program has been working very well for over a year. However, all of a sudden the data import performance has markedly slowed during the daily data import. What used to take about 90 seconds now takes almost 5 minutes. During the import process I can see the record count "slider" on the left incrementing one by one as it moves through the records. It never used to do that. It seemed to occur when the number of records in the "cars" …

In my database I have a university selection button that when pressed a new window with a portal opens in order to select the university. It works perfectly except every time I click on the button I get the impression that everything but the newly opened selection pane flashes white. It's very annoying visually and I've tried using the Freeze Window script but that doesn't change any thing. Does anyone have any ideas? Let me know if you need further information.

Hi there We started to use a FMP solution for our contact data management. Therefore, I imported data from various excel docs and somehow together with the import of the contact data some style data was imported too. Means: when I go through the FMP database now the data appears in different styles on the layouts. Text in the field is sometimes grey, sometimes black, sometimes arial, sometimes some other lettertype. It hurts my eyes and it looks unprofessional. How can I force the data to be showed in the style I defined when creating the layouts? Do I have to write a script and let it run through the whole data mountain to remove text styles? Or do we have an…

I am using a url shortcut to open a remote db hosted on FM server. I have both FM 8.5 and FM9 instaled on the clirnt machine. When I when i Click on the shortcut it opens the remote wirh FM9 but I want it to open with FM 8.5. I can't figure out hoe to change the default program. Any Ideas?

Hello! This beginner is stuck! I set up a simple invoice layout, and wanted to insert a jpeg made in Photoshop for the company logo. Two things went wrong that I don't understand. 1. When I do "insert" "picture" the jpeg comes in about 20 times too big, despite the fact that the logo measures (in inches) slightly smaller than the field measues (in inches). I've tried just inserting the logo directly onto the header, and I've tried putting it in a field -- behaves the same both ways. Does anyone know what I can do to fix that? 2. I dragged the graphics handles until the logo was small enough, and thought it was weird but would be OK. Then I printed out a te…

I have a database with a many to many relationship between 2 tables tblMedia containing container fields and tblProducts. Could I use portals to display media in tblMedia on a layout based on tblProducts TO? Does this work the same way as for text fields? Or Can portals display media fields?

I want to show a listing of the records entered in my customer database at the bottom of the screen. Any suggestions on what I "should" do?

A recent post got me thinking about error reporting. I do error trapping to prevent data corruption, but haven't implemented error reporting in my solutions. I like the simplicity of Genx's custom dialog. "Note to Developer:... " which can help diagnose problems and gives the user the tools to help the developer. What are other ways of error reporting that you've used? E-mail on error? Setting a $$log that gets written to an separate table on close? Include Get(ScriptName) and Get(LastError) in the $$log? I'm thinking out loud here, but don't want to reinvent the wheel so am interested in other's thoughts/practices. Thanks, David

I design databases for users who are not computer savvy and who inevitably scroll into the wrong record accidentally using the mouse wheel and screw up their records. Is there any way to turn that scroll function off?

One of the annoying things about FileMaker is, when you click on an area that doesn't have a field(just the background). An outline around all the editable fields shows up. Is there a way to turn that off?

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right section. I am wondering how I'd go about adding a paypal donation button to my filemaker solution. I just want to add a simple button the user can click and it will take them to paypal to make a donation. Paypal has a button creator, but it generates html to paste into a site. Not sure how to make it happen with a FM solution.

Hello all, I have a database for a school. I need to make IDcards with a photo of the student. Is there a way to take a photo with a webcam and insert it into the file, all from within filemaker? In other words, enter the student information, click button or something, capture the image insert into the photo container field. This has to be virtualy idiot proof.

I can't think of a good term to use for Contact Methods (which is pretty weak) that encompasses phone numbers and e-mail addresses. I want to name my Phone Numbers table something else, as well as label a portal appropriately. Any ideas for a term that covers e-mail, fax numbers, cell phone numbers, home phone numbers, pagers, etc?

Hi, I am looking for a way to create a database to be used to track information for a trade show. The basic database is easy, but I really want a graphical interface for it. Ideally, I would want a visual representation of the floor plan with small cubes that represent booths. Then I would like to be able to attach related information to these booths and be able to physically move them around. Maybe use color coding to quickly identify particular qualities. Or perhaps by rolling the mouse over a particular area of the box you get a pop-up with related data in it. I can imagine this type of tool as useful in other things too, such as school scheduling. It would…

I have access to the following tools... OS X Server 10.4 A Mac and a PC running Windows XP (eurgh) FileMaker Pro Advanced 8.5 Nokia N95 & if required FileMaker Server. I am developing my own system in FileMaker but need a more flexible Calendar/Appointment solution.... My partner currently picks up my business calls and makes my appointments in a conventional book. I want to move her over to a system that when she updates it I can see it via a secure online website (such as mine) and also synce it to my Nokia. iCal seems great but I want to be able to change alter and create new appointments too, also I want to integrate it with my …

Is it possible to lock just one record (or several) in a database so that it can not be modified in Browse mode? Thanks, Ed

any tips to mimic the feel of an actually web page as apposed to a form that is just meant to be filled out? im attempting to make a database for internet savvy useres as opposed to the standard database user

Now i know a number of ways of doing this ... but to be quite honest they all suck. I'm sure that i am missing something. I want to hilite the background of current record on a list view but i want to do it with a calculation and not by setting a global field. Problem is if a user switches to table view (and yes i lock the sidebar) i end up having to do all sorts of gymnastics to keep the current record hilited. I would also like this to be dynamic. I have worked out everything else in my default interface dynamically but this (although it can be done) seems alot more difficult than it should be. Bassically i want to do this with a calculation and…

Hi, I'm trying to build an appointment system and have seen a sql type version which allows you to drag appointments from say 5pm to 7pm, or from employee1 to employee 2 - does anyone had any experience of how this could be replicated within filemaker, am trying to convince the boss that Filemaker is the best!! ha ha Regards, Roy

I want to be able to display something like the attached picture. I have a table with project names that are organized into categories and I want to be able to display them sorted by their categories with category name dividers between the items in the list. This is obviously possible, and quite simple when using a sorted column/list report and having things separated by layout parts. But I want this look when in a standard browse mode looking essentially at a portal. I can probably create a mockup of this by using some graphics and some cumbersome sorting algorythms with relational filters, but I'd think there should be an easier way. Any ideas?

Hi! Can anyone give me a hint to get the FileMaker Themes Pack solution, as I understand it was available until Dec. 2006. Thanks in advance.

Those that have seen this project in it's several phases have made comments such as "That is totally insane!" : But I had fun making it! And now it's finished. I'll attach it here for anyone curious enough to look at it. I guess I'll consider it a proof that at the least I'm creative Would love to hear your comments and/or criticisms... SpaceInvaders.fp7.zip

Hi - Hoping this is a good forum for this question. Is it generally acceptable to use free/open source elements such as icons in a filemaker app that may be sold commercially - eg shareware? For instance, the scriptology theme templates have all sorts of great icons, but I can't make heads or tails of the license info. Not clear to me if I'm allowed to use them as buttons, etc in an app I'm developing or if they are only for use in other free/open source applications. THe license info seems to relate to not selling the actual collections of icons, but I couldn't find any language that seemed to be related to using them in something unrelated. Thanks for any advi…

Silly question, but I'm stuck. I've got a container field, set as global, with 2 repetitions. Each will have a different image (jpeg). I copy & paste an image into the field. All works great. Once I exit the database and re-open it, the field is again empty. What am I missing? How do I get my image to stick in the field? :P

I've been creating web-enabled databases for a school over the past year. They've been simple in that there's only one user who looks at the data from the web - the guest user. Sometimes, people will submit forms online that are individual records. Sometimes, we've created records within FileMaker that we want to make available for viewing (such as job postings). Now my school wants me to make a database where students can create their own "accounts" in FileMaker, where they'll be able to upload resumes, input their class schedules so as to avoid interviewing conflicts, and any other details that will be unique to their account. This is a level of database progr…

I have a script that will select an object that is a field, but what is the next step to get the cursor in that field ready for editing?

Hi, I have the following design doubt. I am thinking of creating an interface with a: - Left panel with menu selection (Companies, Contacts, Quotes, etc.) - Central panel with record by record view in a tabbed design - Right panel with a list view of all selected records. For instance, if a user selects Companies in the left menu: - the central panel would show one Company record, and would allow the user to navigate from record to record. - the left panel would show an Excel like list of all companies, allowing the user to jump from record 3 to, lets say, record 18 (assuming both records are present and visible in the right table). Can you …

i am trying to think of how to allow a user to navigate < and > through the last say 5 layouts visited similar to a web browsers back and forward buttons, and ideas? so far im thinking of variables or some form of list.

Hi I am trying to find a clever way of allowing a user to select from a list, multiple products, these will then be entered into a quote automatically for them. I have scripted this and it works well, but my problem is that the product list is available to all users, the box that is checked in each product record is a normal field and therefore two users could be checking (or unchecking) these fields if they were both trying to prepare a quote at the same time. What I really want is a field that will store for each record but work much like a global field storing the data for that session and for each user. I hope this makes sense - has anyone got any clever work ar…

Right now I have a fairly well developed database and I'm looking for a better alternative for one specific field. Currently I'm using one field inside each record where I type and keep track of assignment percentages. ie; Record 1 Percentage Assignment Field John Doe 25% Mary Two 25% Mike Little 50% All these names and percentages are in one field just typed out like shown. I'm sure there is a better way to do this. A couple notes: The names are rarely the same in each record. The number of names can vary from 1 up to 10 The percentages obviously change per record Any thoughts on how I might manage this info better is appre…

Hello, I working on a little pet project it is going to be my companies web site, for employees only, that uses all the filemaker data we as an originization have accumalted over the years. I want to make a forum for my field staff (200). I don't need to bother with different catergories and such, that can develop in time. I have a couple of begining concepts, but I wnted to see how other people would go about it. Currently I have two tables, one is going to be th ehome of the "Post", and the other table will hold the replies. One of the biggest hurdles I'm running in to is the need for infinite replies. I was thinking about truncating each rep…

Does anyone have Theme Creator? The download links don't lead anywhere useful. If you could let me have a copy, I'd appreciate it very much.

It seems like I've done this in the past... I am creating a long list of repeating fields. To help break it up to make it easier to read and follow each entry, I would like each alternate entry be gray. How does one do this? I am using 5.5 FMP. I can't find it in my books.... Help! Jeffrey

Hi, I am not sure this is the right forum for this question. If not, please excuse me. Here is my question: is there any way to implement a drag and drop functionality in Filemaker? (not in the web version, just the plain client/server network version). What I would like is, having 2 or 3 portals, to be able to select, drag from one portal and drop to the other portal and in this way stablish a relationship between line X in portal 1 and line Y in portal 2. A drop down list in portal 2 with the values in portal 1 is not a viable solution (too many lines in portal 1, among other reasons). Thank you and regards

This is my 2nd problem with current project. This one I don't really have any idea. I am designing a bookings database for an Entertainment company (electric bull, castles etc). I have the following tables. - Clients - Bookings - Products - Delivery Details All seems to be working OK, but I would like a report in a calendar layout for each month. can this be done, through Filemaker, or a third party plug-in etc? Something like this - standard online events calendar layout. http://www.calendarscript.com/demo/calendar.pl Many thanks Trevors

Using 8.5 Advanced on XP SP2. Problem has happened on all version 8 releases, and maybe 7 although I don't really remember. On imported graphics, things like a Photoshop border with a gradient shadow, when I stretch it, it starts to get lighter and lighter on the right side. The pixels start to disappear. If I put it in a container and then stretch it, same problem. Anyone see this before and have a solution? This never happened in 6 or below. Thanks, Steve

I've converted a Customized ValueList containing a code and code description to a related table occurance with an ID field, code field & code desription field. I need to load the existing records in the main table occurance with the values from the original value list. I've tried importing, I've tried doing a find on a particular value from the value list field and then attempted a replace field contents on the two new fields from the related table which are displayed on the layout of the main table occurance. It only worked on the record I was in. Is there any way of putting the correct codes and code descriptions in the matching records?

Hello forum I am trying to create a navigation the i can use on every page my book says set a table up, then put a field inside the table make it a container and global i have done this, then place your buttons, logo etc inside the field with the scripts all set up,. then you can just drag the field onto any page like as you would do with a web page header but i am having trouble getting this to work the field just appears blank if i try to make a relationship to another table the field is greyed out. this technique saves you pasting multiple buttons into layouts all you do is paste the field with all your buttons into the header of each page then when you come to e…

There seems to be an undocumented change in the format of what you get when you go to Preview mode and select Copy. - In versions before 7, you would get a VECTOR image that could be zoomed without pixelating (on a Macintosh, that would be PICT format, not sure what the Windows format was). - In version 7, this was changed - copying in Preview mode would get you a BITMAP image at screen resolution. - Having removed v.8, I cannot say what the situation was there, but with 8.5 you get a VECTOR image again, this time in the form of PDF (this is on OS X, where PDF is the native clipoard format - again, I have no idea what happens on Windows). Please hel…

Here is the scoop: I have employees each employee belongs to an area and to a crew I need a to make report that looks like the following: Area <> Report Header ----------------------------------------------------- Sat/Sun........Sun/Mon............Mon/Tue etc. Bill..................Steve..................Dave Lisa.................Amy...................Doug Fred................Harry..................Lydia Bruce..............----- -----..............Donna<--trainee John<--trainee (..........are spaces) body ------------------------------------------------------ So the report would find all the area f employe…

Anyone with experience working with text characters in the private Hex range (2000+) -- Unicode or other -- able to tell me how to get them to appear in a field or in the layout? Thanks. Dan

We've got some buttons we've created in FileMaker that have little pictures on them. The pictures look good on a Mac but on Windows they dont' show up. Get a little white box with black message...but it's so small I can't read it. Any info on how I can fix this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Just a thought can one remove the [x]close window box on win/mac, quite often users will click this thinking the newly navigated layout was a popup or new window, they click it to get back and obviously it closes the database. Just a thought.

I am redesigning a gui from scratch and the client wants Arial 12pt but I am saying Arial 11pt as its displayed mainly on 15 and 17" displays (Windows). What do you guys/gals suggest or use?

Hi i have decided to make our solutions area 900x600 as with the scroll bars, window title and status area it seems to fit on a 1024x768 window. When i tell FM to resize the window to 900x600 it doesn't allow for the actual window extras. what are the sizes of these bits so i can include them. Thanks.

In filemaker 8 is it possible to set up a tab control, then flip it on its side? I can't figure out how to do it, and it would seem silly if filemaker didn't allow this.

hello world, Does anyone know how to make a slide bar or something similar? for example, i want user to place or click a verticle line somewhere on the line, then we know the exact value . 0----------------------|--------------100 thanks a lot! -jayx3

Hi, im new to using Filemaker. I was wondering if there is a way to make a master layout? Say I have a set of standard buttons that appear on every layout in the same place, do I have to create (or copy and paste) them everytime. Copy and pasting them is ok, but getting them in exactly the same place everytime takes a lot of time (unless there is a easy way I dont know of yet). Help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou.

Hi all, I have a IWP database i'm building to tie into our main database for our UK partner. I'm trying to put in icons to make it easier to use for the end user. I found that video on filemakermagazine.com that shows you how to create a database with thousands of icons - its great - i could really use those icons. Only one problem Most icons i downloaded - look great in fmp, but when i log in to the IWP through the website - the graphic looks like crap! not smooth, or it has a black background instead of transparent. I missed out on the fmp graphics pack freebie a few months back - so now i'm trying to find some. I found a few old .fp3 files - but no…

First I'll lay out the context of what I'm trying to do (although I've approached this problem several times before on other projects only to abandon it when it became clear I wasn't getting anywhere). I am tracking meter readings and consumable levels on about a dozen or so printers, approx. 5 different models. Periodically I'll do a full audit on the status of the consumables in the printer and it's meter readings and what we have in reserve stock. What I'd like to do is define the consumable set (different across each model) and then build the layout automatically based on that. eg If printer = model a then display only fields relevent to that model r…

i'm not quite sure how to set this up... i have fields section number, procedure number, section name, subsection name, and procedure name they want it to be in a drop down like so: sectnumber.procnumber sectname:subsection:procedure they want it sorted by section number... i've tried a couple of things. i have had it all going to one field as a string and then it sorts the numbers like they were text instead of numbers: 1, 11, 3, 4 instead of 1, 3, 4, 11 so then i tried having list get two values...the section number and then the other information...so then the numbers sorted right...but then when i only wanted certain sections...it still al…

Is there a way that if I had a table of quotations that when the open script is run FMP could randomly select a quote (record) and display it as part of my opening splash screen? Steve PS I'm not charging the client for the time to develop this...It is just something fun I would like to add for a client who is always quoting "Jack Handy" for you SNL fans.

not sure if this is possible...or maybe it's a really simple answer... i have a drop down that is generated from the values of a field. right now it sorts the numbers...but it goes . 0 1 11 12 2 3 etc. is there a way to make it sort a certain way so that it would go . 0 1 2 3 11 12 etc. thanks :P

I have an application where it would be great to refresh a field to display the current time. In other words I want to automatically refresh the field every second to update the time for the user to view. How do I get Filemaker to refresh the field every second? Thanks!

Hi all, I hope someone might be able to help me out by shedding some light on my problem or even pointing me in the right direction. Please do let me know if I'm posting in the wrong section as this seemed like the most likely place. I'm a newbie at this so hope that you can be patient with me. Brief history: "I'm trying to create a simple solution for a database of properties transacted(sold) in my area. In this database, it would contain photos of the houses along with certain general details such as land sizes, the road name and postal number. There would be a table/portal to show the different sales transaction on that particular property." I have 2 p…

I have a database for a procedures handbook...there is a text field that will hold the text of documents, but cannot hold the pictures that would normally be included. The owner would like it so that somehow there would be placeholder links or something that when a reader is reading the document, could click to see the screenshots that would normally be there. He doesn't want to have to export files to open up the document. Maybe even a list of the screenshot files on the side...that could be opened up when the person got to a certain point in the file that they needed to see a certain picture. And how should I handle this in FileMaker? I'm new to it...should i…

Is there a way to show a dropdown list in a custom dialog box? When the user clicks "new" I want them to be able to choose which subsection it's going under and that value will fill in the subsection of the new form.

I'm setting up a new database to put a handbook into...there are sections (admin,sales,marketing, etc.) and sub sections(marketing_database, marketing_pricing, etc.). I have it set up so there is always the sections and the buttons change for the subsections depending on the section. On each subsection I have the usual fields (date, title, regarding, procedure text, etc.)...but on the main page of each section I wanted to put the section title and subsection titles with the articles listed as links to the articles under each subsection... like this kind of... Marketing Pricing Article1 Products Article2 …

I was hoping some one might be able to give me some help using windows, is there anyway to remove the side bar or make new windows act more like pop up windows online? I know the basics, resizing, tileing, movement etc. I just need some help on the more customizable aspects of the windows, if there are any.

is there a way to replace the buttons with custom buttons or arrows?

Current Setup: FMS 5.5 FMP 6—70% Flat File Migrating to: FMS 7 FMP 7 & 8 mixed I have started and restarted this project at least 10 times over the last month. The system has to be able to handle all aspects of our company, from quoting, order entry, creating job tickets for each line item on an order, then once the order moves out of entry phase. Each of the departments will access the jobs in a different way. Department 1: Quoting Department 2: Order Entry Department 3: Preproduction Department 4: Production Department 5: Shipping Department 6: Invoicing/Accounting I believe my attempts to follow the anchor~buoy method lead me astray whe…

Interface Rad by Dawn Heady Well AS new use do someone try to develop with this intersting tool ?

I'm not exactly sure where to approach this from, i don't usually work with multiple windows. I want to put in a progress bar on file open, seeing as it actually takes around 15 sec to open on a lan now and 30 or so externally, i think it's reasonable to put one in. I'm not exactly sure how to go about this however. What happens at the moment is the following: The fileopens, the window is resized to a login size, and a lot of jumping around layouts (while window is frozen of course) setting globals through relationships etc etc. occurs. While all this is going on, i want the window to be hidden and a progress bar to be present (hence the topic title) but i …

Basically i want to go through records waiting approx 10 seconds before fading to white then fading to the next record.. i.e. a slide show?.. is this possible at all or should i just build a seperate application in vb or something and sych the data? Cheers, i know its a bit of a wierd question for a database

I want to create a custom icon for my database template as opposed to the standard fmp icon. I am able to do this for my file on Mac, however the icon does not always remain when emailed or transferring to Windows. Is there a way to map an icon for my solution that will remain there permanently?

Has anybody tried to create transparent icons in version 8 the way you could in 6 and earlier...rotate 90 deg, cut, paste special, rotate 270, etc? It doesn't seem to work for me anymore. The size of the pasted icon changes, and I can't remove the background. Steve

please take a second to post a picture or sample file of you favoriate or only layout design. i am always looking to learn about layout design and what better way then sharing with your peers here is mine: my layout

I have a portal on a tabbed page. The layout background is black, my tab background is grey, the fields + labels are a black font. When I try to add a record to the portal it highlights the row in black so I can't see what I am typing. Now I could just change the type to another colour but I would rather not. Please can anybody help with the minor irritant?!

I am sure this topic has been covered in this forum, yet the search feature has not led me to the information. Does anybody have a tutorial for creating a complex graphic interface in Filemaker? This tutorial would not focus on creating the graphics and UI theory. It would focus on the tables, fields, and scripts behind a user interface solution. It represents a quick start guide for creating a database. The tutorial would form easy to follow steps for a beginner to intermediate level. It would explain all the container fields and their placement on the layout. It would cover primary & secondary tabs; check boxes, highlight masks, sort graphics, and slider cont…

how do you save custom colors...because i have a data base that is all custom colors and everytime i close the program i have to recreate them

I'm looking for other developer's to post their thoughts on the use of a 'back' button. I've read other developers mention they don't let users search - currently I have only one separate window dedicated for searching company and client records. Before the internet, the closest thing I can remember in 20 years as a computer user, is the 'undo' option, and then later the multiple 'undos' from the likes of PhotoShop. I worked with a girl who got to the point that she tried to 'undo' things in her real life, like making the wrong turn in heavy traffic - this same girl also used to dream of tetris, but that's an other story . . . I'm not talking about bei…

.. yeh i want to hide the standard filemaker toolbars, automatically... any scriptsteps for this? i.e. hide the standard and text format toolbars... cheers, genx

Of course my wife woudl say I need fashion advice in all areas of my life.. but I'll turn to you guys for this one. I'm starting with some new "looks" for my solutions. My orignal "look" had been a regualr, traditional tabbed layout with buttins accross the top.. this served me well for the past 10 years. Lately I've gotten goofy with Photoshop and started playing around. The past year I've used the tab type layout with a yellow bar for patient/client's name. However, with the new "Theme Library" from Scriptology I was inspired to try a Windoze XP look. I thought this might be more natural to the users. Before I spend a lot of time in any one of the looks…

I'm sure this topic has been covered somewhere before but i cant find it, search is really a bit not so good on fm forums... anyway, when you click a button in the form of a field or text etc... The colour on the button inverts... this does not look good, anyway to turn it off in filemaker or button properties or something?

I have a database of several hundred names (local) and need get addresses. I expect that most names can be found in on-line directores such as anywho.com or whitepages.com. Is there any way I can query directories like that and pull down matching addresses? And if so, how? Thanks!

Greetings! We have a subcontract form that we use at the office. The info is entered in an entry screen, then when Print Subcontract is selected, it prints out the contract. This form is 8 pages in length, with it being huge text boxes with fields inserted where they need to be. Is there a cleaner,(different) way to do this that you all have an opinion on? We are migrating everything over to 8, and I got to this file. Thanks. Donnie

Whilst browsing the forum I came across a posting from Paolo entitled "Storing interface graphics into globals", which caught my eye. Post#148593 I've only recently started adding graphics to layouts via container fields, as a result of which it's been a new experience to discover globals dropping their values when a file is cloned, and finding a cure has been on my list of things to do ever since. Which is why Paolo's comment "When the file is loaded, the startup script takes care of loading all the graphic elements from a graphic-elements-table into the globals." How do I set about doing this myself? To my mind, graphics get stored in container fields and …

I would like to be able to have a drop-menu that when you select one of the values from a list it will automatically run a script as soon as the selection is made without having to perform any other additional action such as clicking on a button or choosing a script from the script menu. For example, I have a database of furniture which includes categories of chairs, tables, beds, mirrors, sofa's, etc. I want to set up a field as a drop-menu of the above listed furniture categories and perform a find on the selection. So if I pull down mirrors in the drop-menu I want the database to find and show just those items that are mirrors. And I want the find to happen the…

is there a way to save a custom layout theme...changing all the colors everytime i make a new layout is starting to get annoying