Interface Design Discussions

or: "how many buzzwords can i get into a subject heading?" i'm trying to write a script that when you "delete" a record (thru a scripted button, _not_ thru the records menu), it exports it to another file. this way, we can "delete" records, and still access them later if we need to, but not look at them all the time. (we enter all our phone calls from potential customers, and need to keep track of who's called. the customers who never call back i'd like to keep track of for advertising purposes, and in case they call back, i can show that they called, etc.) anyway, the way i'd like to do it is have a detel record button on the main layout, and when you click that…

On a Mac I do not like the window that encases ones layouts. So I prefer Kiosk mode. Ofcourse this takes away the menu bar and keyboard shortcuts. Is there any way to not use Kiosk mode but still to get rid of the unused window edges? Any other alternatives? Peter

OK,... How are all of you coming up with those custom 3D buttons? Is it all in creation, or are there plugins & downloads?

My standard db is 240kb. I have a 20kb graphic to insert. I am using a global container and from browse mode using the insert, picture to insert my graphic. So then why is my db blowing out to 1.4mb when i am inserting a 20kb graphic into a global??? I understand that it may be a bit more than 20kb to deal with the graphic, but 1+mb seems a bit ridiculous. Any ideas?

I want to disable the close/minimize/restore boxes in the upper right corner of the window so users can't close or exit the database. Is there a plug in that will do that or another solution?

It seems that if there is not data to summarize in a report I get question marks. How can I suppress those question marks?

i've seen several examples of how to make a new status area, which enables the use of all that empty space under the status area, but i'm having a problem. i set a calc field to status(currentfoundcount), and it works, but it only shows the first counted set. after i do more than one find, the same number hsows up, no matter how many found records there are. is there a way to turn the restore find request off for currentfoundcount? i can't seem to find one. thanks! oh, and any other advice anyone has on how to make "my" status area look more like fmp's status area would be greatly appreciated. there's all that primo gray real estate looking to be developed. …

hi all I have several text fields, some of which are displayed on more than one layout. These fields have different font sizes on the different layouts. No problem so far. A user has changed the font size within the text fields for some records, so now both layouts display those records in that same font size. How do I remove all user-modified font formatting & return each layout to using its own defined font size? Have tried formatting field on the layout, removing & re-adding the field... no joy! Perhaps I have Mondayitis, but I cannot yet see a solution. thanks!

Either i'm totally missing this, or i'm just confused, but how in the world do you change a background in a layout (i'm not talking about putting an image in, but like if you used one of the ready-made ones and wanted to change it) Thanks

does anyone know of a way to set the tab order on one layout to jumo to another layout? for example: layout1 has field1, field2, field3. layout2 has field4, field5, field6. during data entry, i want to start in field 1, tab thru until i'm at field6. i know i can just make another ("data entry") layout, but i'm trying not to do that if i can manage. thanks in advance! josh

Well, I have a db called Client. Then I designed all the pretty layouts, etc. I added all the fields, the StatusBar calcs, Layouts: Menu, Lists, Portals, finds, global containers for buttons, etc. and I was getting ready to add my 'wish' items such as Undo features, User Preferences to eliminate deletes, Log tracking field by field. But wait ... I want consistency through my system. I want these things in EVERY db that Users will interact with. Geez, I was getting tired just thinking about repeating this process through the next 11 dbs (not to mention 5-20 layouts each. My question is: Is it acceptable practice it built it backwards (so to speak)? Maybe cr…

Does anyone know how I might be able to set up alternating row colors? i.e. white, gray, white, gray and so on. Also on how to highlight a particular row when you click on them? Thanks.

is it possible to insert a pdf into a container field ? how do you do that? Thanks in advance...

Can anyone suggest a good web cam (sub $100) that can be used in a Filemaker application. Take an employee's picture and add picture to employee file and then display back again in a FM database. Thanks.

I have this search string in a global field: '9/1/2002...9/1/2003' I need to enter the find mode and set a date field to that string so it will find a range. Yet the script 'set field' enters it as '12/22/2497'

Here is a strange one. In my solution I have a simple list view. When login with full access (fm build in security) the list displays quick and normal. But when user login with restricted password (can't: design layouts, or edit scripts) the list takes a very long time. I have only two passwords, master and user. No groups or layout restrictions. I found the calc that is causing the grief: If(Mod(Status(CurrentRecordNumber), 2) = 1, GetRepetition(acVar:_icon, 2), "") I am highlighting alternate rows in a list view. This has always worked fine because I usually get the graphic from a global field in the same file. Except this time…

I've created a FMP repository database to track information about Quicktime movies. My Question is: Does anyone know a way of retrieving information from the "Get Movie Properties" in a quicktime movie and display it in the FMP database? I would like to display information about the Quicktime movie such as: Format, Frame Rate, General etc. Can this be done by using a script or calculation?

I am creating some simple reports for a client but as usual I have it a snag. Part of the questionnaire has a section for the callers behaviour. This is a checkbox field and it can have multiple checks. So the caller could be calm, or calm/frieghtened along with various other choices. The report is a subSum on Behaviour but how can I break a multi checked field into individual counts. Although it is one record I need a count for each behaviour check. I am thinking that it will have to be some kind of a portal or even a CDML solution but thought I should check with the FM-borg, to see if I can keep it a report solution.

is it possible to change the default window size and position of a shared file (w/FMserver), accessing it remotely? or i do have to stop sharing, open it locally, changing window s/p...? I hate to do that every time!!: thank you

Is there a way for a Container or Calc field to display a picture based on a URL source of the a picture? For example, if I have field with the URL that comes form an XML source, for example: http://www.napaonline.com/images_products/full_sized/101055.jpg and I want it to be displayed in a field.

A lot of computer programs allow us to access labels when building templates. The label definitions are for Avery. In my old FM for Win3.1, I'd have to build the label spefifications manually, a very time-consuming and not accurate process no matter how much fine-tuning done. I believe this is now automated (or I misunderstood a post from a year or so ago in a newsgroup). Trouble is, can't find references to this. I know that I might be asking wrong questions in help and in google searches, but was hoping someone could point me in right direction. As I said, I'm not even sure if this can be done yet, but am hoping. FMP6 is what I have. Tx!

Hi guys, I'm working on my new invoice layout and something strange is driving me mad! I have a number of labels on the screen formatted to size 9, font Verdana. When I click in the label to make a change, then exit the label, the font size changes to 8!! Every time! I've been changing it back by selecting the object and changing the font size back to 9. I suppose I can live with this, but oh boy what a pain... anybody know what's going on?

I am looking for a work around to tab vertically up and down through my records. Does anyone know a method for doing this?

Hi, I am putting together a complex database solution in FMD6 everything on the screen is a jpg graphic, designed in photoshop (apart from text etc) I am building up an object reference with exact pixel locations for each button or whatever element, Now, yesterday something odd happened - all my graphics are still in the right places on the screen, exactly, but their location in pixels changed! it moved left by 31 pixels. when this happened I checked out various things. In an old version of my DB in backup I find that my background graphic, which is 1020 x 765 pixels (exactly the right size to fit on a 1024 x 768 screen) was pushed up and l…

I would like to report average age for male and female in a class in a school. I would like to see the numbers side by side in a report showing stats for school, sub stats for class. But the average function is not accurate because it is summing all the students. I unterstand that I could run a gender sort first but that would duplicate the report and make it visual hard to see male vs femail data.

I have a tabbed interface... relational DB... so, I often have situation where pressing a button goes to another file. When going to another file, Freeze Window doesn't prevent the window from being displayed with whatever it had before, and then adjusting to whatever layout the real destination is. This is ugly in an inconsistent way (since to the user, its all just tabs of one application... but some tabs do the herky-jerky, while others transition smoothly... making it unsettling). So, how do I settle this down? Do I need to Hide the destination Window, get it to switch to the right layout while hidden, and then unhide it? But won't Go to Layout and Go to…

I had started this menu bar some time ago. Does anyone has an idea where it can lead me ?

Hi All! I have a database of pages of a newspaper, and to set it up quickly, every page contains a number of gaps, and every gap is being made to contain a number of ads, each of those is a seperate table. Now, I made a calculation in the pages database that returns the status of the page. If every gap on the page has the field 'Printed' set to 1, then, it equals 2, if some are set to 1 but not all, it equals 1, if none are set to 1, it equals 0. Then, I have a container field, which if the page status is 2, it shows a global field containing a green bar, 1, a yellow bar, 0, a red bar. The purpose of this is so that in the parent DB, where I have a portal showing all…

Does anyone have any knowledge regarding an interface between iCal and FM? I thought I saw an article on it (possibly a forthcoming version). I use iCal now and would love to just link them rather than get a new FM based calendar. Thanks, Carlo

Hi, I've tried searching for this, because I know i've seen it, but can't find it again I was sure La Retta made comment about how you could change the colour of the background according to the mode you were in.. I might well be dillusional, but I"m sure i saw it! I'm absolutely certain it was nothing to do with creating a coloured global container, but it was more like a status(currentmode) or something like that. Would be good to know if this was possible, and how you do it. Cheers Jan P.S i did search for both the US version - color, and the "english" version "colour" (i'm not doing typos!)

Due to the nature of my new layout, i have used buttons rather than words. As some button pictures are perhaps a tad difficult to decipher, is there a feature available, much like the ALT code (DIV of old) in HTML that will allow you to have a little yellow pop-up (label) explanation on links. Another example of this feature is your standard hover tag that comes up in most msn products. Cheers Jan

hi All, i need to create graphs from infromation gathered within an fm pro 6 db. and was thinking of exporting the informationin to an excel file as this seems the easiest and cheapest method. The way i was thinking was to export the info from a script in to the source fields within excel. this would then create the graph - i think!! I was wondering if anyone has done this successfully. Any advice on this would be appreciated Thanks in advance, ricardo

Hi could someone please tell me what you need to edit the way a report looks in web view in FMP 6.0, I have used the set ones like (soft gray and Blue and gold1) but it would be good to create my own, What software would be best to do this and how would I set it as the web view from FMP. Thanks for any help CHRIS

I copied some buttons from some templates in the sample section, but now that I've spent hours working with Photoshop to personalize them (changing colors from blue to orange, which is my company graphic chart), the interface created is really a disaster when I navigate using the buttons as tabs. Even with the freeze option in the scripts. I use FM 5.5 and an Imac G3 Is that that the images created in Photoshop use too much memory. Is there another problem. What kind of application do some of you use to create their own buttons. Thanks

I'm building my new database using a Tab bar interface. Jumping from one file to another is so easy with this kind of interface, but it is difficult to determine if jumping from file A to file B should : - drive you to a related record or not. - drive you to a specific layout I thought of a mini transparent button placed on the lower part of each "button" of the tab that would allow the user to either go to a related record or simply jump to the file showing all records, but this would work in a single user (the user knows that this button exists) Are there some tips for building such an interface ?

As it is possible to set a self relationship gHook(number from calc =1)::cHook (global number = 1) and as portal can be filtered and sorted, would it be reliable to only use portals to show the records in my layouts, keeping obviously the lists and tables for editing and printings. This kind of interface would allow for exemple to have a header for a tabbed interface and a personalized status area at left. What could be the cons for such an interface ?

Hope someone can help. We are trying to design a Mouseless and keyboardless data entry layout for an Touch screen application. All data entry must be by touching the Alphanumeric keyboard design We have designed the keyboard (Querty style) but cannot find a way to implement the "Backspace". "delete" or "back or forward arrow keys" Any ideas??? Thanks

You can toggle between open files by going thru the "Window" menu and selecting the file (DB) you want, but can you make a button do this?? I've been trying to figure this out for a while and I'm stumped.

I have a form which displays a lot of Client information. It contains approx 15 fields and two portals (one 3-line and one 8-line). When I jump to FIND, it takes several seconds to bring up find. This isn't a scripted find, just regular one. It scans down the page in slow motion until it reaches the end, THEN jumps to field one to open fine mode. I've never seen anything so funky looking. I have no scripts attached, very basic standard form. No calcs, nothing that I'm aware of which would cause this behavior. Any suggestions on speeding up (and smoothing out) this process?

It has come to my attention by a User (me) that the color of layouts is important. I thought having the same color (consistency, you know) through all of my db's was better than having lots of different layout colors. Problem: When working between several dbs, even though the heading clearly shows which db I'm on, I will occasionally 'forget' which db I'm in (silly but true) because they're all the same color. I know I could leave the choices to the Users (using global containers for backgrounds), but I'm not sure I want to do that. So I thought, have one db (Service) one color, the Client db another, etc. My question is this: How do ya'all use colors througho…

I have a contacts db and i want to add in a history of notes as people log there details. I would like a notes icon which when pressed opens a new linear layout containg a short description and when clicked can expand into the full notes record. Is it best to create in the contacts.db or create another db.

If you have ever looked into "Pole Displays" (those things next to a cash register with the green text), you know that they are A) A pain to set up (Serial commands, etc.) : Expensive and complicated (Pole Display, Serial Adapter, Troi Plugin) C) Usually green text... blue is even more expensive E) lastly, you'd need to make sure a script runs whenever you add a product to an invoice (so the description/price would be sent to the pole display) The whole setup could end up costing $600CA ($400 US) plus development time, and what do you end up with? An ugly pole next to your screen with 2x20 characters of text, that most customers won't even look at anyway! …

Anyone know how i can get my hands on a ISBN databse for use in one of my soultions.

Not sure if this one belongs here or in the Portal Forum.... I have a portal on my layout showing 20 rows, which is the maximum number of related records. For design reasons, I want to "split" the portal, i.e. have two portals showing 10 records each. Now obviously if I just put another portal on the layout, it'll show the same related records as in the first portal. Is there a calc I can use to get the 2nd portal to show the records from row 11 onwards from the 1st portal? Something like "GetPortalRow" - which I don't think exists? I don't want to use a scroll bar, as I want the records visible at all times so that the user is able to click on any one of the …

One thing I've always found troublesome and time consuming was making all my fields be align and have space distributed evenly. Say I'm making a customer database that has 20 fields, mailing address, names, contact info and the like. Then have them all grouped in different areas (addresses all in one area, phone numbers in one) separated by horizontal lines or something like that. To align them I'd use the T-square or the 'align by...' command, and use the same for distribution of space. What I find is that when all the fields are eye-balled into place and you distribute the areas one by one, the spacing can but off by 1 pixel or 2 since the space between o…

In my DB, in list view, I would like to add a field in the header that would the record i selected in the line items appear bigger (for telephone number for instance) Is it possible ? The fields in list view are "No Allow Entry". We can edit them only in Form. I tried using the fields of the line items as a button, but it doesn't work.

i have set up 5 db (graphic inventory, graphic orders, line items, project info & vendors) we need to set graphic inventory & orders for use via the web (using IWP). I've set up Web Companion & sharing but the layout that shows up via the browser is all wrong or if I go to edit via browser the correct layout shows up but some for the fields are missing or placed incorrectly or both. PLS HELP!

From a usability standpoint, data validation can be extremely helpful or extremely annoying, or anywhere in between. This thread is intended to collect experience and opinions on how much data validation is too much or too little in different situations... 1) GENERAL QUESTIONS a) Strictly enforced loose validation vs. tight validation but allow override? In many validation situations, you can choose to provide very restrictive validation to help catch mistakes 95% of the time... but would need to allow override because you'll get some false-negatives. However, lazy users will often just override and put in bad data. Alternatively, you can disallow user over…

I use a layout that contains either my sale price and my purchased price. I would like to mask the purchased price because some clients (impressed by FM Database?) are constantly looking to my computer and layout while I register their orders... I actually masked the field with a colored badge that I put on the field itself, so that I must click in the field to have access to the datas. But even when I click in any part of the layout, or while executing a script, the badge disappears. The solution I found so far is to use a color for the text that makes it difficult for someone to read...even for me ! Is there another solution ?

Right Brain doesn't seem to be getting as much traffic after the forum re-org... but here's another query... What have you all found more effective for your users: To have fields to select all the contents on entry, or just put the cursor at the end? Do you tend to go with one way or the other for a whole layout? or app? Or do you tend to make different choices based on the contents of the field? For example, a Y/N Boolean field should always select all on entry... there's never a time when you want to just add to the end of it... you either replace the whole or leave it alone. For notes fields, or other long, accumulating text fields, its…

I keep running across dbs that have all fields and items locked. For the life of me, I can't understand why. When I go to layout I WANT to move things and that's why I go to layout. I suppose that, once something is positioned *for sure* exactly where you want it, you might want to lock it; or if someone else might be messing around in layout that could accidently move something, but ... are there other reasons? I find it irritating to constantly have to unlock an item to move it? Is there something else I'm just not getting?

Hi, im having problems setting certain layouts as Portrait and other as landscape. When I change the a layout to Portrait it changes all the layouts. I only want Portrait on one layout and I would like the rest to be Landscape, Is this possible? Thanks For any advice. CHRIS

Has anyone ever implemented Excel-style field completion? It feels like something that would require a plug-in.

Besides data validation (covered in my other thread), what other techniques do you all use to improve data accuracy? Background I just finished importing data from our prior six databases into my one new one in FMP. In doing so, I found hundreds of data errors. Some I fixed automatically. Others I simply detected and generated error reports so that we can go back and manually fix them. Some of that error detection was done with checks that can be mapped to validations. But a lot of the rest was done by comparing duplicate or overlapping data for consistency. Now that I have everything in one database, the redundancy is gone (good), but the ability …

Does anyone know if Chartmaker pro will work in a runtime solution in either kiosk mode or just runtime? Secondly what are people's thoughts about this product to display simple graphs? Thanks

I saw a db demo that had a button that made fields appear. I forget where I downloaded it from and I didn't save it. I believe it was done with a portal. Has anyone seen this db, I believe it was on this site or one of the other major Filemaker sites? Thanks LL

This seems very simple but I cannot resolve it. Reasonably new to Filemaker. We have a portal which has a button and text field in the header. The button just opens a related file. When entering data all is fine for the fields etc but the open button on the left is only visible on the top entry not any of the others. The button is 'hidden' behind the portal as the hand appears when you pass over it. I have brought the button to the front but the top one appears why not the others as lines are added? Secondly I have another portal which is for linking files to a certain contact. I have this already done on another page so just copied and pasted and re-did the relation…

Hello, I have been wracking my brain for 3 weeks trying to get something to work on my own without any success so I am hoping for a few pointers here. I have a small comic shop in Indiana and I am trying to get our internal subscription service organized. I need to generate 2 lists. The first list is the customer want list by comic title. The second list is to find every title and give me a number of how many are needed for that title. Now I have been able to create the customer want list from a value list(s). That works fine. But I have been unable to automate the list for the list of books and how many are requested. I could really use some pointer…

I am having all sorts of trouble trying to find out about a calendar solution but haven't seen anything yet that fits. We have 5.5 server and FM 6 clients on OS9. We have a scheduler built into our database but the key is to make it a proper appointments style calendar with a pop up alert to notify about meeting etc. Maybe this isn't practical. At the moment we are exporting to the palm calendar software. We use Quickmail in the office which I want to get rid of but Entourage seems to be the best free option on the client side and we are going to use the calendar in that. Do anybody have any ideas. Are there sloutions that do this. The problem seems to be the time …

Hi, Does there exist a (preferably free) Calendar object available that would display a calendar that could be used to store and retrieve info to/from Filemaker? (ie click on a day square and generate a query). Thanks, --Gray Fox

I'm creating a software Database. 1 Record would hold info such as Software, N

Do ya'all feel it's necessary to provide an EXIT button on every layout. After all, isn't that what the windows 'X' is for? I plan on having buttons or bars to allow Users to go BACK to previous menu (or main menu) but an EXIT FM? Is it really necessary?

I want a series of buttons across the top of every layout in every db for User navigation. Example: Home, Clients, Staff. Then, within Clients, the 'menus bar options would be 'Billing, Reports, etc. I am considering the differences between Pop-Up Lists, Pop-Up Menus and Drop-Down Menus. I believe that, by using globals, I can place anything in pop-ups (?) i.e. my own 'lookups' to active scripts (New Record, Open related DB) etc.)? Current considerations: 1) If I use Pop-ups, the field would always 'display' the current selection and I would prefer it display the "main button title' after selection. Example: A user selects reports but when finished with report…

I'd definately be interested in seeing it. You can attach images to posts here. I'm always looking for good interfaces that I can "borrow". To start things off, here's an interface that I build for a recent client. The first one is a list view for the companies database. Entering text in the field at the top filters the data in the list. Records can be flagged by shift clicking a record, and then a flag appears next to the record. Columns in the portal can be sorted by clicking on them. Clicking on a records takes the user to a detail screen (the General tab). The user can find the marked records by using the button at the top right. The Unmar…

One of the things I've tried to figure out how to do is to cut out parts of FMP. Currently, I've been using my screendump (or screenshot) program since it can cut out with precise crosshairs and then either save to clipboard or save to file. As you can imagine, having a third party app do this is not good since it's not as accurate as is needed. Re using something like Paint Shop Pro, the weird thing there is that graphical elements taken out of FMP, manipulated in PSP and then put back into FMP change size which again means not an accurate way to do this. Now before messing around with figuring out if any of these elements have an actual/real pixel size, etc., a…

1. Is there another technique besides "Show message"? The amount of text it allows is very limited. I'd like to have a popup like it but that allows for more text. 2. Re the "Show message" itself, the title bar just says "Message". Is there any way to changs this? I'm using this technique as an "about" or "info" popup box and would prefer to have the title bar say "About Recipe Cataloguer v1.0", or something like that. Can we do this?

I have experienced in several different situations that a Portal will make other objects that might be tucked behind it on a layout to behave irratically. My current issue is that I have created multiple layouts that simulate the appearance of additional windows of information being open or closed. In one of these I have a portal which in reality is sitting on a rounded-rectangle graphic object (for the window) which in turn is overlapping a calculated field that is returning a graphic as its result. The graphic doesn't show, but the border of the portal by the scroll bar looks funky. Is this just an issue because it is a field that it is ovelapping? Even tho…

I've been looking for a navigation bar I saw in a demo in last few days. I opened up all of my kept ones (and I have a ton!) but I can't find it. I currently have first, previous, next, last and find, new and delete buttons as individual icons. I'm thinking that since I've changed the layouts so much (to tabbed interface), that although a solid bar with buttons on it would be better - even if it is much plainer. It'll make the user's life easier as it's too busy-looking as it stands. I've attached what my bar looks like across the top where the tabs rest on. Thanks!

I have seen Company names in the place of scripts on the top menu bar. http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/ All of his demo's (not developer solutions) have his company name in the place of scripts. How is this done? BTW his demos have opened my eye's to some cool things that can be done. I would love to know how he mahe that drop down menu - is it another layout?

How is that lined background done? I see it often in the niftier layouts. Wanted to add to one of my layouts so I made a copy of Graphite template and took everything out in an attempt to de-construct it to figure it out. Nothing. I checked in all the pulldowns for clues but again came up blank. Any help appreciated (and I've attached a screenshot of what I'm talking about, just in case. It's how to do all those lines across the background).

I have borrowed (stolen) a beautiful heading from Cobalt Sky, shown on his demo file Portal Range Finder (can be downloaded from his website). This text consists of three overlapping text fields. I want to use this heading on each form view throughout my designs. It appears I need to edit the text on all three independently and the only way I can do that is to split them and move them a bit apart. However, after changing the text, I can't realign them in the exact same sequence. Is there an easy way to accomplish this, or a system on stacking & aligning them to speed up my theft?

Dificulty is because I don't want to use any more graphics. Since I started changing my db to a tabbed interface type, its basic size is growing and I don't want to add to that with another pic. I'll be making the layouts that are left into tabbed ones, too, since it's important to the db, but want to keep the splash simple but definitely make it more exciting. I'm attaching my boring one and was hoping others could share any of their splashes that they fill fit the bill of no graphics yet interesting. Thanks.

I have, gloriously, inhereited a databse from another developer, now long gone, in it, I have a layout, called 'Help' which is, apparanetly, corrupt, as it freezes the entire computer, to where I have to do a hard boot, every time I go to it, in any mode, under any circumstances. I want to get rid of it! Its sittig there in a list of layouts, waiting to be selected, waiting to have some hapless developer choose it and corrupt the whole file because it hangs halfway through some important thingy. How can I kill it, though, if I can go to the layout first? Thoughts? Feelings? I tried cloning the dB - it still freezes...

Is there any way to lock part of a layout from scrolling?? We use large layouts for data entry and have many buttons to perform various tasks. the problem is that when you scroll down to the bottom of the layout the buttons on the upper part are no longer visible can you scroll part of the screen but not all of it?? I need the data to scroll but not the buttons. I tried breaking the data up into different layouts to keep from scrolling down, but that didn't go over well. Some people!!! they don't want to change layouts for data entry but they gripe about having to scroll to the buttons. What can I do?: Thanx

Other than the obvious - being able to change a graphic caross a solution by changing the object in a global container field - I'm wondering if there is any speed/network/file size benefit from doing this? Also - I know that graphics made in FMPro are more friendly to networks, etc. than a bitmap, JPEG, etc.. However, do you maintain this advantage by using global contianers rather than pasting them (FMPro graphics) directly onto the layout? In other words, do global contianers nuetralize any benefits particualr graphic types?

My company uses five separate FM databases. I would like to have one interface that will launch any of the five when the user selects it. Thus, to the user, making it seem like we have one unified databases, instead of five separate ones Any ideas on how to do this? Thanks

I have a runtime solution which involves a lot of user text entry. How do I include a dictionary which will enable the spellcheck to work for the user? The solution is for mac and PC. Also, I don't wish to have to worry about copyright issues when it comes to including a dictionary.

I know Arial and Times are the recommended cross-platform fonts. But at small font sizes, Arial is ugly. And its bold is barely distinguishable from plain. Are there good alternatives? I found two messages advocating Verdana as cross-platform. Anyone had troubles with it? (It is better looking than Arial, though its a bit wider than ideal.) I found one message advocating Tahoma as cross-platform. Anyone had troubles with it? (It is probably a bit better looking than Verdana, and is not quite as wide.) I believe Lucida Grande and Helvetica are problematic cross-platform. Anyone dispute that? Finally, is it really Times or Times New Roman that …

Okay, within a file I have numerous layouts that use a tabbed metaphor (you can see it if you like in the Template I posted to the Sample Files forum). As you move between layouts, everything is aligned such that the tabs don't move. But how do you handle when tabs take you to different files? The desired appearance is that you're in the same window, just a different tab. For that, the window shouldn't move! But you can't reposition windows, can you? And you can't lock the position of a window, can you? You can't say open this window in the same spot as the current window, can you? So, it seems the only solution is to Maximize the window. But that's icky,…

I'm trying to make an invoice that has the company's logo in the header. The orginal logo came from an EPS file. I copy and paste it from Photoshop 7 into my layout and it looks fine there. Just when I print does the background (what is white in the pic) prints black. I've tried flattening the image, saving it as jpg, resizing it in PS7 and crying. Nothing seems to work. Anyone else run into this? Got any ideas?

This is a pretty simple thing I do in Excel all the time, but I can't find a Filemaker equivalent in the documentation. In the footer of a report, I need to show "Page 1 of 5". The first part (current page number - "##") is easy, but I can't find something which will display the total number of pages.

I am doing a layout for CD labels. Is there any way to make a text field a shape other than rectangular; like in MS Word? I want the text to wrap around the CD because a rectangular shape really limits the usable space on a round disk. John

How do I copy a layout that I have developed for one FileMaker program (example: tabbed interface) to another FM program ? Thanks. Jack

Is there a way to make the window size (Max OSX, FMPRO v6) for a certain layout locked to a certain size? I want my master menu layout to have a certain size, then I go to a list layout, it is bigger, but when I go back to master menu, I want it to be small again. Sorry if this is confusing.

How do you all provide Help on your UI's? IDEA 1) I started providing little round "?" buttons that would Show Message with help info. But Show Message restricts itself to short messages (5 or 6 lines) and I don't like when I have 4 "?" buttons up, one for each section. IDEA 2) To solve the first issue, I can put the Help messages up in a separate layout. However, that takes the user out of context. Its better to popup the help off to the side so the user can continue looking at what they're getting help on. IDEA 3) So, I am thinking of providing a "?" help button that sets a global to true, and then all my buttons check that global and if true simp…

So I've searched all the posts, I'm not sure why it wouldn't make more sense to build my own calendar solution from the ground up than to purchase one and then try to incorporate that into my way of thinking. Especially if all I really want is to be able to view booked dates in week and month views. Anybody know of either a site, tech article, or book that would get me on my way?

Been working on several databases for Windoze environments and would love to force the look of Mac OS down their throats. I've found a few files - one in french, that have Mac OSX style buttons - but they are mainly just sample of aqua pill style buttons and tabs - they are great - but I want more of the printer icons, etc.. I've got lots of file of all the old FMPro common files - liek the 1000 buttons collections and such - but I'm looking for something newer. Any sugestions? Template.zip

i have a very large DB with about 45 related files and thousands of layouts. i have been given the wonderful job of reworking, consolidating and sprucing up the menus. does any one know of some good layout themes or tricks to make a good looking menu system (flash colours and things to wow the clients and the boss) . its got to look good on PC and mac cheers

I have an object in a layout that wont come to the front no matter what I try (Bring to front, send everything else to the back). Is there something I am missing?

Is there a way to change the background color of a layout based on a field? I want to signify a specific type of user by changing the background color of the form when based on a field.

Running a main database with about 5 related files. Is there a way to be able to have the user change a password in the main file and be able to have it change in the related? Or does the user have to open each file individually and change the password that way. Ideally, it would be nice to have a global field in the main database where a default password can be entered. And then come sort of script would make sure that is the password for all the files. I know this probably is not possible, just thought I would ask. LR

I included the hide toolbar as part of a "Open" script for when the database is opened. But when a related database is opened from within the main one, the toolbars come back. I included the hide toolbars in the related database "Open" script, but this does not seem to help. Is there anything I can do about this? Or is this something that the Developer version of Filemaker is needed for? LR

Looking for a pre-done solution that fits a specific need. Looked at a lot of calendars, but cant find one that does the following: A calendar in the main database that shows a month view. A related database that is used for entering data. The data entered would be a start date and a finish date for a task. Then the main calendar would show this spread across the days inbetween. Most calendars i have seen let you enter a task date and time, but is specific to only one day. I need one that can spread across multiple days. Anyone know of such a calendar, freeware or retail versions? LR

I am looking for help. I want to put checks in the check boxes instead of X's any suggestions?

Can anyone tell me wheather FM6 will save an image as a jpeg within the database, In a way that I can see it on a form or reports, rather than as a larger image format as is the case with FM5.5

I have a form with basic Client infomation. Below are two portals with 5 lines each, showing recent activity on a client. When I select any field, or particulary when I leave a portal, the screen 'redraws' itself, I think. It even shocks me, think what it will do to users! Any suggestions? Maybe I shouldn't have so much on a form?

What's the best way to deal with the stupid selected record indicator bar on the left edge of the screen in List View?? It causes my tabs and such to move a few pixels to the right when switching from a Form layout to a List layout. 1) Is there any way to move it to the right edge of the screen, such that it doesn't disturb the positioning? 2) Is there any way to turn it off, like you can the rest of the status area? 3) Is the only way to deal with this to leave a few (how many?) extra pixels of dead space on the left edge of Form layouts? Ick. (Sometimes I have layouts that work both as Forms and as Views... but I guess I can work around that, too.)

I am developing a quote DB that needs an optional last page that will list terms. The trick is the solution must have the terms on the same layout as the rest of the quote, that way the user can output a pdf to one file.

When a user is in a data-entry screen, I don't want them to jump out and do other things, because I have error checks in place to be sure they don't leave fields blank (incomplete entries are a major problem). I want to ELIMINATE their ability minimize 'within' FM (go to other dbs). I assume I can't eliminate the FM minimize/exit windows options altogether, but users tend to exit and then never come back and complete their entry. I guess I can attach a script to shutdown of that db, checking the validity of the record, assuming they are still in it. Or could I attach it to the current layout? I want TOTAL CONTROL of the user or at least as much as possible. Ho…

I have a calculated summary field and, as a user enters data, I would like the summary to turn red if it goes negative. For instance, remaining contract $ available. If user spends too much, I'd like the Bal Remaining to go red & bold so user can see it immediately. Can this be done?