Interface Design Discussions

A user just phoned me up with a database problem: empty file, no records, layouts or fields. Looks like it's been trashed -- on network server with no password. <sigh> Trying to restore from server backup as I type. In desperation they opened the database in MS Word. Try it yourself! (Make a b/u just in case.) Open as Text Only. So who is John?

Is there any way to prevent users from scrolling using the Ctrl-Up or Ctrl-Down arrow keys or a wheel mouse? (The wheel mouse simulates ctrl-arrow keystrokes.) Even with the password option for menus set to "none" users can scroll through records on both MacOS and Windows. I have an interface where the layout changes depending on certain field selections in each record. I've built first/back/next/last buttons that change record and layout accordingly, but I just (accidentally) discovered that users can change record using the Ctrl-arrow key shortcut or the wheel mouse, thereby screwing the interface. Ack! It's multi-user, FMP 5.0v3.

I KNOW THIS TOPIC HAS BEEN POSTED BEFORE ABOUT A YEAR AGO, BUT I WANTED TO SEE IF ANYONE HAS DEVELOPED A WAY TO SET THE ZOOM LEVEL TO NON-STANDARD ZOOM VALUES. MY CONCERN HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SIZING FOR MONITORS OR LAYOUTS FOR DIFFERENT SCREEN SIZES OR RESOLUTIONS. I NEED TO BE ABLE TO SET VALUES FROM (FOR EXAMPLE) 50%, 51%, 52%, 53%, 54%, ETC... TO INCREMENTAL VALUES DEFINED OR REQUIRED BY FACTORS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MONITOR OR COMPUTER BEING USED. IF FILEMAKER DOES NOT ALLOW THIS, HAS ANYONE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN USING RESEDIT (OR SIMILAR PROGRAM) TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT SETTINGS IN FILEMAKER PRO? I AM UNABLE TO MAKE ANY PROGRESS.

I’ve inserted an Excel spreadsheet and linked it, onto a four-page layout and only two pages can be seen of the spreadsheet. I’ve also tried a container field to put it into and the view is the same, two pages. Question is - how can I make the whole Excel spreadsheet visible on my layout?

Why is it that page breaks appear in different places dependent upon what zoom level I have the view on. Seems very odd!!!

posted November 09, 2001 04:56 AM ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please help, I am having a very basic design problem which I just cannot get my head around, I have a sytem off about 10 files - Contacts,Invoices,Projects,Images,etc. Problem: I need to be able to set up a mailing database related to the 'contacts file' by 'contact Id', I need to store details of the mailing ie. mailing history .What if I make each record in Mailings equall a seperate mailling and show all the contacts in a portal does this sound sensible or am I missing something, I would also need to "mark" the records in the contacts file. Assistance greatly Appreciated Vin

Trial and error and reference to my FM guides have failed to meet this apparently simple requirement. My database has a fax/letter file to automate writing and sending/printing these documents. It works fine when the whole document is set up as a single A4 portrait page with header and footer. However, I want to allow the user to write and fax/print letters of any length, composing the body in a single text field. I understand the difference between title headers and headers and have set these up OK. My problem is what size to make the body field and where to place it relative to the body section and also the broken page border lines whose meaning I don't understand. i…

I have a global field with merged fields imbedded. basically it's a price list where the copy stays the same but the cost can change. Anyways, I wanted to include leader dots upto the price. I have placed a right tab with a fill of "." (no quotes) followed by a left tab to create a space to the dollar sign and then a tab aligning with the decial point on the price. 1) Here's my problem. the leader lines (dots) have a space every so many and will also run beyond by blank tab area and in some cases past my Dollar sign. Each new price acts different. I checked my tab buttons incase I had left the fill button on but I didn't. I highlighted all the copy befor…

I currently have a number of layouts with 'bars' across the top with various options ie. New Record, Print Current Record tec (This is irrelevant!) Does anyone know if it is possible to make this bar stay in this possition on the screen whilst scrolling down the rest of the page. Like a TOC would on a website?

I have a project of a data base that requires the Footer to chnge to Diffeent panels like a baner ad does on a web brouser. How can I do This in my data Base?

You want heirarchical menus? or value lists? What version of Filemaker are you working with?

I wasn't sure when it makes the most sense to have a new data base? Is there a rule of thumb? I was developing a quoting data base and job overview layout in another data base and feel that both could be in the same data base rather than having lookups since they use a lot of the same information. I came to this conclusion because I was having to constantly use a relookup when I adjusted estimate numbers on that could be found on the overview data base. Any thoughts? -Morning Man

I Have created a button to go to the previous record, this works just fine, but I was wondering if the was a way to click and hold down the button to make it keep going to the next previous record. Thank You Drags

This is more to do with Windows (95) than FM Pro, but it is a problem. How do you disable the edit functions which are activated by the right mouse buton. Are these deactivated when you remove these functions from the main menu ( I haven't defined access privileges yet)? My users are often pasting unintentionally. Thank you.

When I first started using my databases in Windows I hated the window in a window configuration. Now that I have the 5.5 suite running I am accessing my databases on my Mac in OS X.1. I have 4 empty databases on my desktop that run scripts to call a list of related databases from the FileMaker Server. The problem is that when the files open they default to full screen. Selecting the previous window size/grow button results in a haphazrd size and placement of the windows. What I thought was a pain in windows was actually a good thing. In windows, once I set the size of the application window (which I confess I tried in vain to get rid of) I simply fit each database exactly…

I have created a simple address entry program. I have hid the status area and I am using calclation fields setup as merge fields to give me the CurrentRecordCount, CurrentFoundCount, and CurrentRecord. I have created navigation buttons for next, previous, first and last record. The problem is when I scroll very fast using the buttons I get this flashy thingy (actual technical term) thing goin on where my merge text is at. I know I have read something about how to fix this before but cannot find it. Can someone give me a hand or point me in the right direction. Thanks Brian

Hey All! The solution I am making will be used by a lot of people who do not use computers very well. I went to some of their offices to fix their computers, and they had their resolution on 640x480! I changed it to 800x600, but when I went back the next day, they changed it back to 640x480. Anyways, I was wondering if there was some sort of script or plugin that can change screen resolutions. Dont get me wrong, Im not against those who use a 640x480 resolution, but the solution that I made with FM looks like kaka if it is on 640x480. Perhaps you all could help me with something to change the resolution to 800x600 or 1024x768?? I fathom this is a ScriptMaker question…

Hi, when im in browse mode in FM on one of my databases, and i click the right mouse button, while the button is depressed, all the black lines (surrounding text boxes etc) turn to dotted lines, its just annoying enough to make me scream is there a simple way to make the lines stay solid all the time? Regards, Doobeh.

Hi ppl. I need to know if any one out there knows (if it's possible) to hide the menu bar on FM. We are creating a database management soft for educational institutions and we want to give it a more professional look by hiding this area of the screen. I found options to toggle status area, text area, etc., but can't find one to hide the menu bar. For example, on Word you can select "Full Screen" to hide this (although you can close this view if you want to ) and I was wondering if with FM this is possible... Any one?

I've got some 300 dpi graphics that i need to print. (Logos and such) to a non-postscript printer. I'm running Win 98 | FMP 5.0. I've tried several types of image files, (Insert: Picture). Looks great on-screen. When printed, I get horizontal lines throughout the image. -Yuk- Does anyone else have this problem. Any workarounds?

The reason I hardly ever make reports or layouts in columns is that my mostly beautiful interface design is hard to implement into these kind of layoutmodes. Undoubtly reports and columns are very useful once in a while. So is it possible to make a columned layout within my design (homemade statusbar, coloured back ground etc.) TIA Yeti P.S.I just thought how great it would be if you could import your own layouttheme, so that when you make a new layout you can incorporate your own!! A tip for a follow-up???

short and sweet, what i do: calculated fields everything in the status area can be recreated. jeremy

I am trying to make my layouts more pretty. So, I made a rounded-edge box to go around my text fields. Then I make the box a different color, and emboss it to make it stand out. Next I decide I want the background color to be black. So I select the header and body and make them black. Then, I send everything to the front so I can see it. It looks perfect.....that is until I switch to browse mode!!! The only thing I can see in Browse mode is my fields and buttons. The rest of the screen is black like I never sent the object to the front. I thought the fill pattern for my objects might be on transparent, but they are not. When I make the Body and Header color white, I can s…

BACKGROUND: I have created a simple layout. Within the layout I have a global field with merged fields inserted. PROBLEM: When viewing the layout in browser mode and enlarging or reducing the screen the formating of line endings changes all around. How do I know which one is the right one? Help!

reduce the spacing betwwen the lines? http://homepage.mac.com/theaxis/PhotoAlbum.html thanks in advance. [ September 24, 2001: Message edited by: axis ] [ September 24, 2001: Message edited by: axis ]

Does anyone know how to maximize the actual filemaker application window so that it takes up the entire screen area? I'm working in Windows. One can control the size of database windows, but can one control the size of the application window? Thanks

Greetings to all! I wish to access a large collection of medical articles saved in pdf for consultation. Actually, by clicking a row in a portal I call a script which looks the path of the article on the disk (file:///HD:documents: file.pdf) and, in cascade, by opening Explorer, calls Acrobat to view the file. The procedure seems to me not too much elegant, but I cannot do otherwise: e.g. to open the documents directly from FMP without passing through the browser. Is there anybody who can give me a help? Thanks a lot! Antonio Perasole

Is this procedure correct? In order to view a manuscript, which contains 12 pages, in the same FM record, I've linked 12 images (GIF files) in a HTML file. Than, I've inserted this HTML file in a content FM field of the same record. Eache image is printable in F4 format. N.B.I don't wont to use PDF file.

I would like to know the best way to use Acrobat for .pdf form files in conjuction with my FileMaker Solution. I wish to have various forms print from FileMaker, whereby the data in FMP is passed to an Acrobat pdf form. Is it necessary to export from fmp to the pdf file, or is there some way of placing a .pdf document right onto the layout. What about the data... sharing it between the two?? If anyone has any experience with this, please advise. Thanks. [email protected]

Big, Big Problem – PLEASE HELP Under the following systems: SERVER – FMP dedicated no other file sharing etc Pentium III 500 256 MB RAM Windows 2000 FMP Server 3.0 NETWORK 100Mbit Fast Ethernet using TCP/IP only 12 Clients (All win 95 or 98) running FMP 4.1 Recently we are getting a lot of crashes, whereby all the clients are disconnected from the server with just a connection lost message. When we restart the FMP server all the files load up ok, but the following problem is there: In the main database there are about 130,000 records, all of which can still be accessed by searching for them individually if I create at least 1 new record first, but Filemaker sho…

Hi all, I have a very tricky question and I do need some help with it. I have a database system that I'm doing for a company (using FMP 4.x). One of the databases in the system is a transaction database where they record their sales. It contains standard information: Invoice number, date, product, quantity, price, etc. They generate a lot of reports from this particular database. However, management has asked for some management type reports that summarises the data. For example: A report showing the quantities of each product sold for each month, sorted by year. In other words, you see the product as a sub-summary and under it you see the example 1999, and going acros…

I've seen a template where a custom pattern had been applied to the body of a layout. When I click on the 'body' tab while in layout mode, the custom pattern is shown in the status area's fill color/pattern display. Is that possible to edit or add patterns with the stand-alone version of FMP 4 or 5? I don't see any interface for editing or adding patterns. Regards, Tom

(I hope this is the right place for this question!) We're having a problem where some of our computers a shutting out other windows in Filemaker. Example: they'll be in a certain database, will get into another one, but then can't get out of it or go to another database(can't go under the Window pull down menu...you CAN minimize it, but still can't get out of it without quitting and starting again). There are no scripts, preferences, or anything set up in any of the databases that might effect window size, etc, and this only happens on a few computers (they are on a PC, as am I, but it works fine for me). Just thought I'd ask in case anyone can think of anything obvious…

I found a method for doing just this at layoutmode.com. In FileMaker you make a transparent graphic the same size and shape of your button. Center this over your old button and assign the button function to the new graphic. Now only the shape of the transparent graphic is highlighted on button click. For a better explanation go to; http://www.layoutmode.com/techniques/irrbutton.html Good luck, Peter

I am designing a layout in centimeters, and have the gridlines showing to assist placing my lines & boxes. The trouble is that the field will "snap" to the gridlines, which causes some of my objects to not line up exactly how I need them to. Is there a way to turn off the "snap" and just float the fields to where I need them?

Does anyone know how to save a new template in FileMaker Pro 5?

Hi, I would like to be able to keep the header visable while I scroll down a document in browse mode. All the navigation buttons are in the header and I would like to be able to see them at all times. Raif

I have a layout that contains many enough fields that I have to scroll down to the bottom of the screen to fill in data for the last field. Let’s call this field as “aLast” And the problem is that after I select and fill the data (from drop down list) to the aLast, the cursor jumps to another field that has the smallest tab # and located at the top of screen. I have to scroll down again to look at the data I just filled in for aLast. How do I make that the cursor should stay still in the bottom WITHOUT change the order of tab number? My tab order go from left to right, and go down. The fact is if the aLast field is an entry field, then it is OK, it still stay in aL…

Every time I copy paste something out of one layout to another, Filemaker (Mac 5.0) always positions it about 20pixels to the upper/lower left, or right from it's original position. Is there a way to avoid this because I have tons of layouts and I'm waisting valuable time trying to align all the objects to match the other layers so that the transition from one layer to another would be seamless. Object grid also seems to vary from one layer to another. This might be a stupid question but I can't think of one logical reason why this would be considered a feature rather than a minor bug. TIA...

I was very excited to be able to save in PDF off my CAD program then directly place in FileMaker, which I use to print a plan book. However, Filemaker prints it as screen resolution....so I am back to opening the PDF in Canvas in order to save as a TIF, then place in FileMaker. This way prints fine, but requires extra steps and makes the PDF import worthless for me. Is there any way tp get FileMaker to use the PDF for printing and not print from the screen version?

hello. I am new to this board, and not incredibly skilled with FMP--yet. I just got stuck, and I am looking for help: I am creating a layout to display bookings for my computer lab. I would like the bookings to be displayed such that each day is in a seperate column (1 week visible), with times in rows. For various reasons that I don't want to go into , I want each day to be a record, so I need to show records going across in columns, not down as is the usual method. I would also like to have layout elements that do not repeat. Does this make sense? Please help! email me: [email protected]

I have layouts that look perfect and print perfect on my Mac but when I use the same layout on my Windows 98 machine the fields are not lined up and if doesnt print correctly. Can this be fixed? This is a word document that I copied the text and pasted it. Could the cells in the word document be the cause of this problem?

I have created a merge letter. . . with in this letter we need to have the guys signature at the bottom of the letter. . . we do not want to lock ourselves into a strict template by pre-placing the signature. . . SO my question is. . . how can i get the signature to work like a merge field. . . i tried using regular merge field syntax. . . <<c_sign>>. . . but no luck. . . sliding doesn't work either. . . HELP! Jeremy

Is it possible to get some templates of the new style buttons of MacOSX? I would like to use them in my filemaker databases.

When copying and pasting back and forth between photoshop 6 and FMP 5.0v3. FileMaker gets stuck, I mean you can still use it but you cannot switch to another program including the finder (OS 9.1). I can click the other windows (photoshop) but nothing comes forward. The only way to get things back is to quit FileMaker. I have had it happen on 2 seperate comptuers. Wonder if its a bug w/ FMP/OS or Photoshop.

Our Membership Forms were all created in QuarkXPress. Does anyone know an easy way to bring that Quark layout into Filemaker, to use as a template for FM to mirror the same form, substituting the fields where appropriate? When I try to do it, FM strips away all the formatting and arrangement, and simply gives me a string of text.

As a frequent Windows user, I always like to skip between fields with Tab (Next Field) and Shift Tab (Previous Field). It always worked in FMP 4, but FMP 5 doesn't recognize the Shift-key anymore.. it's always skipping to the next field, no matter what. Is the shortcut key changed? And if so, what is it now?

Can FileMaker Pro display blinking text? I'd like to show that something is incomplete by setting a text field to blink to alert someone that they need to work on something. Is this possible? TIA Lefo

How is Quicktime import useful? Ok, I guess it's useful to those who distribute standalone FMP apps, but I'm still frustrated. I want to embed a (very small) QT movie in one layout, and then host on FMServer. Unfortunately, it seems that embedding a Quicktime movie requires that the movie be present on the client machine! That doesn't do me much good. Is there really no way around this? :sigh:: Jack

I need to create a form that has for the most part constant text. But every now and then a custom adjustment is required for that special person's record. As I want this information all in one data base, it seemed that auto entry data made the most sense so that the constant information could always be there and I could add or delete information as needed, but I would have to reformat it everytime I created a new record. How can I format data and still have the flexablility to change it on some forms? Is there a better way to have this text editable on an individual record and still always be formated to the styles I desire (It is a paragraph of copy with bold and italic …

I'm developing a standalone FileMaker 5 application that will be in Kiosk mode. People with laptop computers complain that the size (of everything) is too small (it's fine on desktop systems). Is there any way (script or ) to force the window to zoom such that the window will fill the screen as close as possible. Note that I have no way of knowing what resolution in pixels or size in inches the user has set. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance. Tom

I was wondering how to set the fill option to be tranparent so that the color from behind shows through. For instance, I have a portal that has alternating shaded lines, but when I insert a field, the field is white and eliminates the shading. Thanks Marc

I have a lookup field which does the lookup just fine. However, if I modify the looked-up value in the destination file, it also changes the value in the source file. Can I prevent this? The lookup is for a price. I want the price to be looked up; if I subsequently change the price field in either the source or destination file, I do not want it to modify the other. Thanks.

I have a problem making a line appear across the page. I have two fields, first is a serial number, second is a description. The Description field that may contain one to six lines of text. I have to provide space equal to the height of the description field on the right half of the page. I solved my problem by duplicating the description field and specifing the text color to white in hope that the layout would slide up and produce a line under the description and accross the rest of the page. Worked great on my printer, but when I installed at site the laser printer would print the description field with the white characters showing up on the black text. I tried se…

I have a script that compiles a list into a global field. The first line in that field is a headline that I would like to make bold automatically. The only way I have come up with doing this is a through a paste from another field that leaves the Style on what it is pasting in. However, it seems like a waste of a field to only have one constant word in it merely to make a bold headline. so, the question is (finally) is there anyway to control formatting of text in a field (ideally) through a script or in a calculated field?

I find designing good looking user interrfaces to be one of the most difficult challenges. Is their a web site that shows examples of good FileMaker Pro interface design? Thanks, Kelly

Hello, I'm designing a database that will include a custom JPEG background. This particular database will be used on an iMac that has an 800 x 600 screen resolution. The Status Area will usually be off. I've tried to size the placed background in Photoshop but can't get the dimension correct. I know that the image can be scaled once it's placed in FileMaker but I need the scaling to be proportional and I'm having fit problems. Wide enough on the side, not deep enough. Is there any optimal background size for a FileMaker Pro database on an 800 x 600 monitor with Status Area off? Also, can I set the window so that it's not modifiable by the user? Thanks, Kelly

I don't know if this topic belongs here or elsewhere. I want to replace the FM icon on my solution files with one of my own design. Since they aren't EXEs, most of the common hacker programs quit immediately. Does anybody have any suggestions? Thanks

I don't know if this can be done, but I've always wondered. You know sometimes you do a report layout in Filemaker, and you have some fields that are bigger than others, so you allow extra space for them, but you also set it that anything below it can slide up based on all above or directly above and reduce the size of the enclosing part. That way you cut down on the number of pages that are printed. Well I've always wondered, if a repeating field is on the layout, and it has say 8 repetitions, but for most of the records they only use the first 3 repetitions, is there some way I can get it do slide up and ignore the blank repetitions, thereby reducing the number of page…

I recently tried to create a startfile script that resides in its own file so I can mount that on my desktop and hide the rest of the files elsewhere. Among other things, this file opened all of my related files in the right order and maximized the windows. My understanding was that this would allow users to change the window size without affecting the size the next time I open the files. This is not working as I had hoped and the files are still opening the same way they were closed, but I am not sure why. How can I make sure that the files/windows always open the same size and screen location no matter how it is closed? Also, how would I get this startfile to disappe…

Good Day All This question may show up in other places in the form. I was wandering if anybody has had any success in creating a multi columned HTML table with different records in each cell. Here is what I am shooting for: ______________________________________________ |Record 1 | Record 2 | Record 3 | |___________|_____________|____________________| |Record 4 | Record 5 | Record 6 | |___________|_____________|____________________| If anyone has any ideas please let me know Thanx Rob

I am using a pop-up menu for a list to choose from to fill a cell on a record. What happens is that when I add new records and source data from the list, the old data will change on some of the records. Not all the records just some, like the cell is linked or something. I could handle it if it was all the records but it's only with certain records. The link is constant though, so if I change the data in the cell from the list, thoughs records that are "linked" together will constantly change. What's up with that??

Hi there, Is there a possibility to define a icons toolbar that can be used to pick items and drop these in an area? What I am looking for is a graphical user interface that has the following functions: - it has an area to drop items in - it has a list of definable items - an item can be choosen from a toolbar and can be dropped into the area (following Windows drag&drop conventions) - each item has a set of attributes; each attribute links to a field in a Filemaker database tabel - the moment an item is dropped into the are, the corresponding attribute values are added to a new record in the Filemaker database So my question boils down to: is there any wa…

I need to build a royalty free cross-platform runtime CD-ROM. I want to use Flash5 for the front-end UI and hook this up to a FM database using XML to exchange data and queries. Firstly, is this possible? and if it is which version of Filemaker do I need to develop with? Note the CD will be distributed to many users and needs to be a runtime stand-alone solution with no licensing costs for end users, i.e. I want to pay for 2 FM Developer licences for Mac and Windows. The plan is to migrate the CD product to the web hence the use of XML and Flash.

Being a combo psychologist / database designer I'm always interested in the best user interface. I was wondering if anyone had any leads on some examples of layouts that seem to work well for them. For me it's a toss-up between the new FMP5earthy colors and web page look and the trandional greys with tabed folders for navigation. I'd love to see other's examples.

I am trying to arrange fields from with in a script - is this possible. I want to bring different fields to the front and hide others to change the layout. Appreciate any help. Best regards.

This may be easy, but i haven't really researched it much. i tried a couple of things with no luck so i thought i'd ask. (YEAH YEAH YEAH, I KNOW I KNOW, I should always be experimenting, put a little effort into the research, yada yada yada, unlike most of you guys, i'm just doing this until my real career takes off, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with this as a career ). Anyway, saying all that, this may or may not be difficult. Is there anyway to alternate row colors in List Mode? For ease of viewing that is. Basically I need every other row to be a light shade of grey rather than just white. Thanks in advance Jeremy

Can anyone help me with a proceedure to dynamically change, say the colour or the text on the button, when it has been selected. Help much appreciated. Chris

Is it possible to bypass fields when entering data into an invoice? Example: If I enter 2 items on a line item database which has 9 line items to enter. I want to jump to the field past the 9 line items if I enter nothing into the next line item. (If quanty is empty, jump to Labor entry field). I have to use the mouse or hit tab several times to accomplish this now.

In my main entry layout for example the company name is formatted with a font size of 18. In other layouts that I want in list view I want the company field to show a 10 font size to match all the other fields. In the second layout I go to field format and change it to 10 but the original large size still shows. How can I force a layout to have the format I want with no regards to what was originally typed in another layout?

Is there any way to highlight the active field with a different color? Sometimes it is hard to tell which field is active especially when you have a large number of buttons.

There are many different approaches to help your user navigate. One of the main points of navigation and user interface is to convey to the user that they are not jumping between different modules or files. I have used buttons where each button is in a different state depending on what "module" you are in. IE Customers/Invoices etc. Basically a Tabed interface is no different. I do recommend that you do not over do it with tabs. And do not use more than 2 rows of tabs. And Apple would have you believe that tabs should eminate from the center. I disagree, the tabs should start from the left and advace right as needed. Hope that helps... I got to run I'll write more lat…

wow, this forum is really great! i am new to web design and have a pretty basic question. when creating buttons in photoshop, is there a way to insert them, or save them, or edit the html, so that the load time of my page is not soooo long. i notice these fancy sites with all these crazy images with very fast load times. any help is greatly appreciated!

On my invoice layout I have one field for invoice-descriptions (models, photography, dtp etc) and for the amounts I have several field, aligned with the invoice-descriptions. Above all this is the specifications field (how many pages, what kind of paper, binding, etc etc.) But this field is not obligatory, since it's not allways relevant. When it's not I want the invoice descriptions field and the amount field to move up. I know how to do this in theory, the fields do go up, but my alignement gets all muddled up. I tried grouping the amount fields, but this doesn't seem to work. Is there an elegant way to move fields up and at the same time keeping the alignment in…

Although there are a lot of nice buttons and things to be found on the Net I can't allways implement them in my existing interface. Wrong colours mostly. So I decided to take a look around on how hard it is to make my own.....I found a program called ResEdit on the homepage of The Iconfactory. Gave it a shot, seems fairly simple for simple icons. Up to now... My question is: does anybody know whether ResEdit is compatible with FM? Or is there another program for making buttons in FM? Or am I way out of my league here.... I'm using FM 5.0 on an Imac. ------------------ Yeti

Can anyone tell me how to draw while in Browse mode? Can it be done? Are there any plug-ins? I only want to do simple line drawings. Any help is greatly appreciated. Kent

I am working with fmp5 for Mac in the office & PC @ home. Layouts on the Mac are loosing or moving the graphics boxes I used to surround fields. Sometimes the bottom line of the box will move & overlap the top line. This problem fixes itself (for the moment) if the window is minimized or scrolled through. I am having a similar problem with my pc. When in layout mode, title fields & entry fields leave trace lines every time they are moved. I really need to fix the mac problem ASAP. The data base is being created for other users & was to be ready for use on 2/15/01. So I guess my basic question is why the hell do I have to keep refreshing the D-base …

I have been trying to decypher the system by which the FM5 256 color palette is organized without much success. Colors seem to be lumped in bunches without any order, except for the gray scale. Has anybody cracked it, or know of where it is documented? I have determined that colors along a horizontal row seem to go together nicely, but other than that, I am puzzled by how to locate that one right color easily.

Is it possible to inport text and retain its formatting ie italic, font size etc access can do this in a "memo field" but is it possible with FM

Hi. Simple problem--can't believe there's not a solution. I have the EASIEST layout I've ever assembled. All it consists of is a list of text fields. They're all set to slide and shrink, and that works fine. However, when a field splits between two pages, parts of a line are printed on the bottom of the first page, and the rest of the line is printed on the top of the next page. How can I prevent this? It seems rather simple, and I can't believe FMP would allow text to be cut like this. Help. Bevin

Is there any easy (and free!) way yo disable the Quit option in FMP on a Mac ? I have a quit button that I need the users to press, rather than them using the menu or apple-q. Thanks

I'm just starting to delve into this access thing and I have a question: is it possible to have a file where only one layout is accessible for modifying? I'd like the user to be able to move fields around on only this particular layout. Many thanks! Nati

When printing a report in Filemaker 5, if a field stretches to over a page the text in that field can be split over the two pages. This means that you get the top half of the text from one line on one page, and the bottom half of the text from that same line on the next page. The report has approx. 30 records, each being anything up to two pages long. I know that there was an unsupported feature in Filemaker 4.1 which got around this problem, does anyone know how to get around it in Filemaker 5?

I have a problem with a Database when I open it under windows. The screen does not stay maximized. I need to set the screen to maximize every time I open the DB. Does anyone know of a method to force the screen size to open maximized under windows?

I am developing an application in Filemaker 4.0 which I would like to be cross platform. I am using a windows machine. I am developing buttons and copying and pasting to my database but when I do that and open it in the macintosh machine I get the windows logo, not the graphic. The only type I see is BMP which is too large to use. What can I do? I do not have a Mac and I was not going to buy one. I did not want to use other people's buttons. Can anyone help?

I am a new user, trying to find out if filemaker is the right product for me. I need a relational database that will be used to store slides, books, and video. I want the image files to be embedded - so that when called upon they show alongside the text information rather than calling up an outside software program to display them - can someone help?

When trying to import a graphic - either in a "Container" field or in the Layout mode I get the following error message: Error-2804 occured during initialization of 'Claris XTND System.' Anyone know what this means???

is there a way when view a database in a list view to have a button, that only appears on the record that is selected and not on every record... just wondering..

Hi- first time poster. I'm an editorial assistant at a publishing house, and I'm working on scripting a database where one of the fields contains what is generally a very long string of text and various editors look over each record and insert some HTML code linking it to other records. Now, I've done some scripting so that they merely have to select the text they want linked, and click a button, and the HTML code from the other record will be automatically inserted if it matches the title of another record. The thing they want, though, is for this inserted text to be bold and red. Is there any way to do that?(I know once you start calculations, the formatting gets thrown…

I am a fairly new user to program. Moving over from Access. I have not found a way to mask or format a phone number automatically. Would like to type just numbers and have mask of (xxx) xxx-xxxx fill for me. How can I do this.

Place the VO Script field on the layout and give it what you think would be the maximum amount of space that it would need. Then while the field is selected, go to the Format->Sliding/Printing. Click on the check box for Sliding up based on All above and click the check box for Also reduce the size of the enclosing part. Now when you preview or print the layout, the part will reduce in size so that it only leaves room for the data actually in the record. Chuck

Howdy, I would like to ensure users type in a valid Canadian postal code into a field. They are formatted like this: A9A 9A9 (Alpha-Number-Alpha-Space-Number-Alpha-Number) e.g. M5N 2E8 Can anyone point me in the right direction? I don't want to break it into a million separate fields. Thanks & Regards, Kay PS Using v4 on MAC

quote: Originally posted by Rodney Smith: Does anyone know if it is possible to to intertwine repeating field values? Example: I have two fields that repeat 10 times. Rather than place them next to each other in my layout, I want them on top of each other. BUT, I do not simply want the 10 repeating fields of Field 1 on top of the 10 repeating fields of Field 2. I want the first repeating field of Field 1 followed by the first repeating field of Field 2. This would be followed by the second repeating field of Field 1 and then the second repeating field of Field 2, and so on. If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know. Actually you can accomplish so…

I'm new to FMpro and I'm working on a solution that will be run on several machines with different monitor resolutions. How do I make the user interface automatically resize to the resolution of the monitor?

Hello I am trying to create an expanding portal. Some records may have 20 records in the portal, some 5 and some 1 but I want buttons below the portal to move up and down as the portal expands. Is this possible ? Many Thanks Paul

Working on the county's Compaq with NT, somtimes the where the cursor appears to be is not where the text is inserted. In other words, for instance, if I wanted to put a word into that last sentence between the last two words and went to click the cursor in the space, the cursor would appear to be there but when I start typing the text might appear ten spaces back...

I am new to Filemaker and I am trying to figure out how to make a Tab Interface as a form for a menu for users. I would greatly appreciate any help or sources to help me with this problem.

In the body of a report, a record contains two rows of information. Sometimes there is no information in the second row so I don't want to leave a blank space in the second row. Ideally I'd like the next record to move up. I've tried sliding and it still leaves a space for the phantom second row. I tried inserting a find command in the report script to eliminate the blank second row, but then it did not include the whole record because of the second row. I thought I read that you could shrink a section, but can't figure out how to do it or if this is a solution. Any ideas would be most welcome! Thanks!!!

As mentioned earlier, I'm experiencing problems with printing of layouts, that look totally O.K. on the screen, but are printed in a wrong way. the font on the printed version seems to be smaller, than on the screen, because mor words fit onto one line. the result is, that the text occupies lace vertical space on the page, and therefore the elements, that follow this text are not moved up high enough, thus there is to much blank space between the text and the rest of the page. On screen everything looks fine. I've heard of printing problems with filemaker on PCs and HP Printers. Could this be the reason of my problems? Is there a work around? Thanx in ad…