LVie

Sure thing. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Brian, Its unclear what you are doing with the 2 tables. Have you combined the records from them? If you haven't combined them do you plan to? If you have combined them why can't you simply create a value list from the resulting field of interest? How will the value list be used? I'd love to help if I understand what you're trying to accomplish. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Harry, You'll get it if you hang in there. You've come a long way in the couple of weeks that I've known you. As you play with it you'll see the logic and it will grow on you. its a heck of a lot of fun. If you feel like you need a little extra help for training or development to get over the hump we can help you with that. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

You should ask the question so that you can get direct responses to help guide your study. It sounds like you're starting to get a little frustrated with this. You are doing the right things. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Filemaker is a very cool database app for that very reason. Are you making headway on the script or do you need more help? Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Harry, You haven't wasted my time. You are trying to learn, you'll get it. Don't be afraid to play around with a test file. The easiest would be to create a copy of your actual database and create the script there so you can build it, modify it and test it without messing with any of the live records. Get to know the substitute calculation along with some of the other text parsing calculations. That is what you will use to recreate the find/replace that you were doing in Word. Think about each script step individually to reduce the sense of being overwhelmed. I might also suggest the book Filemaker and Me if you haven't already looked at it. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Tony, The import is balking at the parentheses. You will need to decide whether to handle those either before or after the import. Before import you can add escape characters to those entries either in Excel or you can export the data to a text editor first and add escape characters before your import into Filemaker. Returning them to the correct format after import can also be done if you can determine the conversion calculation from the format you are importing to what looks like a timestamp format in Filemaker. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Hi Harry, To do this will require a script with multiple steps. It will revolve around the import script step. You can use that to import the song into the container field then use the getastext calc step to capture the filename and place that in a variable. Once you have the variable you can perform the character replace on the contents of the variable to replace the process you're using in Word. Then you can use the set field script step to set Import_String. From there everything should be fine. pseudocode: Import File Set variable ( $FileName ; GetAsText ( container field ) ) Set variable ( $FileName ; substitute ( $FileName ; characters to change ; replacement characters ) Set field ( Import_String ; $FileName ) There might be some other steps you need to do additional text parsing or housekeeping, but this is the basic idea. This will get the file into the container field and capture the name in the format you need it. Let me know if you need more help. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Rod, Can you explain a little about what you are trying to accomplish or why? That may help guide the response you get. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

I wouldn't change the number field. That part is fine. My point was that you have better data integrity if those are not calc fields. If keeping ImportString is important for historical reference or for resetting information and you still want to keep the same functionality that you're working on then script the import. In that script you can do all the data parsing that your calcs were doing before and you can set a new data field to = the ImportString and do all of your modifications, searches, etc on that. Like I suggested that field can simply be a calc that displays the contents of ImportString or it can be a text field = ImportString. If your script sets all of that you don't have to do any manual work to get it done. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

In that case you have a couple of options. You can create a separate calc field that is a concatenation of the 3 text fields (remember I changed the 3 calcs to text) for searching purposes in which case it won't matter if users try to enter it in browse mode because they can't change the value, but can still do a full search on it in find mode. Or set a 4th field that would be used for searching only and uncheck browse mode so that users don't accidentally change the value. For good form regardless of the way you choose to solve this don't allow entry in browse mode to help train the users. You can even format it differently from other fields on that layout to create a visual indicator. I favor the first option personally. Changing your current calcs will take a 2 or 3 step process so that you don't lose that information or you can create a quick script to repopulate those fields from the ImportString field using the original calcs. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Harry, What is the function of the field importString after the import is complete? You have perhaps missed one step in your import process. After you import the records you should use ImportString as a utility field which is not generally accessible to the user or at least not in the user interface in a manner where it is enterable. In your import routine you should instead use a series of set field steps to copy the loop information from that field and paste it into the 3 actual publicly accessible data fields. I would actually change the 3 calc fields into text fields so that they aren't dependent on the ImportString field after the import process is complete. You can then do what you need to those fields. What is the purpose of the dropdown list on the ImportString field? Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Buckie, Without knowing why you can't store the status field its hard to answer the question. In general to accomplish this rather than using an unstored calc for status in the suborders table use an auto-entered text field with 'Do not replace existing value of field (if any)' unchecked. That way you can use a set field or trigger to change the status field when necessary and still allow it to be indexed for the relationship. Can you give more detail about why you don't want to/can't store the status? Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

You won't be able to modify the Filemaker application window short of resizing it to a narrower window. That is the only way those features will slide closer. You have some control over the items in the status area, but not the layout bar. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie

Stephen, Are you generating this out of the contact table or the address table? It seems that if you want to combine the contacts for every unique address then you should set up the Execute SQL from the address table. Not quite intuitive, but straightforward. Levi -- Laura (Levi) Vie | levi@excelisys.com | 573-874-5176 | iChat: leevie