kelturner

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but I'll try anyway. I am creating a browseable graphics CD for intraagency use, its not for sale or anything, just for use by those in the program. The problem I am having is that when I burn a cd of the graohics database, all fields become unmodifiable. I know this is to be expected, but is there a way to get around this, or are there any suggestions on how I can distribute this information through other media? Has anyone ever created a CD of their FileMaker database for distribution? If so, how did you do it? Thanks in advance!

Thank you, this worked great!

OK, I know this a really easy answer, but I'm having a hard time figuring it out. I have a numeric field and am using a calculation to return the first 7 numbers of another field (using: NumToText( Left(Record Number,7 ))), I would ALSO like to add two random or increasing serial numbers to this field. How would I do this, is there a function for it? Thanks!

Thanks for responding. I'm not sure if I totally understand your question, but I'll try to clarify some things. Each record represents an insect species, for each species I have up to 10 photographs associated with it. Each photo is in two sizes, a thumbnail and full-size. So each species record has container fields for the thumbnails and container fields for the full-size photos. To save repetition and numerous layouts I created a thumbnails layout and a full-size layout. The thumbnails layout has all of the thumbnail container fields on it, so you can view them all at once. However, when you click on a thumbnail, its script takes you to the full-size layout, which only has one field on it, a global "LargeGraphic" field. The field is global so that it can be easily cleared and a new full-size photo can be pasted in depending upon which thumbnail you choose. When I burn the CD, this clearing and pasting feature disappears because you can no longer "write" to the CD. I am wondering how others have used thumbnails and if they have run into this CD problem. Thanks.

This is a rather specific, yet fundamental question. I am creating a diagnostic photograph CD using FM 5.0 on a Windows platform. What is the best (i.e. file size, speed, etc.) way to go from viewing thumbnails, to viewing full-size photos? Currently, I have a Thumbnails layout and a Full-size layout composed of a global "LargeGraphic" container field. I have scripted the thumbnails so that its full-size counterpart will be pasted into the global "LargeGraphic" field and they will view it in the Full-size layout. The problem is when I burn my CD, the global "LargeGraphic" field can not be rewrited to, therefore, the photos don't change. Is there anyway I can solve this problem other than creating personalized Full-size layout for each of my thumbnails?

I appreciate the help, but this doesn't quite answer my question, let me try to clarify. I have 30 buttons that each go to a different layout. The buttons are designated using the "Specify Button" tool, for each I have chosen "Go to Layout (the layout I want)." This works great, the problem is that I also have a basic sorting script that I want to attach to these buttons. How do I attach the script and also keep the "Go to Layout..." function? The "Specify Button" tool will only let me pick one or the other. I don't want to have to make 30 scripts, one for each button. Thanks in advance!

Is it possible to both "specify" a button and attach a script to it? I have around 30 layouts that users can browse through using buttons. For these buttons I have just used the "Specify Button" tool to cater each button to a specific layout. I also would like to custom sort the data before the user views it in some of the layouts. For this I have created a sort script. The problem is that I do not want to have to create 30 scripts, one for each different layout to sort the data then go to the specified layout. The sort is the same in all cases, but the destination layout is not. Through the "Specify Button" tool can I attach a script and tell it what layout to go to?

With a big help from JPaul who sent me a FM file with a scripted pop-up menu field in it, I was able to figure out how to "buttonize" values in a pop-up menu field so that they will take you to different layouts. Check out the steps below to do this yourself! Step 1. Define the field you want to attach a script to. Step 2. Create a Values List for the field including the values you want to "buttonize". Step 3. In Layout mode, using Field Format, make your field a pop-up menu and attach your values list to it. Step 4. Write your script, here is an example: Go to Field [“My Pop-Up”] Pause/Resume Script [“0:00:02”] If [“My Pop-up”=”A””] Go to Layout [“Form A”] Else If [“My Pop-up”=”B””] Go to Layout [“Form B”] End If End If Step 5: Attach the script to your field and choose "Resume" current script. Now when you choose a value from your pop-up menu, FM will automatically take you to your desired layout. Thanks JPaul! -kel

Hi all, I'd like to create a pop-up text(aka.dialog or message) box that only appears on the layout when a scripted button is used. The text box will contain helpful hints on data entry for the user. Can this be done? Thanks in advance!

JPaul, Thanks, I opted for the pop-up menu option which didn't work out exactly because it would require the user to first select an option from the pop-up menu, then re-click on the field to activate the script. What I did instead was to create a transperent button under the next data entry field on the layout. This too created a slight problem when you clicked on the field because it would run the script and not give you the pop-up options for data entry. So I made the transperent button cover the field only partially, that way the user will usually activate the script first when they click in the field, then try clicking again to get the pop-up menu to come up. It is sort of an archaic solution, but it works for me! Thanks again, kel

Thank you both for your input, I really appreciate it! What I decided to do was to bring the info from database2 into database1. I created a new layout specifically for all the extra insect biology data that can be opened from a button in the insect species search layout in database1. I then created a relationship between the two databases based on species name, and then opened database2 fields in database1 based on this relationship. It works great! P.S. I had tried using copy in database1 and paste in database2, but the paste never really worked.

Hi everyone, OK, here's my question. In database1 I have created a layout in which users can search for records associated with a particular species of insect. In another database, database2, all of the insect species are cataloged and contain additional information concerning the insects biology. What I would like to do is enable the user to search for a species in database1, and then access the biology info on that same species in database2 by using a scripted button. So far I have figured out that this would require copying the contents of the species field from database1 and pasting them into the species field in database2. At this time a subscript in database2 could run a find to pull up the information. This is what I think I need to do, but I can't get the contents of one field to copy into the contents of a field in a different database. Does anyone have any advice or tips? Thanks for the help. -kel

JPaul, Thanks for responding, I have a further question regarding your solution. How exactly do I attach a script to the pop-up menu? Is this in Define Fields, or do I need to add a button that the user has to press to run the script? I was trying to avoid the latter solution. Thanks for you help, Kel

Hi everyone, I would like to create a script that would automatically take the user to a new layout when they select a certain value from a pop-up list. For example if they choose "Summary Data" from a pop-up list, FM would open the "SumData" Layout for further data entry. From what I've been reading here in the forum it seems that I may need a plug-in to do this. Does anyone have any other solutions? Thanks in advance, Kel

Thank you! The Pattern Count Function worked great! I also tried using >="," ,but that wouldn't search the entire field properly if there were additional numbers in the field.Thanks again. -Kel