ICKaren

Hi. Thanks for the info. Making the calculation field bigger helped with the path to the file inserted as a link and stored as a reference, as I can now see the full path. However, for inserted objects, the calculation field still just displays "?". I tried exporting the calculation field contents, and again, just get "?". Any other ideas on how I can mass-convert the container fields to point to the new path? Thanks.

I'm new to the forums...please direct me to a more suitable forum if appropriate. A user has been seeing abnormally large database sizes (upwards of a GB) since they started using container fields so I did some testing based on the user's process: 1) Am running FP 11 on Windows XP Started with a 44 KB test file with only 3 fields, one of which is a container field. I go to insert > object > create from file > browse I select a pdf that is 298 KB, and click the boxes for "link" and "display as icon" then click OK (the file is on a Novell file server if that matters) Close the database and it is now 1,516 KB If I am only inserting a link, why is the file so much larger after this one operation? Inserting a link to a .doc file doesn't increase the size so dramatically, but still larger than expected based on .doc file size. 2) If I use insert > file, select my pdf, and check "store only a reference to the file", the file size is still 44 KB. From a size perspective, this is obviously more desirable. Is this a suitable alternative to using insert object (since I only want to link to a file in either case, rather than embedding the file within the database)? 3) We are moving from Novell to Active Directory servers, and the AD servers will have different server names. I've searched the forum for a way to mass modify the path for the linked objects from question 1, but I can't come up with the path. The calculation field that I created to display the path as text shows only "?". Any ideas on how to mass modify the paths? If I use insert > file using "store reference", my calculation field shows the path as file:filename (even though it is on a Novell server). Thanks for any and all help. Karen

Hi, I'm brand new here - first post. First question: There are some ads on this forum that offer FileMaker 6 for as low as $70 (such as from Hard Core Mac and eDirect). They claim to be perfectly legal, fully functioning copies. Are these legitimate? Any downside to purchasing from these places? Sounds a LOT better than $200+ for retail. Also, I was fairly proficient in FM Pro 4 in its heydey, but really don't use it much in my current job. However, I've been charged with helping some other users upgrade from 4.1. Is it a bad idea to just upgrade to version 6? Or would they be better off going to 7? If it matters, these aren't particularly sophisticated users. Thanks for any advice. Karen