steve weinberg

~Genx, thanks for the reply But I am not quite at the user level to understand it completely. For instance, while the street # field data appears in one text box layout with a $ in front of it, it does not appear formatted this way in the many other similar layouts. This is what befuddles me. Same field. Same data. Same type of layout (text box using merge field in the middle of text). Different results. And no way to control or change the formatting. I confess I do not know how to alter the definition of the number field as you suggest (I checked but did not see words similar to those you used as options) nor do I understand how that would change the field's formatting in this one case or if it would impact on the perfectly fine use of the data from this field (formatted as it is) in other similar layouts.

Among my layouts are letters (text boxes?) built using the "insert merge field" function to bring data from those fields into the letters. These include dollar amounts, name and address info, dates, etc. I have always been unable to format these merge fields when they are numbers or dates. For instance when the merge field has been a dollar amount drawn from the database, I have not been able to format the number as a dollar amount. I have had to place a typed "$" before the place where the merged field inserts the dollar amount into the lettter text and cannot even get Filemaker to place a comma into the number. So in the merged document they end up looking like this. $15000. Now I face a new dilemma. On certain layouts, where Filemaker is placing a street number into a text layout merge field as part of an address (I keep street number and street name as separate fields), it is placing a $ in front of the street number. "$35 Madison Avenue" I have no idea how this is happeneing and have no access to formatting tools that might change this obviously undesired outcome. So I cannot format merge fields in text boxes, but somehow Filemaker is doing it on its own?? The Filemaker help menu tells me that I should be able to format date and number merge fields, but the procedure does not work as described. Any ideas? Ideas on how to turn plain numbers in merge fields into dollar amounts? Ideas on how to turn off this $ before street numbers? How do you access the elusive formatting tools and procedures for merge fields in text boxes?

I changed the name of an FM7 database file on my Mac hard drive. But when I open up various items, it still refers to the original name of the file as the database from which it is drawing records. Is this OK? Should I not change the name of a database file? Should I create a new file with a new name, instead? Am I headed for any trouble after what I've done? Steve

I want to create a field that will return a "1" if the date in another field is after 1/1/2005 and return a "0" if the date is prior to 1/1/2005. The argument in the logical functions do not seem to be able to treat a date like a number. If I enter (If "date field">1/1/2005, 1,0) for the calculation for the field I want to create, FileMaker does not seem to under stand the > or the < as greater than or less than in relation to dates. What is the "language" you need to use in a formula that indicates "before or after" a given date? Steve