John Link

I have a text field called “Events”. Some of its values are as follows: I’d like to write a script that will find all the records for which any of the values Alice_Austen_House_20?? appear and then do the following: 1) Insert the text “Alice_Austen_House” into the Events field 2) Delete all the text Alice_Austen_House_20?? from the Events field Here is the start of my script, intended to find the relevant records and then insert “Alice_Austen_House” into the Events field: Here are the details of the first step of the script: The first step correctly finds the relevant records, but then I see this error message: I’m puzzled by the error message because, as you can see below, I have included “Alice_Austen_House” in the value list for Events. What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do to get this to work? I'm using FileMaker Pro 17 Advanced.

Thank you, comment. Using Set Field worked.

I have a field named "Databases" with the following values: "CORD", "SDHS", "Y Ballet". This field is displayed as a checkbox set. I recently learned that "CORD" should have been "DSA", so I naively changed "CORD" to "DSA" in the value list but then none of the records that were checked for "CORD" were checked for "DSA", which reminded me that the values in the value list are the values of the field Databases and not labels for checkboxes. I revised the value list to again include "CORD" and its checkbox is again checked for all the records for which it was originally checked. I wrote a script, shown in one of the attachments, to insert "DSA" into the Databases field for each of the records that contains "CORD" in that field. When I run the script I get an error message saying "Databases" is defined to contain only specific values, and that I must enter a valid value. How can DSA not be a valid value when it is included in the value list for the field? How can I accomplish what I want to do? Does programming scripts in FileMaker ever get easier? I don't write many scripts, but when I do I find it surprisingly difficult to accomplish what I think would be the simplest of tasks. Thanks in advance for your help, John Link

I'd like to be able to export a text file that would contain several fields from a single record, with each field on a separate line. Here's an example: John Q Public 111 West First Street New York, NY 10001 How might I do that? I know how to export csv or Excel files, but they don't satisfy my need.

I've discovered that the problem is isolated to the first record of the database. That's why doing a search would allow me to click on a checkbox in the field Events (because after the search I would be looking at a record other then the first). It also explains why the problem initially appeared isolated to one computer. I copied the first record and then attempted to click a check box in the field Events of the duplicate record. The problem again appears in the duplicate record, so I will create a new record and copy each of the fields from the corrupt record to the new record and see whether the problem persists in the new record. After copying each of the fields from the corrupt first record to a new record, I am able to check any of the checkboxes in the field Events without an error message. Furthermore, after deleting the corrupt first record, there is no problem with the record that is now the first record (previously the second record). PROBLEM SOLVED!

The problem is now occurring on all of the computers except the one hosting the database.

I noticed the problem only today after I added the value "Salon 3-25-17" to the value list Events. The problem was not on the other four computers but persisted on the fifth computer after I removed "Salon 3-25-17" from the value list. Here is the Inspector's info for the field Events. Here's a screen shot of the portion of the database where the field Events is displayed. From my Time Machine backup I installed the earliest backup (December 2015) I have of FileMaker Pro Advanced 12 and the problem remained.

Here are the windows that show the validation rules and the sharing of the database. It seems very strange that the problem happens on only one of the computers, and that it goes away after I perform a search. I trashed the preferences and the problem persists.

I have FileMaker Pro 12 installed on four computers on my network, and FileMaker Pro Advanced 12 stored on a fifth computer. There is a shared database stored on one of the first four computers. When using the shared database from the fifth computer and I attempt to check any of the checkboxes for the field Events, I see the message shown in the attachment and I am unable to check the checkbox (This behavior occurs only on the fifth computer). If I then do a search, after doing the search I am able to check any of the checkboxes in the previously problematic field. I've restarted the fifth computer and the problematic behavior stills occurs. Any suggestions?

I guess I should take that as a "no". Thank you.

Do Filemaker Pro 8 and Filemaker Poro Advanced work in OS 10.7?

I see that the name of this forum has been grammatically corrected. :waytogo:

Thank you all for your help. I have redefined all the fields using the TextFormatRemove function so that no new formatting information will be introduced into the database, and I am now running a script that for every field in every record sets the field equal to itself, thereby removing all the irregular formatting already in the database. John Link

Thank you for your suggestions. I'll experiment and see how it goes. But it seems that there ought to be a way to protect a field from a formatting change so that I would not have to run a script that corrects every field in the entire database. The previous database I used, Now Contact, has that feature. Surely there must be a way to do it in Filemaker. John Link

And the product is correctly called "Filemaker Pro Advanced" rather than "Filemaker Pro Advance". Furthermore, it would be "advanced features" rather than "advance features" even if there were no Filemaker Pro Advanced. John Link

Your guess was very close. The line width was 1 point but the color was grey. I changed the color to black so now I can see the X. But how silly that the border that surrounds the box is forced to be the same color as the box and the X! In a text field the text can be black and the border can be a different color. Why not the same freedom for check boxes? John Link

Would you explain in detail what you mean? Is your suggestion to be used to clean up my database or to prevent the problem in the first place? John Link

That seems to have the same effect as Cmd +V, which is to replace the contents of the field with the contents of the clipboard, using the format of whatever is already in the field. Did I misunderstand something? Now I understand. If I use Cmd +Option +V when pasting then the formatting of the field definition will be used. While I could make a practice of doing that, I'm afraid that there is no way I could enforce others to do the same. Secondly, my database is already cluttered with random formats that I want to correct. John Link

I have noticed that, when cutting and pasting into a field, that the formatting information is copied from the source of the cut instead of from the definition of the field. I find this quite annoying as it makes my database look more and more irregular over time. I have two questions: 1) Is there a way to force the use of the field definition when cutting and pasting into a field? 2) How can I reset the formatting information to that of the field definition after it has been changed by cutting and pasting? Oviously I want to do this with a script, but I can't find any script commands that affect the format of a field. Surely there must be such commands. John Link

How can I darken the X in a check box so that when the box is checked the X can be clearly seen? I find the very light grey to be almost invisible, and therefore ridiculous. John Link

Yeah but if a newcomer to jazz notices that the band is unknowingly playing 13 bars for a 12-bar blues the newcomer would have a reason to suspect the musicianship of the players. John

Lee, don't you mean "Advanced and Developer Features"? John Link

Hi Phil, Setting the number of recent files to 1 does not clear the list. Is it possible that this sophisticated program has such an elementary shortcoming that I discovered as a complete beginner? John Link

How can I clear the "Open Recent" list of files? Surely there must be a way, but I have been unable to find it. I do know how to prevent the list from appearing or to change the number of files that appear in the list, but I want to clear the list and start fresh. John Link

Shouldn't the name of this forum be "Advanced Developer Features" rather than "Advance Developer Features"? John Link