Hi,

I have a database with about 300 fields in a single table, organized by Custom Order. It's a flat file (non-relational) data collection tool that I'm exporting to Excel for a statistician (the field names make sense in Excel).

When I make changes to fields, I want to navigate from the field in Layout Mode to the specific field in Manage Database to eliminate searching by scrolling.

Is this possible? Alternatively, is there a way to search for a field in Manage Database?

Thank you.

Edited March 16, 20241 yr by Jason Goldsmith

41 minutes ago, Jason Goldsmith said:

I have a database with about 150 fields in a single table.

That's very likely a sub-optimal structure. There are very few entities that require more than 100 attributes to describe them. Filemaker is not a spreadsheet - it is a relational database and it works best when the data is structured accordingly. If you need to conform to another structure when exporting, that is problem that needs to be addressed separately. But you should not subvert your structure to it. 

 

41 minutes ago, Jason Goldsmith said:

I want to navigate from the field in Layout Mode to the specific field in Manage Database.

There is nothing that can be done programmatically, either in Layout mode or inside Manage Database (other than opening it). There may be some more options if you use a plugin, I am not sure about that. 

 

41 minutes ago, Jason Goldsmith said:

Alternatively, is there a way to search for a field in Manage Database?

You can sort the fields by name, or by your own custom order (in addition to type and creation order). That should make it easier to find them. But again, I believe you should solve the real problem instead of trying to find ways to work around it.

 

Edited March 16, 20241 yr by comment

I don't deny this is suboptimal. My Filemaker skills, albeit limited, are better than my Excel skills. I tried with a relational FM database but it became cumbersome when exporting related data to Excel. Works great with a flat file. 

This is a time-limited project, so I decided the speed of development using a flat-file was better than the time it would take me to create a related solution, plus the issue of solving the Excel exporting issue. 

 

Well, the thing is there are various solutions for exporting, but none for poor structure.