Aqua-like Template

[falkaholic]

Here is my Aqua template I've played with for the past few months. Based on Joe Obegi's template that can be found at layoutmode.com.

Feel free to add to it and post back (version control might be troublesome). There is plenty of fun stuff to add.

-Different Aqua colours (this one is only graphite)

-Field locking

-Aqua-isk drawer graphics (my ones weren't good enough to include with this)

-Super-smart tabs.

... anything else.

AquaTemplate16.fp5.zip

[falkaholic]

Heres a updated one.

Cleaned some of the scripts up and added toggling sort headers in list veiw.

Tell me what you think.

[kenneth2k1]

The first one you posted was very nice. I bit some things out of it. At home I don't have a Mac, so could you make your new file a zip maybe??

Thanks

Ken

[falkaholic]

Sorry about that,

Here it is in zip. You can get stuffit for windows and linux by the way.

I decided to do .sit because of the mac theme. I guess I'll keep it zip from now on.

AquaTemplate17.fp5.zip

[simon1663]

fantastic!

Looks awesome..

[falkaholic]

Thanks,

One thing I need to do is find a way to speed it up. It seems to flicker alot. Anyone go any ideas?

[simon1663]

Reusing container fields ?

It will flicker then

If you just paste the graphics then it wouldn't

(I think)

[Ocean West]

One sugguestion...

On all your buttons that have a round area you might consider not making the actual graphic the button. But put a overlay of a FileMaker element such as a rounded box or oval. Make this element the button that triggers the script.

The effect is that this makes a very clean looking button. Irrigular shapes that you wish to make into a button may require using many lines to conform to the shape of the button. When you click the button, the "Click" state will only silouete the button and not darken areas outside the button.

[falkaholic]

Good idea, I've been meaning to do that.

Going to try and do some optimizing too. I bet I can make the merge fields on the tabs into just a plain field. That might help a bit.

[falkaholic]

Something is wrong with the download on my last post.

AquaTemplate19.fp5.zip

[Ocean West]

here is a module from one of my solutions.

Since I am creating a more polished solution, I tend to lock the graphic elements via photo shop instead of FIleMaker text over a graphic.

This displays both a list view and an layout view.

[kennedy]

One sugguestion...

On all your buttons that have a round area you might consider not making the actual graphic the button. But put a overlay of a FileMaker element such as a rounded box or oval. Make this element the button that triggers the script.

Good idea, I've been meaning to do that.

Before you spend any time doing that, you might want to check out the Starter Template that I posted here some time ago. It is aqua-look as well (same source graphics), and the buttons are already setup with masks so that the highlight matches the button graphic. Just grab the buttons from my Global.fp5.

Going to try and do some optimizing too. I bet I can make the merge fields on the tabs into just a plain field. That might help a bit.

Might help what? I ask because I had switched to a field at one time and then switched back. What are you trying to optimize by going to plain fields?

Brian

P.S. Make sure you grab the later one in that thread, not the first one. Made a few improvements.

[falkaholic]

Yes, that is more "polished"

That is something my template is missing.

[falkaholic]

I've so far taken a brief look at your starter templates, I surely haven't gone through it all.

I've noticed the tabs don't seem to change for each layout. The Families tab is always the active one. The security system looks promising.

[kennedy]

Remember its a template for a relational database. The major tabs tend to go between files or major objects... like Families vs People vs Classes vs Inventory vs Invoices. But I haven't created a template for each... there's just one Template file... my expectation is that you'll decide what files you need and build them each from Template.fp5... and in each, you'll move the dark overlay tab to the proper position (matching the labels and the files).

For the layouts within a file, you use the minor tabs... the highlights that are in the right side of the bar... the "Views". Those do change as you move between layouts of the Template file. My expectation would be that a typical file would not have just Detail and List, but rather Detail, a couple other forms with Portals showing sub-detail, and several list layouts showing different reports or ways of analyzing the info. And you move among those by clicking on the name of the view in the right side of the tab bar.

Make more sense?

[PimpDaddy]

I'm having a print problem with the globals printing. This may be a dumb question but any ideas?

[ScottC]

I really like these templates. I'm new to FM so these have been a great way for me to see how others are creating a nice user interface.

I'm having trouble with the checkboxes though. When in the Find mode, they disappear. I suppose the graphic in the find mode should be blank, checked, unchecked. This would allow a find to ignore, find checked, or find unchecked boxes. I thought about using a global field to display the checkbox and modify the current find through a script. (I'm not yet sure how to do that.) Would this solution work, and would it work for multiple finds?

Scott

[Steverino]

This may be obvious to the pros, but how do you get the striped background?

[Ocean West]

Click on the layout part like body, then choose a very light grey, then choose a fill pattern choose the little horizontal lines.

[SteveB]

Stephen, could you please re-post your attachment as a .Zip instead of a .Sit?

I have so little to do with MACs that I never got Stuffit. Thanks

Steve

[Fitch]

1. Why not just download Stuffit, it's free?

http://www.stuffit.com/win/

2. If you have so little to do with Macs, why do you want an Aqua template?

[SteveB]

1- Thanks, I did.

2- Why: I have no problems "borrowing" techniques that are better, prettier, etc. Too bad Apple doesn't have the same philosophy...there are things that Windows does do better (yeah, really). The 'Not invented here' syndrome is pretty stupid, especially considering all they stole from Zerox Park. Certainly, Gates doesn't have a problem lifting better ideas.

Steve

[Ocean West]

http://www.mackido.com/Interface/ui_history.html

Microsoft, Apple and Xerox

The History of the Graphical User Interface

[Steverino]

I love the look of the template, but what do I do if I want to have multiple checkboxes? (I'm not sure I understand the underlying principle of the fields CheckboxNum -- which I don't see on the layout -- and CheckboxCalc). Do I need different CheckboxNum & CheckboxCalc fields for every checkbox in the same layout? Do I need multiple "Toggle Checkbox Checkboxnum" scripts? And will I have problems calculating and sorting boxes that are checked? Is there a simple thing that I'm missing?

[Leb i Sol]

at this point ...it's not the GUI it's the U in it!

[kenneth2k1]

1. Why not just download Stuffit, it's free?

It's free, sure. But it makes you wait 10 seconds before you can use it. However, it will handle both .sit and .zip files, which is something that Winzip won't do.

So why not make em all zips??

Ken