When, why...

[Ricardo]

i have never used a portal in any of my dbs.

so i'am wondering if i should use them and why and how?

i have plenty of relationships in my dbs but no portals.

Am i making life difficult for myself by not knowing?

Thanks,

ricardo.

[CobaltSky]

With a one-to-one relationship, and also with a many-to-one relationship, you can display the related data in fields placed directly on your layouts. The approach crumbles with a one-to-many relationship.

When there is more than one related record, a field placed on the layout in your main file only shows the first related record. To be able to see all the related records, you require a portal which will list them.

There are many instances of file structures which cannot be adequately navigated without the use of portals, to bring the multiple groups of related entities into proximity. If you've not been using them, you'll likely find they are the 'missing piece of the puzzle'.