Cross Platform Problem

[John Chamberlain]

I am a volunteer developing a data base for a non-profit. I use a Mac for all my work, but have to port the files to a PC for them. I find that many of the colors appear much darker on their PCs than they do on my Mac, and buttons that are invisible on the Mac appear as filled with white on the PC.

Can anyone tell me what to do about this, please?

Thanks,

John Chamberlain

[Fitch]

You don't say what version FileMaker Pro you're using, but look in the Application Preferences, click on the Layout tab, and select either System subset (88 colors) or Web palette (216 colors). Another thing you can do is simulate the color of a PC screen:

http://www.thankyouware.com/gammatoggle.html

[John Chamberlain]

I am using FMP 4.0V3 on my Mac, and 4.1v1 on the PC. I can't seem to find the tab you refer to - my layout tab in preferences only allows for selecting square vs round buttons, making new fields appear when created, and locking tools when selected.

[Fitch]

FM 4 doesn't have the color choices. Re-reading your original post, it occurs to me that you may be talking about imported graphics rather than FileMaker Pro "native" buttons. An imported graphic's background may appear transparent on a Mac but not on a PC -- it always shows up with a white background. Not a whole lot you can do about it except make new graphics whose background color matches your layout. See this discussion for example.

[Anatoli]

Easiest will be changing Gamma in PC. Mac is usually around 1, PC more than 1.5.

HTH

[Pupiweb]

Hi John

White background of buttons on PCs is a known issue

You can make your buttons transparent using Apple Works

(see also this link http://home.hiwaay.net/~cullman/tutorial.shtml):

Launch AW

Create a Paint file

Paste the button in it

Get the lasso tool and select the button; copy it

Create a Draw file, paste the button

Select the pasted object; choose the transparent pattern from the palette

Copy the object; paste it back in the Paint file

Get the lasso tool and select the button; copy it and paste it back in FM: it will be transparent on Macs AND PCs

Sounded like voodoo to me first time I did it but it works :-)