I am creating a database for a law company that tracks cases and what awards are won. Because of the variety of awards that can be awarded and the fact that there will be mulitple inputters, I need to make this as simple as possible for the user to figure out where to put the data. For example, in one case there can be the fields medical_award, lost_wages, pain_suffering and punitive while in a different case there could be compensatory_wife, compensatory_child_1, compensatory_child_2, compensatory_child_3 and punitive. For structural reasons, these (and many others) are all in one database and one layout. If I made a different layout for each possible combination of fields, I would have about 1,000 layouts (so definitely not a possibility). If I put all the award possibilities on one layout, it would be very confusing and I forsee MANY dataentry errors which would throw off the statistics and ruin the whole purpose for the database. Here is what I thought would solve my problem . . . Create the layout so that when the user goes to the layout, they see the header and a check box. When the click on a box, a field appears in the layout corresponding to the checked box. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to find a way to do that in FMP. While typing this, I came up with the idea of having the fields already on the layout, but so that you can't see them and when the box is checked, the color changes and they are visible. That would be plan B because the fields would not be in order making data entry require thought. I just want to make it as simple as possible for the user because I met some of the inputters and the simpler the better with those people!

After that long winded explination, does anyone know of a way to have a field inserted into a layout when an event, like a box being checked, occurs?

You can make an invisible portal based on a self-join and put a field or whatever you want inside it. More info:

http://www.databasepros.com/field5.html

Seems to me that a related file & a portal would be what you want. Also, create a value list of potential award categories, so that whoever is doing the data entry can pull from that list (this prevents people from creating their own lists).

With this setup, people can enter each type of award as a separate line item. You can then total the award amounts. You can also print reports showing how much y'all "won" in various categories.

One caveat about portals: You'll want to print any reports from the related "LineItems" file, as printing a portal is risky.

Your suggestion was really close to the mark! With a minor tweak the layout works perfectly! My boss was extrememly impressed and while I didn't take credit for the idea, he still was very happy! Thanks so much!