column widths in FM dialogs

[lakeside]

I've inherited a a sprawling (68 tables) FM database with many field definitions and relationships. I'm trying to get a handle on it all (running FM 6.0, not Developer), and I find it increasingly annoying that every time I open a Define Fields or Define Relationships dialog box, I have to resize the column headers so I can see the entire field name or relationship name or whatever.

Along the same lines, in the Define Scripts dialog, some script steps (like SetField) are truncated such that I have to open the Specify Field dialog in order to see what field is being set. And the Perform External Script doesn't say what external script, just what file.

Is there a preference somewhere that I've failed to see?

Thanks.

[Fitch]

No prefs for those things. You could use a macro tool like Quickeys to resize the columns. The best solutions is a combination of FileMaker Developer and Analyzer from wmotion.com -- costs a bit of $, but if you use FileMaker for a living, worth it.

[SteveB]

If you print the script, you'll see which script is linked to the External call...not a great solution. There really isn't a way to permanently expand the columns, which is another of those daily frustrations that FM Developers live with. We are basicaslly are living with an early 90s version of some features that Filemaker will never fix (my bet).

Also, be careful of Waves in Motion Analyzer...it's extremely slooow! It could easily take 3 hours or more to run on a faily fast machine. Plus, their customer support is non-existent.

Steve

[lakeside]

Thanks for the info. At least those windows themselves can be resized, unlike in v3.0, which is the last time I used FM.

I know that printing the scripts shows all that info, I just don't like using that much paper. If I'm reincarnated, I hope I don't come back as a tree!

[Fitch]

Yes, Analyzer is slow. Run it overnight. But IMO it's amazingly useful and worth the wait.

[-Queue-]

Print them to pdf. Only theoretical space is wasted, not paper.

[BobWeaver]

A free alternative to Analyzer is here .

[Anatoli]

-Queue- said:

Print them to pdf. Only theoretical space is wasted, not paper.

Or to text file

[Anatoli]

Steveinvegas said:

If you print the script, you'll see which script is linked to the External call...not a great solution. There really isn't a way to permanently expand the columns, which is another of those daily frustrations that FM Developers live with. We are basicaslly are living with an early 90s version of some features that Filemaker will never fix (my bet).

Also, be careful of Waves in Motion Analyzer...it's extremely slooow! It could easily take 3 hours or more to run on a faily fast machine. Plus, their customer support is non-existent.

Steve

I feel your pain!

When I've complained about always resizing the columns, Ray wrote "my mouse traveled lot of miles on that route", or something like that.

I agree that it will not be changed in current generation. Let's hope for version 7