Help for Yet-Another-New-Guy

[DLFrye]

I'm trying to self-teach myself FM Pro and so far have had pretty good luck,but now I have run into a snag.

The DB that I've written has about 70 records, more or less. One of the fields is a date-shipped field that is blank until the item is shipped. What I would like to do is print one of two reports. One where the field is blank (nul value, not yet shipped) and one where a date has been entered (not nul, shipped).

I tried "if-then" and "isempty" statements in a script, but I'm doing something fundamentally wrong.

Is there an online resource where I can learn this ridiculously simple process? Maybe a thread that I missed?

I've done a quick search through the posts and have managed to become really confused. Is rhere a good reference book that would be of value up through, say, the intermediate level.

BTW, the version that I have is FM 5.5.

Thanks,

Duane

[-Queue-]

The easiest way to do your searches would be to perform a manual find, entering = into your date field to find all records with a null value. Then create a script called Find Empty Dates and select Perform Find [Restore] as the only step. Do another manual find with = in the date field and set the Omit checkbox on the left-hand Status Area. Create another script, Find NonEmpty Dates, with Perform Find [Restore] again as its only step. Now you have two scripts both devoted to your purposes, that can be easily called from any other script when necessary.

[DLFrye]

Exactly what I needed to know. I figured that it would be a no-brainer!

I can see that I need to buy a good reference. Is "FileMaker Bible" worth the $50 I would have to pay, or is there another that would be better?

Thanks again for the tip.

[Trisha]

I can't really help you with recommendations for the FileMaker Bible or not but I thought I'd just put in my 2 cents real quick. This may sound silly, but I'm also quite new at using filemaker and the help file has lots of great info that I've been able to use to figure out lots of things. Also, spending time on here looking at different posts and looking at different peoples databases that you can download have been an excellent source of information. I've had to ask some really stupid questions on here when I get stumped and there have been people that have been kind and patient enough to help out. I hope you find the info and help you need! Good luck

Trish

[stanley]

Duane:

Although the FileMaker Bible is pretty good with the basics, quite a few of the members here are not fans. Much better is Rich Coulumbre & Jonathan Price's "Special Edition Using FileMaker Pro", published by Que, which is fantastically useful, has a CD of great examples, and really gets into details, covering all the bases. It's $40, too, so you save a ten-spot.

-Stanley

[DLFrye]

Thanks for the replys!

Trisha - I intend to spend some time on the board, although I may do nothing more than lurk, just to keep from asking too many dumb questions. I firmly believe in using the search function!

Stanlyey - Thanks for the input. I looked on Amazon and saw both books. I need something that I won't outgrow too quickly, yet not struggle with in the beginning.

Thanks Guys!

Duane