Other folks see OS X GUI glitches?

[CyborgSam]

FM 6.0v4, 10.3.3.

On occasion I'll see glitches in the UI in FileMaker. The rest of my apps run normally.

In Define Fields, when I duplicate a field, modify the name, and click Save, the Options button will sometimes remain inactive (dim). Double-clicking the field opens it.

Today I was doing script copying & modifying, with a lot of changing the field in Set Fields. One time after I clicked OK in the fields list dialog, it redrew with content from the layout before it closed... I immediately quit FM, backed up, recovered the data to be sure, all was OK.

I've deleted all my FileMaker prefs just to make sure, but the glitches still appear.

Anyone else see these glitches? Anyone seen corruption due to UI glitches? Any cures? Any answers? Anyone care?

FileMaker Version: 6

Platform: Mac OS X Panther

[Fenton]

Yeah, I see the dimmed button quite often. Sometimes I click on another field, then back; sometimes I have to close Define Fields and open it again. I've gotten used to, so I can't remember exactly what I do. I believe I see this rarely in OS 9 also; but it's much more frequent in 10.3.x.

A similar glitch, which I see pretty often on both OS, is that a newly defined relationship doesn't show immediately in the drop-down menu. It does work however, if you drop the menu down, go to the relationship, then choose it.

I'm assuming that these glitches are partly due to OS X's fancy dancy graphic engine (which is a mixed blessing), and partly due to FileMaker not getting around to fixing them (or both). I don't think they are a real problem as far as the actual working of the databases.

But, like you, I quit FM and start it again when it starts to feel "mushy." On the plus side, I've never had it quit unexpectedly in OS X (other than when I did some real "experimental" AppleScripting).

Not to mention lack of mouse wheel scrolling ONLY in FileMaker. Sigh. I was hoping this at least would be fixed with 7. Not yet. Someday hopefully. Might be 'cause Apple doesn't make a scroll wheel mouse; I imagine it would be become a priority then :-|

To be fair, a client of mine on XP has real problems getting the External Script button to pop up the little window; has to get the timing just right.

Modern computers are so complicated; there's always something that doesn't work quite right.

[BobWeaver]

I see it too in OS9 with FM5.5 and FM6. It happens regularly if you duplicate a field definition.

[ESpringer]

Here's a major GUI glitich for me: when I'm defining calc fields,

(1) double-clicking in the list at top right for a function insert doesn't work (FM receives double-click as if it were only single-click. I think double-clicking isn't working in lots of FM dialogs, but this is the most important one.) I checked to make sure that it fails to register not only from my Kensington trackball, but from the simple Apple puck-mouse as well.

(2) When the define fields area is expanded with the window's corner-drag handle, the field-names area widens, but the function list area does not widen. Ideally, there ought to be a drag-handle in the middle, to allow user to choose which side ought to display at greater length.

The net result is that I cannot see the syntax on complex functions, nor can I insert them and fill the syntax in. This is a major obstacle!

(Mac OS 10.2.8, FM7 Developer)

Anyone else?

[HazMatt]

FileMaker Developer 6.0.4 / Mac OS 10.3.2

I have sort of the opposite problem as ESpringer's (1) problem. In one of my portals, I have a number of data fields that do not allow entry but instead I attached a script to them making them a button (which in turn eventually enters the field, but that's not the point). The problem is that when I click on this field / button, FileMaker appears to only register a MouseDown, not a Click. The field discolors to the darker "selected" shade, and stays there until I click on it again, at which point the script begins.

I hope this issue is fixed in FileMaker 7, but I still have to get my users through a window of Mac OS X / FileMaker 6 (we're still running Mac OS 9 on all of our Macs).

[HazMatt]

After playing around a little bit, I have determined that my problem listed above ONLY happens when the record is not "active" (e.g. the cursor is in a field). If I click into any other field on the layout, I activate the record and the buttons in the portal function as they should.

So, it looks like ANY button type (I checked) suffers from this same problem in a portal. Moving the button outside the portal makes it work.

[HazMatt]

OK, I've uncovered a bug for sure, and I have created a few of databases to prove it!

You can add as many portals and buttons as you want to a layout, but when you sort ANY of the portals in Define Relationships, the half-click problem appears on ALL buttons in ALL portals on the layout.

Has this been discussed before? Will FileMaker Inc. release a 6.05 bug fix for this?

My problem is that we are still using Mac OS 9 with FileMaker 6, and I see no workaround for a migration to Mac OS X / FileMaker 7... I'm kinda stuck here.

[Fitch]

That button in a portal problem has bugged me for a long time. It only works if you click s-l-o-w (or click twice).

[HazMatt]

Download my example file here: http://www.larsonsystems.com/half-click_bug.zip

To see the bug in action, you will have to Define Relationships... then sort either relationship listed. I separated the portals in different layouts to illustrate that the bug affects the sorted portal as well as any portal that happens to be on the same layout as the sorted portal.

[Ugo DI LUCA]

May be I didn't identified the bug you were referring to.

The field turns to dark when you click "just" outside the field which has a 14 pixel height while your portal row is 17 pixel high.

Either use a transparent button with a 17 pixel height in the background or resize your field.

Again, may be I didn't tested it enough.

[HazMatt]

Hi Ugo,

I don't quite understand the problem you're describing. The field *is* the button, and I can only click within the bounds of the field. I will play with my example later to resize the fields, but that doesn't seem to be the problem.

[HazMatt]

Ugo, you were simply selecting the portal row. In order to see the bug, you have to Define Relationships... then sort either relationship listed.