Position of Custom Dialogs

[TerenceM]

Does anyone know the logic of where Filemaker places custom dialog boxes on the screen? I'm finding that they're often not where I want/expect (sometimes low on the screen), and I'd love a way to control this behavior. Any clues?

-Terence

[Tanya]

In my limited experiments, positioning and sizing one dialog window determines positioning and size of all future ones, across all files, in a local or networked environment. Beyond this (and it might not be reliable), there is no logic. Thankfully, there are many plug-ins that provide dialog control.

[Reed]

With FM7, you could also use the New Window command to make a window that acts as a dialog. You can exactly control the position and size of such a window.

[brownees]

If you use the New Window command to create a dialog, is there any way to ensure the user does select an option and doesn't just bypass the dialog?

[Fenton]

Check out this example file. It's not really for a "dialog," it's for choosing from a portal list. But look at the way it creates a new window, then enters a Loop/Pause/End Loop.

It is critical that buttons on the layout either Halt or Exit the current script. It's also important to "trap" for Allow User Abort ["On"] in EVERY visible script (Scripts menu).

http://www.fmforums.com/threads/download.php?Number=118628

[LiveOak]

If you set user abort off, enter a loop, and pause, the user can't close the window and can't move to another window (they can move the window).

-bd

[MoonShadow]

Sometimes a User will drag a dialog out of their way to view the data. You can restore the settings through Edit > Preferences, General Tab mid-page 'Reset.' And the reverse is true. You can place them where you wish and they will stay in that position the next time they are called (even after closing the file); ummm, until a User again drags them to a new location.

Too often people are accustomed to dialogs that 1) either say nothing important at all or 2) make no sense anyway. They are conditioned to simply think they did something wrong and click cancel; or whatever it is doesn't matter and hit ok.

I don't use ANY FM dialogs or message anymore. I also create my own dialog windows and they contain the person's name and talk to them like human beings and, hopefully direct them through whatever brought the message up in the first place. I always add humor or skull-crossbones or something to throw them off, blow their mind or get their attention. I don't want them EVER to dismiss a dialog because they didn't understand, or they thought they knew exactly what it was GOING to say so didn't even read it.

LaRetta

[TerenceM]

Thanks for the input. The "reset dialog sizes and positions" button in Preferences is partially what I was looking for -- I just wish I could trigger it from a script! Curiously, it seems to save size/position information for simple dialogs vs. dialogs with inputs separately. Certainly the sizes are different, but you might expect them to appear at the same position on the screen instead of completely independently.

I make my own dialog boxes with an eternal loop in some instances, but its often easier to use "Custom Dialog" for asking simple questions. I guess I could write a generic script and a few generic dialog box layouts that would give me the control I'm looking for -- it just seems like there should be an easier way!

-Terence