I inheirited a layout from another user. Some of the date fields are left aligned and others are right aligned -- how can I change the alignment? The paragraph dialog that I'm familiar with for text fields does not appear for date fields. Can't find anything in the manual.

More . . . I moved two fields to another location and changed from bold to plain text -- text spontaneously reverted to left aligned. Very strange behavior. Could not duplicate on other fields.

I don't get it. Is this a problem with FileMaker 6 really ?

Date can be aligned as any other fields using the Alignment menu from the Format Tab.

The date allignment can only be done in Layout Mode. At least that's the way it works in my version of v6.

Lee

Something else that can affect this setting ... Custom Line Spacing.

Format > Line Spacing > Custom

Check the indent. Sometimes it LOOKS like it's left-aligned when it's right-aligned but has a px specified in the right indent, which moves it to the left much further than other right-aligned fields.

Good programming practice states that dates and times should be centered, text should be left justified, and numbers should be right-justified.

"Good programming practice states that dates and times should be centered ... "

Good programming practice? I disagree. Dates look stupid centered and so do Times and they both are more difficult to read. Both should be right-aligned in my opinion (year and AM/PM then match throughout); and then one should indent from the right by 5 px or so.

MoonShadow hit the nail on the head. I agree completely.

The centered dates and times should, of course, have leading 0's as necessary, so they line up perfectly.

I note, MoonShadow, that you are not advocating left- or right-justification for dates and times; you say they should be indented from the right by 5 px...well, so your centering is just a little different from mine.

"...dates and times should have leading zeros."

Huh? You're kidding right?

Are you suggesting that one should use text fields instead of date fields or regular time fields so one can add a leading zero just to make them align correctly to you center-align theory? Or are you suggesting that one should create duplicate fields just for this alignment purpose - or in other ways have to adjust the standard FM display of dates and times simply so they center in lines? Ridiculous.

Since dates and times vary in number of characters - they should be right-aligned as I've suggested above. I believe you may be confused on ALIGNMENT and INDENTATION. The indent from the right simply means that they aren't exactly against the right margin. That is true whether left-aligned or right-aligned and whether discussing text, time, dates or numbers. I mean it looks better if all data is at least 5 px away from the edge of the field.

In case you are still unclear transpower, I suggest date and times should be right-aligned and not centered; and then indented away from the field edge.

I'm assuming Transpower is referring to formatting a date or time field or merge field so that leading zeroes are added. I do this myself almost always and then either center it or format the field's width so it is just large enough to hold the formatted date/time.

Okay, no sleep makes for a fussy girl. I even pasted a sales analysis I just finished with multiple colulmnar portals (click any cell year/sales category drill-down to 12-month columnar portals which (when cell clicked) drills down to weeks and then an order) to prove my point on how difficult it is to read a complex analysis if padded with leading zeros. But I pasted the wrong one - padding the numbers with leading zeros instead.

And the more I looked at it ... the more insane I thought you must be to do such a thing as pad numbers with leading zeros! Then I remembered we were talking about dates. Geez. Well, I won't take the time to do it again; just too tired. So Queue, we agree to disagree on this one, as I don't think dates should be padded, nor times. It will be the first time I've ever disagreed with you. Hopefully I'll never be this wiped out again.

That's fine. I just think it looks cleaner and more organized (not to mention causes less eye strain) to see

08/01/04

09/01/04

10/01/04

10/11/04

11/01/04

in a list rather than

8/1/04

9/1/04

10/1/04

10/11/04

11/1/04

It also makes exported files easier to format consistently when using the 'Apply current layout's formatting to exported data' option. And I think it's more consistent with the average accounting package, but don't quote me on that.

JT,

I agree 110%

Lee