Lack of "Duplicate" function in Table view?? Why?!

[anachron]

I'm new to Filemaker Pro 7 but have been using FMP since version 4. I'm confident I've understood the basic paradigm changes introduced by FMP 7.

When defining tables, WHY is there no "Duplicate" button? It seems like a glaring oversight to me that there's no way to simply clone tables within a file. Am I supposed to re-enter a series of fields over and over again if I want several similar-but-different tables? Suppose I have a group of logging/administrative fields I want in every table, such as DateModified, ModifiedBy, etc. etc. I have to go into every table and add those by hand?!!

No, the way it should work is that I make a single template table with the necessary info, then hit "duplicate" X times, then go add the custom fields to each duplicated table. (Just like it's possible to duplicate fields within a table.)

Am I misunderstanding something? It seems worse than stupid that FM developers didn't include such a feature. I'm not going to pay $200 to run FMRobot or some similar clunky, slow, hard-to-use third-party widget to do what should be simple to do within FMP 7 itself..

Thanks for your explanations, agreements, comments, or suggestions.

[anachron]

I'm new to Filemaker Pro 7 but have been using FMP since version 4. I'm confident I've understood the basic paradigm changes introduced by FMP 7.

When defining tables, WHY is there no "Duplicate" button? It seems like a glaring oversight to me that there's no way to simply clone tables within a file. Am I supposed to re-enter a series of fields over and over again if I want several similar-but-different tables? Suppose I have a group of logging/administrative fields I want in every table, such as DateModified, ModifiedBy, etc. etc. I have to go into every table and add those by hand?!!

No, the way it should work is that I make a single template table with the necessary info, then hit "duplicate" X times, then go add the custom fields to each duplicated table. (Just like it's possible to duplicate fields within a table.)

Am I misunderstanding something? It seems worse than stupid that FM developers didn't include such a feature. I'm not going to pay $200 to run FMRobot or some similar clunky, slow, hard-to-use third-party widget to do what should be simple to do within FMP 7 itself..

Thanks for your explanations, agreements, comments, or suggestions.

[anachron]

I'm new to Filemaker Pro 7 but have been using FMP since version 4. I'm confident I've understood the basic paradigm changes introduced by FMP 7.

When defining tables, WHY is there no "Duplicate" button? It seems like a glaring oversight to me that there's no way to simply clone tables within a file. Am I supposed to re-enter a series of fields over and over again if I want several similar-but-different tables? Suppose I have a group of logging/administrative fields I want in every table, such as DateModified, ModifiedBy, etc. etc. I have to go into every table and add those by hand?!!

No, the way it should work is that I make a single template table with the necessary info, then hit "duplicate" X times, then go add the custom fields to each duplicated table. (Just like it's possible to duplicate fields within a table.)

Am I misunderstanding something? It seems worse than stupid that FM developers didn't include such a feature. I'm not going to pay $200 to run FMRobot or some similar clunky, slow, hard-to-use third-party widget to do what should be simple to do within FMP 7 itself..

Thanks for your explanations, agreements, comments, or suggestions.

[Steve N]

I dont want to beat up on FileMaker which is not the purpose of this forum. But I think this is an excellent point.

A long the same line we should be able to import tables. How stupid is it then FM7 can have mulitiple tables, but only if you create each from scratch. You should be able combine already designed tables.

Your comment on third party widget are right on.

I did send both of these suggestions to FM some time ago, but the more users make these suggetions the more likley fm will respond. The link is as follows:

http://www.filemaker.com/company/product_feature_request.html

[Steve N]

I dont want to beat up on FileMaker which is not the purpose of this forum. But I think this is an excellent point.

A long the same line we should be able to import tables. How stupid is it then FM7 can have mulitiple tables, but only if you create each from scratch. You should be able combine already designed tables.

Your comment on third party widget are right on.

I did send both of these suggestions to FM some time ago, but the more users make these suggetions the more likley fm will respond. The link is as follows:

http://www.filemaker.com/company/product_feature_request.html

[Steve N]

I dont want to beat up on FileMaker which is not the purpose of this forum. But I think this is an excellent point.

A long the same line we should be able to import tables. How stupid is it then FM7 can have mulitiple tables, but only if you create each from scratch. You should be able combine already designed tables.

Your comment on third party widget are right on.

I did send both of these suggestions to FM some time ago, but the more users make these suggetions the more likley fm will respond. The link is as follows:

http://www.filemaker.com/company/product_feature_request.html

[anachron]

I posted an angry feedback direct to Filemaker through the link you provided. I hope they address this soon. How does anyone, amateur developer or professional, even use FMP 7 without this feature? Thousands of developers happily sit there and click "new table" and re-enter field after field after field as some kind of Zen exercise? PFFFFT.

[Ender]

I don't think this functionality would be added in this version. Anyway, it doesn't bother me. Adding those few Date Modified, Modified By, etc, fields by hand is no sweat. And tables shouldn't need duplication for any other purpose.