auto categorizing of information between layouts

[pacintern]

I'm a new user of file maker pro and I need some help. I'm working for non-profit that is attempting to organize members, donors, sponsors, and volunteers. Can some one help me figure out how to view these different groups of people? I have added a field called "category" under which I have volunteer, sponsor, member or donor listed. The main layout only has first name, last name and category. The problem is that I don't know how to make a new layout that will only show volunteers. One that only shows member. One that only shows donors and one that only shows sponsors. Is there a way to set up file maker to automatically display only certain categories? Or must I have them all combined?

Right now there are four separate File Maker pro files and that is a pain in the neck. Please help.

Thanks

[Fenton]

If you want dedicated Form view layouts for each category, then you will need to script navigation between records, with buttons. Just flipping through in the Status Area is not going to know which layout to go to. It will be fairly simple:

Freeze Window

Commit Records/Requests

Go to Record [ next ]

If [ IsEmpty ( Category ) ]

[Vaughan]

You don't need a new layout to do this; the key to working with databases is understanding that you can use the FIND command to separate-out groups of records.

So in your layout, enter find mode, type "member" without quotes into the Category field, then clisk the Find button or press the Enter key.

The next conceptual leap with databases is understanding that most things are achieved by workig with found sets; most processes consist of performing a find, then sorting, then printing or exporting or something.

[Fenton]

Yes, Vaughan is right, that these are simply different found sets of the same table. I'm afraid I jumped right past a simple Find. I was outlining what I saw as the optimal final structure.

I didn't address a possible misconception pacintern might have, that a layout is a found set. A layout of one table will show the same found set as another layout of the same table (if in the same window). You get no separation of data within that table by switching layouts. You separate data by using either a Find or Go To Related Record [ relationship, show only related, layout ].

How many layouts you need depends entirely on how much data of what type would be on each. I try to use as few layouts as possible to present the data, to keep navigation simple. But when you get into using portals to display data from other tables (membership dues, donations, correspondence, activities, internal tasks), then you might want separate layouts for these different categories of people; for space considerations if nothing else. It is likely that the different categories would have different portals. Of course, if the portals are small and they all fit on one layout, then you could start out with just one Form layout.

If there are different laouts, and your categories overlap, if a person could be more than one category at a time, then you'll need to consider a special layout for those. It's mostly about what fields, what portals, and their size, for the interface to work.

Non-profits are interesting, because there is sometimes overlapping and movement of people between categories, as well as a lot of different things associated with them.