I'd like to walk a user through invoicing by asking first for an invoice name (with custom dialog) which works fine and then ask who the buyer is and have the user select from a value list. Is there anyway to have a user do this without going to the field on the layout? Ideally I'd have something like the Custom Dialog box, but with a value list field. Possible? I've looked around this site and I'm beginning to think I'll have to figure out a different way. Your help is MUCH appreciated!

Heatherpol:

Welcome to the Forums.

You can create your own custom dialog, in that you can open a new window with your list presented in it - either as a straight list, or in a portal, or even as a field with the value list in it, in which case if the field is formatted as a pop-up list and you use Go To Field[] to point to the field, the pop-up will appear automatically for the user to select from.

There are other methods, too - perhaps you'll get more responses.

-Stanley

Thanks for the welcome and the response.

I'm trying to "fix" someone else's design and it is really frustrating- very tempting not to just start from scratch.

When you say I can create my own custom dialog, do you mean using the "custom dialog" feature, or that I could open new window with a layout with just that one field in it? I don't see where I'd be able to select a pop-up menu in custom dialog.... Currently the field I am using in the custom dialog box IS a pop-up menu with the value list, but it doesn't show the list. Does this make any sense? I may need to work on my questioning skills as well as FMP skills.

Thanks again,

Heather

You can display fields for data entry on a custom dialog only as Edit Boxes No radio buttons, no checkboxes, no pop-up menus, no drop-down lists. If you set a field on a layout to show values from a value list display as a drop-down list, these options will apply to that field only on that layout (not another instance of that field on any other layout nor in a Custom Dialog Box). If you have a value list assigned to a field for validation in the Define Database dialog, then that will of course hold for any instance of that field on any layout and in a Custom Dialog, although this will still not make that field in a Custom Dialog pop-up.

The inability of the Custom Dialog to display anything but Edit Boxes, along with its inability to display more than 10-20 of the 32 characters it allows you to enter for button captions, and its refusal to resize itself automatically to show a text message more than a few lines long, severely limit its usefulness.

You will want to make your own Custom dialog; this does NOT use the Show Custom Dialog script step. Rather, you create a layout with all the pop-ups etc. you desire, then your script would open a new widow showing that layout, pause for the user to pop away to her heart's content, and resume when a button scripted to resume script is clicked.