I'm very new to FM Pro version 5, so I apologize if this is an easy question (I just haven't figured it out yet!)

I have a master list of students at my school (approx. 600 kids). Some kids have Goal Plans, some don't. Is there a way that when I do a Find for the kid, that the program can tell me how many Goal Plans are on file, and list them by date in a Pull-Down Menu, to allow me to select a plan and view it? Some kids may have more than one plan per year. Some kids may have one every year. Most kids have none. Is it easier to put all the Goal Plans into a separate database (separate from the master list of names)? How do I force the Master list to cross-reference and create a custom value list based on the data in the Goal Plan list?

Any help appreciated!!!

There are ways of doing this with a pop-up menu but it's much simpler to accomplish virtually the same thing with a portal. To do either, though, you should use related files.

Put the goal plans in a separate file and link it to the main student file by student number if there is such a field. If not, it would be a good idea to create one.

Then place a portal to the goal file on the master student file layout.

When you call up a particular student, all goal records for that student will be displayed in the portal. If the goal records have a date or other unique goal identifier field for example, you can place that in the portal and the date etc. of all of the student's goals will appear. You can place a "Go To" button in the portal to go to the related record (see button format options) which will then bring up the applicable record from the goal file. There are a lot of refinements that you can make to this, but this is a start.

Thank you. It worked perfectly.

-Stuart Wyss

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