Surely I've missed something. It can't be this hard!

I'm trying to construct what I thought would be the very simplest way to archive the contents of an FMP file -- and be able to restore those contents at a later time.

I've designated the .fp7 file type on the export -- and by all outward indications, FMP produces the file (records.fp7) properly.

The import specifies the exact same table and Matching Names. But, invariably, the items are scrambled when the import executes.

Even when I go into manual mode (activate dialog), none of the "Arrange By:" settings will cause the fields to align. I've had to resort to using Custom Input Order in every instance.

Is the Custom Input Order the only solution? Shouldn't FileMaker handle its own files properly as the default case? Is some special setting needed? Or a different export technique? Is the field order in the table definition a factor?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Couldn't you have a properly formatted clone lying in a container field and then establish it on the desktop, open it there and have the init script import the found set required.

Alright you havn't said what your reciever base serves as, which makes it quite difficult other than guessing - IOW why do you have to export?

--sd

Thanks for the response.

My situation is that I'm building a runtime application that will be running at many different sites. Users will occasionally need to e-mail the contents of specific records to another user. I wanted to use FMP's native file format (1) to provide some measure of security against someone literally reading the information and (2) to ensure that the information imports correctly if and when future changes are made to the table structures -- plus I was striving for the simplicity I get with:

Export Operation -- Find Records >> Export Records To File >> Send Mail with file as attachment

Import Operation -- Import Records using Add New Records option

Everything works fine except for the jumbled fields that I mentioned. [color:red]ANOTHER CONSIDERATION is that I also intend to build a Database Recovery File Set (per FileMaker's recommendation) to be able to restore the application's core information back into a cloned copy of the database. This will be a tedious process unless I'm able to depend on the fp7 format.