I am a newbie so forgive me if I have posted in the wrong section. I have a database I created to manage incoming orders. When an order is complete I would like to be able to click on the complete button and have it put some kind of stamp across the front of it that says "closed" I know I have seen this done before. I often have repeating customers so when I search for customers orders I want to be able to easily see the ones that are closed.

What does your Completed button do? If it simply set a number field with a 1, you don't need any additional fields. Just format the display of this number field as boolean with yes reading "Closed" and without a No value. Turn off 'Allow Entry in Browse' through Field Behavior.

Otherwise, you can create calculation ( text) with:

If ( whatever your criteria to determine closed ; "Closed" )

It also sounds like you will need to prevent editing to an order record that is closed. By adding your closed field, you can use FM's access privs to not allow editing if the Closed field = 1.

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate any help I can get...I actually hadn't even got as far as creating the button yet. I was just at the "mmm thats a good idea" stage. I am very new to using Filemaker. I have a basic understanding, but all self taught. I will work on getting the "closed" button created - right now I have it as a radio button. I don't think I really understand how I would get the word CLOSED to run accross the front of the page? Thanks again.

I actually got the closed stamp handled, thank you, I read and re-read and finally it clicked. The only thing I am stuck with now is locking the record. Do you think you can you help me with that? I couldn't figure it out.

if your user is going to click a button of some kind, you could run a script and switch to an identical copy of your layout - but with the fields set to read only... that is, right click on the field pick 'behaviors' from the popup menu and uncheck the boxes to the left of 'in browse mode' and 'in find mode'

so make a copy of your current form, maybe name it something like 'myform_readonly'

in the script , which you'll attach to you'll attach to a button ?

go to layout [mylayout_readonly]

I'm sure there is more than one way to do this, but this is the first , relatively simple one, that comes to mind.

I hope that helps,

sincerely,

J__

Jumping in without full consideration...

J__ -- that solution is problematic (what happens when the user switches back to the editable layout?). A simple way to lock the value is to wrap the set field command with an If statement:

If [Not(Closed_Field)]

Set Field [ Closed_Field; 1 ]

End If

Furthermore, you can set up a calculation field that is a button on the layout. That calc is:

If(Closed_Field; "Case Closed"; "Close Case")

By using a calc field on the layout, your users have no direct access to the underlying datafield. The data field is set via the script, which only allows setting the closed value. The user sees "Close Case" which they can click to close the case; once it has been clicked, the text changes to "Case Closed" so they know they had success.