Please help make my scripting easier

[poeben]

I have gotten myself into a rather tedious scripting scenario. I have a rather large script (about 300 steps, many of which are repetitive.) Is there a way to speed things up at all when duplicating large numbers of steps. I would take any of the following suggestions:

1. Export the script to plain text and re-import when finished.

2. Copy blocks of the script and move them as a block (I can only seem to move one step at a time, not a block)

3. Any way to actually enter code directly, not via point and click.

I am running FileMaker Pro 8.5. I have a feeling I may need FileMaker Advanced to do some of these things...please tell me I'm wrong.

Thanks in advance

[Genx]

.... you shouldn't have to duplicate that many script steps. What does your script do?

[poeben]

I know there are probably numerous ways this could have been designed better, but this is what I have to work with. I have attached a sample of one of the simpler scripts. Basically the script will fill in an employee's hours for a specific day. Employee's working the same hours will be filled in based on the previous employee's times. This way the times of 30 employees can be entered only once per unique time (hours vary greatly on a daily basis.)

It doesn't seem all that complex:

If field A is empty [clear fields A1-A6]

if field B is not empty AND field B1 is empty [copy value of fields A1 thru A6 into B1 thru B6]

if both fields are empty [do nothing]

This same action occurs for up to 30 employee fields. Hopefully this makes some sense...

[Genx]

The question here isn't so much one of scripting but why the structure requires replication of information... and not even to a related structure.

What is the actual information being passed and why?

[poeben]

Thanks for the quick replies. The data consists of the following:

Employee name and 3 sets of start/end times (and a few calculations not relevant to the script: total hours worked, pay rate, cost, billing cost)

For any given day there can be up to 30 employees working, each with different start and end times. The idea is when a group of employees have the same times (which happens frequently) you would only have to input the info for one employee.

Thanks again for the help.