Changing "new record" and "search" behavior?

[Shrubman]

Hi folks,

I'm back to database building after letting my last creation sit tight since FM7. I've had time to figure out what people do and don't like about our database and I'd like to know if I can implement a few things to accommodate them:

1) Is there a way to create a new record or search for existing records by simply clearing and re-writing into a field? For instance, if I have a field for a customer name, I would like to lock existing data against editing and instead treat any attempts to modify the field as a search...if the search produces no results creation of a new record is offered. Is this possible?

2) Back and forward buttons: is SeedCode's "Back Magic" the best way to implement this?

3) Currently our contact log feature requires the click of a "create new" button before typing information into the field. Couldn't simply clicking in the text entry box do the same thing?

As you can see, I'm still a novice when it comes to this stuff so please forgive me if these are extremely basic questions.

[Fitch]

1) This could be done with a script trigger plugin such as zippScript.

2) Yes, or something very similar.

3) The simplest way to do that is to check "allow creation of records" in the relationship options.

[Shrubman]

Thanks.