Custom Colors ought to Stick Around

[BruceJ]

If I add a custom color to the pallet, it ought to stick around in the File, or even the Application for future use. Now, once you close FMP, it goes away! What the ?

Edited September 3, 2008 by Guest

[Vaughan]

My custom colours stick. Mac OS X.

Worst case, put a swatch of the custom colours on the preferences layout so they are easy to load if lost.

[comment]

See also:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/197695/

[BruceJ]

Thanks for the info - but you Mac people have the best of everything... us stuck in Windoze world loose any custom colors as soon as you close the file.

Ya - I know you can create a whole freaking layout and load up the color pallet.. but this is pretty Ghetto programing... not very impressive.

[comment]

I am not a Mac person, I just use one. You do know they are sold, and anyone can buy them?

You do have other options, though. There's the format painter. Or you can command-click an object to load its attributes.

[LaRetta]

Or you can use a program called Pixie from Nattyware. I like it a lot. But I save rectangles of my solution colors on a developer layout and copy/paste the rectangles to various layouts to move my colors forward at times as well. And yes, Macs handle it better.

It amazes me that Windows has not fixed this bug which has been there since Windows 98. And sometimes I complain about a display on a GTRR script step in FM? Microsoft is fat and lazy. And don't jump on me people ... I use a Dell AND a Mac.

UPDATE: Mac people won't need Pixie because they have a built-in color grabber.

Edited September 5, 2008 by Guest
Added update

[BruceJ]

If I understood this forum section correctly, it was the Wish List for things FMP - thanks for the work arounds, but I just think FMP ought to work this way.

Until my non-Mac starts working the way I want it to, I guess I'll have to use the format painter and the pain in the butt layout blast of various colors.

Even if I had a place to type in a memorized Pantone color or something, it would speed the process a little.

[comment]

I'm afraid you are missing the point: Filemaker doesn't work "this way" or "that way". All it does when you select 'Other Color…" is refer you to the operating system's color picker and wait for the result. Same as when you print, or save a file.

[BruceJ]

What I want is that little swatch IN FileMaker that stores a custom color to stay there (at least in that file) when I open the file again. It stays there during the session, but once you close the file, you loose the little swatch. This isn't rocket science and Yes it may be some sort of Bill Gates conspiracy (that's why I wear my tinfoil hat while working on Windoze)... it could be saved just as any preferences are saved.

[comment]

That little swatch is NOT in Filemaker. Do you have another application that uses the Windows color picker? If so, are custom colors saved there?

[Vaughan]

"once you close the file, you loose the little swatch"

I've just tested on a PC and this is NOT what I experience. Once added, the swatch is remembered after the file is closed and re-opened.

Having said that, the process involved to get the little swatch to be added to the custom colours is convoluted and not at all intuitive. It took me a couple of goes to get it right. This is probably where the problem is.

[comment]

Does it retain the custom colors when you quit Filemaker?

http://www.techreplies.com/microsoft-windows-2/custom-colors-not-saved-29247/

http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/blaf/specs/colorpicker.html#custom

[BruceJ]

You are correct. The custom colors will remain if you close the file... but after you close the application they are gone.

I've been working my butt off with FMPro since version 3 and started on Mac... I've had to go through the corporate grinder about why I want to use FMPro versus all the other applications, including Access, et al.. so I am just as passionate and love FMPro to death, but I don't understand why in a forum of Wants and Wishes there's always an onslaught of people willing to defend FMPro to a fault.

Hell, if I want to ask FMPro to make me a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich that spits out of the CD drive every time it gives me the coffee cup icon, I ought to be able to at least ask for it... hey, peanutbutter and jelly sandwich from the CD drive - not a bad idea...

Maybe FMPro needs to not rely on Windoze to manage the colors and instaed make up for what it's lacking by taking care of the task internally. I'm a tough consumer, I just want it to work the way I imagine it should, no excuses.

Edited September 30, 2008 by Guest

[comment]

Hell, if I want to ask FMPro to make me a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich that spits out of the CD drive every time it gives me the coffee cup icon, I ought to be able to at least ask for it...

Yes, of course. But when you post such request in a public forum, you also ought to be prepared to hear other people's opinions about it. Saying that your request is unreasonable (when directed at FMI instead of at Microsoft) is far from "willing to defend FMPro to a fault".

Just in case someone at FMI reads these requests, I wouldn't want them to spend any time on this, at the expense of fixing some real issues which are well in their province - and there's no shortage of those.

[Vaughan]

Hell, if I want to ask FMPro to make me a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich...

There are localisation issues to consider, for one thing.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches wouldn't be popular here in Australia, it'd have to be Vegemite, or even lettuce and Vegemite. The Brits might want cucumber sandwiches. What the USA calls "jelly" Australian's call jam; what we call "jelly" I think you call "jello".

Even relatively simple requests have a hidden complexity.