Hi

I'm new to Filemaker. Can someone tell me how to organize independent tab sequencing for each tab panel? Each panel contains a portal to a different table and the user chooses which tab they want to work with. There is no relationship between the tables at time of data entry, so it makes no sense for the tab sequence to continue from one panel to the next. I tried to reset it for the second panel, but no luck.

Thanks,

jl1

Welcome to FileMaker and the Forums!

You do not need to reset the tab order for each tab panel (unfortunate confusing terminology). Tabbing through the order alone will not take you to a new panel even if it has fields/objects on it that are next in sequence.

This means that given a layout with a Tab Object with 3 panels, each with three fields on it (Field A, B, C) you can have tab order 1A, 4B and 7C on panel one, 2A, 5B, 8C on panel two, and 3A, 6B, 9C on panel three. With this setup, the user will experience the tab order as 1A, 2B, 3C for whatever panel they are on.

Note that you can set any tab panel as part of the order sequence so that a user can switch between panels without using the mouse by tabbing to that panel and pressing return, which takes the user to the new panel and therefore the new panel tab order.

Also note that FM10 finally allows you to insert objects/fields into the tab order without having to manually reset the remaining objects in the order, which has been a major hassle in previous versions when trying even moderately complex tab ordering.

Play around with it and it will become readily apparent.

Thanks! Who woulda thunk...

So far Filemaker has amazed me with capabilities and ease of use. However some things are not intuitively obvious. For example this problem. I searched helps and manuals for almost 2 hours before I gave up and found this forum. The forum is a fantastic way to learn things and - most important for me - get help for very specific things.

Thanks for the forum!

jl1