Frozen Dropdown Menu

[bones mcghee]

In trying to format a field to create check boxes based on a value list, the dropdown menu under:

Field Control/Setup/Control Style/Display As

is blank and frozen.

This problem is not limited to creating check boxes for a value list, as I have also observed this behavior when trying to select the format for exporting records. Sometimes restarting the OS fixes the problem, other times the issue is persistent. It is currently holding up my work, so any insight is greatly appreciated.

thanks,

bones

[color:red]UPDATE: It appears as if this behavior is due to a conflict with some other software. Logging on as a different user (essentially a fresh Mac OS X account) fixes the problem. Logging back into my original account reproduces the frozen menu bar. Is anyone aware if this is a known behavior/bug?

Edited July 8, 2009 by Guest

[jamesducker]

Never seen it or heard of it before.

To my mind it falls very clearly in to the camp of "problems not worth trying to fix"... if your mac (FileMaker or not) is playing up like this it is time to move all your stuff to a fresh user account then delete the old one. That will almost certainly be a quicker and longer-lasting fix than trying to work out what the problem is.

Hope that helps.

James

[Lee Smith]

When was the last time you "Repaired Disk Permissions"?

Lee

[bones mcghee]

um, never...until now. The disk utility took it's merry time and repaired a bunch of stuff, but the drop down menus in FMP are still blank and frozen. Restarted OS, same result.

[Lee Smith]

Too bad, sometimes it will fix somethings.

I would then try a Reinstalling Mac OS X. For guidence, check out the System Help.

Lee

[bones mcghee]

I have just figured out the problem, now all i need is a decent solution.

The source of the error has something to do with Cambridgesoft's ChemDraw Plugin. As an inconvenient workaround I had created a new account with the bare minimum software installed to do my FMP work to avoid the frozen menus. Today I finally got around to copying the CD Plugin from a different account (/Users/[diffusername]/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/) into the more general /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ and the drop down menus froze up. I deleted the CD-related files from said folder and the menus returned to working order. Unfortunately, I need the CD Plugin installed because it is an important feature of my database.

If anyone has come across this and found a solution please let me know; otherwise, I'll be on the lookout for an alternative option for html-based chemical structure rendering.

This problem has driven me crazy for quite some time now, so if nothing else, it's here to serve as documentation for some other poor sole pulling his/her hair out with a similar problem.