I am working on a database for a company that is going to be using FileMaker with touchscreen PCs. Part of what they want is a damask background that they use in their brochures in the background of the touchscreen application I am creating in FileMaker (background gif attached).

In html you can set a background to tile so that the page doesn't take a lot of space and so that the background is still the background no matter what size the page is.

I am wondering if there is any way to mimic this effect in filemaker. I have a few ideas of how to remedy the problem if I can't find a way to tile the background so that the screen will have the same background no matter what size the window (and I don't want any scrolling bars on the bottom or side because it is a touchscreen application).

Ideas so far:

1) Find out the exact size of the screen for the touchscreen computers and manually tile the background in photoshop and then insert it into my database as the background. (This may take a while because I have to size it precisely because I can't have any scroll bars or blank background spaces)

2) Make a webpage and tile the background and then use the filemaker web viewer for the background. (I tried this, but no matter how I change the arrangement of the web viewer it always appears on top of my information)

Both these ideas are work arounds, but would either take a lot of time or they aren't working so far.

Doest anyone have any ideas or further questions on what I mean?

What if you set the graphic to a global container. Then place the gContainer on the layout, with the graphic field formatted to reduce/enlarge and maintain proportions.

Also, in the object palette, click the right and bottom anchors, so that the gContainer will enlarge with the window.

Edited October 26, 200916 yr by Guest

Would you mind explaining the global part a little more in detail? I think I get the idea, but I'm not sure.

So, I set a graphic in a global container and set that container to reduce/enlarge with anchors so that as I resize the page it resizes with it.

But how do I make it so that the image is tiled?

Also, in the past working with global containers I have found that every time I get out of FileMaker and back in the global fields are empty. I need this background to always be there.

Thanks...

Global fields revert to the data that was in them when the file was last closed in single user mode. I prefer to use Set Field in an Open script to explicitly set the global to the image that is stored in a non-global container.

You mention kiosk-mode, which in FM speak means that you'll be creating a runtime that is by definition single-user only.

The graphic will not tile, it will proportionately resize. There is no tiling in FM.

Using Move/Resize Window, you can establish the attributes of the window.

maybe make a bigger image already tiled.

just a idea