Smart Highlight

[Tom007]

Hi

I enter a book in Filemaker Pro 11 Advanced and each record are each page of it. My goal is to use QuickFind and highlight the matched values ONLY inside the found records sets. This means if the user search "DOG" and this word appears 5 times in page 9 then Filemaker must highlight the word dog five times in record (page) 9 and NOT a global highlight of all the field like default.

Some can help me to get this result?

Thanks.

Tom

[comment]

Perhaps this might help:

http://www.briandunning.com/cf/578

[Tom007]

Thank you, may be help... but must be honest. I work long time in big and expensive projects in Filemaker until version 6 and I'm outdated and trying to update again and don't have the knowledge to create a Custom Function.

After a research this is the result:

1) The explanation in Filemaker 11 Advanced Help for using custom functions is not enough to get the idea for newbies or outdated people and to install and use properly the briandunning.com's custom function. Old help system was better long time ago for this kind of problems ;-) (see the useless Apple Help System in Mac OS X... LOL)

2) briandunning.com don't explain Custom Functions for newbies and the info "copy & paste into FileMaker Advanced's Edit Custom Function window" is not enough. Need more detail to make functional this Custom Function. And there is not a newbie section to learn how to enter ONE of the thousands Custom Functions in that website or how to get the idea.

3) The silly and useless explanation and example of Custom Functions in the book Filemaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual, page 532, chapter 12: Applying Developer Utilities, don't gives a decent idea to manage and learn this powerful feature. And in page 538 exists some links to www.fmfunctions.com and http://filemakertoday.com but don't find help there.

For me the place of this O'Reilly's book will be the trash (after an olympic kick)

4) This video trainings don't have nothing about custom Functions:

Lynda.com - FileMaker Pro 11 New Features - Cris Ippolite

VTC - FileMaker Pro 11 Beginner - John Mark Osborne

Lynda.com - FileMaker Pro 10 Essential Training - Cris Ippolite

Lynda.com - FileMaker Pro 9 Beyond the Basics - Cris Ippolite

Lynda.com - FileMaker Pro 9 Essential Training - Cris Ippolite

VTC - FileMaker 9 & PHP Foundations Tutorials

CONCLUSION: Do you know a way to learn how to install and use successfully the custom function HiliteSingle ( text ; searchString ; color ) from http://www.briandunning.com/cf/578

Thanks.

Tom

[bruceR]

It is actually quite easy.

See:

http://fmhelp.filemaker.com/fmphelp_11/en/html/fmpa_custom.23.5.html#1027698

And attached image.

[Tom007]

Thank you. I understand and now works.

Edited June 7, 2010 by Guest

[Tom007]

Ok... This custom function don't works or I'm wrong in some step.

I add this function to conditional formatting but don't take effect.

This is the formula inside conditional formating.

HiliteSingle ( Book1::Pages ; Get ( QuickFindText ) )

"Include field for QuickFind" is checked in Inspector/Data/Field

Need to highlight the found text inside the Book1::Pages field that match with quickfind field criteria.

What's wrong?

Edited June 7, 2010 by Guest

[comment]

What you want to do is not possible through conditional formatting. Conditional formatting works on the entire field, not on specific words inside the field.

Try using a calculation field for displaying the highlights.

[Tom007]

Thank you for your reply. Using calculation field it works!

I enter this:

HiliteSingle (Pages ; Get ( QuickFindText ) ; 253 )

The problem now is that only works one time and the text still highlight after the search. No more highlight after the first search.

Need to enter an algorithm to turn back the color to black after searching and a way to allow a new quickfind after the first with this feature.

[comment]

Make sure the calculation field is unstored.

[Tom007]

:exactly:

Thank you... that's the solution. Now works properly.

Only one refinement...

This function works but change the color for example in this words: [color:red]dog, [color:red]dogs

How can modify to use this function like Microsoft Word search option: Find whole words only?

Thanks, this forum is pretty cool :thumbup:

Edited June 7, 2010 by Guest

[comment]

Not sure if you're asking about finding whole words, or highlighting them. AFAIK, you cannot find 'whole words only' using quick find - you must use the regular find with a = operator.

As for highlighting, that's not a refinement but another ball game.

[Tom007]

Ok. I'll try.

By the way... Your suggestion (HiliteSimple)

http://www.briandunning.com/cf/578

is absolutely better than this one (Hilite):

http://www.briandunning.com/cf/13

that is very slow for searching.

Tested.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Tom

[Dr.Hamed]

Thank you for your reply. Using calculation field it works!

I enter this:

HiliteSingle (Pages ; Get ( QuickFindText ) ; 253 )

The problem now is that only works one time and the text still highlight after the search. No more highlight after the first search.

Need to enter an algorithm to turn back the color to black after searching and a way to allow a new quickfind after the first with this feature.

I'm trying to use the same function HiliteSingle, I was able to make it a customized function, but could you explain the way you used in the calculation field. And does it need a script to run or what? Thanks

Thank you for your reply. Using calculation field it works!

I enter this:

HiliteSingle (Pages ; Get ( QuickFindText ) ; 253 )

The problem now is that only works one time and the text still highlight after the search. No more highlight after the first search.

Need to enter an algorithm to turn back the color to black after searching and a way to allow a new quickfind after the first with this feature.

I'm trying to use the same function HiliteSingle, I was able to make it a customized function, but could you explain the way you used in the calculation field. And does it need a script to run or what? Thanks