Help for simple yet frustrating problem for creating a note section

[jazzygb1]

Hi,
I have a Filemaker Pro 11.04 database running and it's great.
However I wanted to make a simple amendment which is proving very frustrating to do.
I have a customer contacts layout that I can click on a button to create invoices. All the relevant contact data is ported and I get taken to a new layout (Invoice Data) where I input the relevant information for invoices (the items, quantities etc).
When I'm ready to print I click another button on this layout and  it takes me to another invoice layout (Invoice Print) that condenses the information input into the data layout into a more printer friendly version and prints it off (via script) automatically  -  this has worked like a charm for years!
Recently though our invoicing layout requirements have changed and I wish to add a note box that I could type short messages that would be specific to that invoice (i.e not something that will appear on every invoice) - just a simple text note should be perfect for this.
So I created a new field called 'Invoice notes' and set it as a text only box and added this field to both the 'invoice data' layout and the 'invoice print' layout.
I thought that would be it, but when I'm in Browse mode and add text into this box, whatever text is added is erroneously added to every invoice - not what I wanted at all.
All I want is to be able to leave a small individual message on an individual invoice that applies specifically to the invoice and customer I'm writing it to.
I'm at a loss on how to achieve this as I can't see what I'm doing wrong - I really thought it'd be a 5 minute task, but it's proving frustratingly difficult to achieve and I've wasted hours trying to do it..
And advice on what to do would be gratefully received.

Thanks

GB

PS: This is a Modified FM Starting Point Database if that helps  running os OSX 10.10

[eos]

So I created a new field called 'Invoice notes' and set it as a text only box and added this field to both the 'invoice data' layout and the 'invoice print' layout.

Did you create the field in the Invoices table? Did you make sure it is not set to global storage?

[Jonathan Hogle]

Jazzygb1,

 

It sounds to me like you set the field storage to "Global" which makes all data entered in that field appear in every record. To check this, go to "manage database" and select the field you created, click "Options" (Or double click) and go to "Storage" then uncheck the "Global" box if it is checked, and that should solve your problem.

 

Thanks,

Jonathan Hogle

[jazzygb1]

Hi,
Thanks for your responses.
Yes I created the field in the invoices table and no it is not set as a global storage.
I thought this was about as simple a thing to do as it gets but it's proving quite tasking.
I do have an existing working notes section that I could make larger and use at a push, but I really wanted two such sections on the invoice as the information going in them fulfils two different tasks.

Thanks again

GB

[eos]

Yes I created the field in the invoices table and no it is not set as a global storage.
I thought this was about as simple a thing to do as it gets but it's proving quite tasking.

It shouldn't be; if your InvoicePrint layout is based on InvoiceLines and you place the related field Invoice::invoiceNote there (preferably into the header), you should only see the note from the (single) parent Invoice record.

[ggt667]

Sounds like an anchor point issue to me, which layout? which reference to that field are you using?

Regardless I use both note and todo as each their separate table with 1:1 or 1:many relationships to the place they belong, order, invoice, instruciton, etc

Edited October 17, 2015 by ggt667

[jazzygb1]

Thanks.
I don't really understand anchor points to be honest, but I thought they controlled layout position rather than content?
It may be beyond my skill level (I'm no Filemaker expert), but I thought it'd be a reasonably easy thing to do.
it's proving a little more involved than I thought it would be and may perhaps be too complex.
Although I'm usually reasonably competent for simple tweaks, this might be a case of it being a more difficult task than it sounds.
I created the new field named 'extra notes'in the 'Invoice Data' layout and then added it to the layout. The theory being that when I type info in here, it'll show on the printed invoice layout too.
I then added the 'extra notes' field to the 'Invoice Print' layout too to achieve this.
Both layouts resides in the same table 'T12_Invoices' so I thought that'd be that, but unfortunately not.
At the moment anything I add to that field then shows on every invoice created.
 

Thanks very much everyone for the responses and help offered so far - really appreciate its it.

Regards

GB

[eos]

I created the new field named 'extra notes'in the 'Invoice Data' layout and then added it to the layout.

Didn't you say that you created that field in the Invoices table? If it is intended as a note for a given Invoice, then that table is where it belongs, not the InvoiceDate table.

The theory being that when I type info in here, it'll show on the printed invoice layout too.

That would then depend on into which InvoiceData record you typed it … the upshot is that the note belongs to the Invoice proper, not any single one of its line items. But since InvoiceData is a child table of Invoice, it then of course also “belongs” to all line items.

[ggt667]

Anchoring? Anchor points? For something visual like the desktop to present data in a 2 way data binding such as HTML5, or a desktop database such as FileMaker, you will have to attach/mount the data somehow. There are 2 places you do that in FileMaker one is where you choose table occurance in the layout set up, and the other one is where you can change the POV through a relationship. <<relationship>>::<<fieldname>> Where relationship is different than the table occurance you chose for your layout.

[comment]

[bruceR]

As far as this task "being too difficult". My vote would be, no.

Certainly there are a number of things you have to get right. But this is really a very fundamental skill to working with FileMaker. 

Defining fields; understanding what table they are in, what field type they are, how table occurrences and relationships work to select the right field for the layout. All basic stuff.

I suspect if we had a clone of your file this would be a sixty second fix.

[ggt667]

 

I suspect if we had a clone of your file this would be a sixty second fix.

How on earth would you know that without having the file? Perhaps they use repetitions extensively? Becase relationships are hard to understand? What do I know.

What is the term you use? Anchoring? Anchor point? Focal point? Reality distortion field?

Edited October 18, 2015 by ggt667

[bruceR]

How on earth would you know that without having the file? Perhaps they use repetitions extensively? Becase relationships are hard to understand? What do I know.

So the only way to help with this problem is to have the file? Having the file would make the job a LOT easier, but clear and complete explanations, maybe screenshots, from jazzy would help. Jazzy should avoid this task because placing a field on a layout is an inherently advanced and complex task? Seems doubtful.

I don't know what you know. It is not at all clear.

[OlgerDiekstra]

If it's not a global field (and that would be easy to check), then it's quite possible the field is actually created in the correct table, but accessed through an unrelated TO on the layout. That would result in the note field of the first invoice to be always displayed on the layouts.

Good to check in layout mode what invoice layout is actually used, and what the TO reference is of the note field. It should be the same.