This probably isnt the right category for this question but anyway:

I have a layout which goes entirely "blank" when all records have been deleted from the database. Other layouts within the database still showup but on the offending one I lose backgrounds, buttons - everything. A "new record" request brings everything back.Any suggestions ?

When you say the layout disappears, does it disappear in Browse mode or Layout mode? If in Browse mode, my first guess is that you're in List View, and have nothing in a Header or Footer part. Since you have no records, you have nothing showing.

Thanks for that -knew it would be something obvious - amazing how you can have a programme running sucessfully for 6 months and miss something like that!

Cheers

Simon Bowler

This is "normal behaviour" for FMP 4 and older.

In later version (5.0 and 5.5) FMP must have been changed because layout elements are visible even with zero records.

Sorry, Vaughan, but items in the Body part are not visible if there are no records and you're in List view -- not in v5.0, anyway.

No need to be sorry! I didn't know that info about the body part -- I mainly work in form view! Thank's for setting the record straight.

I've been teaching for over a decade now -- photography, computers -- and people often ask how I manage teaching people who know more about the topic than me. My answer is always a genuine "I manage wonderfully!" because I never profess to know everything and I always welcome corrections and imput from others. I like being around people who know more than me! And a group of people always knows more than any individual.

I like your style, Vaughan! But then, I'm primarily here because there are occasionally things I can't figure out, and then I welcome the help from those who know more than I (or once in a while those who can point out to me something so obvious I just overlooked it).

Galileo, the world's first true scientist, was also the first "philosopher" (as they were called back then) to teach people to say "I don't know." Brilliant.