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This is one of those little things that can get you if you are not careful. In FileMaker IWP (the quick and easy way to put a FileMaker database on the web), tabbing to the next field / object can ONLY be done by hitting the tab key. The other options you can define in the Field Behavior setup dialog box for the classic FileMaker experience will not work in IWP.
Going from list view to the form view for a particular record can be handled a number of different ways. Now if you allow your users access to the layout pull down menu, they can navigate layouts from there. This is one of the methods that works just fine with simple databases. Sometimes FileMaker databases mimic teenagers and seem to grow up overnight. I don’t think they will ever ask you for the keys to the car but they can outgrow your earlier methods to deal with them.
In this case, the layout list menu can get a little crowed when a FileMaker database evolves to the state where it has a lot of layouts. It is not uncommon for every table to have separate layout for a form, list and print view. So a button / menu activated navigation system is quickly created by the FileMaker developer to overcome the need to navigate a long list of layout.
Another advantage to developing your own method of layout navigation is that you can flavor the experience. For example, you can have the layout window resize, give it a custom name in the title bar or perform some other background action. So here are some designed variations I've used or seen.
Now I want to steer this discussion to the moving from a list view to the form view techniques. However, the technique of moving from a portal row to the related record is quite similar and most developer use the same implementation for both.
BIG FORM VIEW BUTTON IN THE LIST HEADER One very simple technique is to put a button in the header that goes to form view. So the user needs to select which listed record they want first and then click the form view button.
MY FAVORITE, A LITTLE ICON My favorite method is the button icon (typically a magnifying glass icon, but more about that debate later). I put the button along the left side of the screen. Clicking upon it will take you to form view from that particular record. In some ways, using a magnifying glass icon is confusing. Many times that icon is used to illustrate a search procedure and I use it as a "drill down" indicator. I just have never seen an icon better than the magnifying glass icon. WHOLE LINE IS A BUTTON Now I was watching one of the training videos from VTC.com for FileMaker 10, given by longtime developer / trainer John Mark Osborne. The second to last movie in the Final Touches series, John illustrates how to make the entire line of the list view into a button.
FYI ... I’ve really enjoyed the FileMaker 10 VTC training series lately. I've been watching the Advanced version with runs about 12 hours in duration. There are also Beginner (15 hours) and Intermediate (15 hours) FileMaker 10 training series. SCRIPT TRIGGER? I'm not sure how I would do it but there may be a technique in there somewhere. Going back to the VTC training movies for a moment, there is a movie called Navigation in the Event Driven Scripting section of the same FileMaker 10 Advanced VTC Course. It uses a variation of an old value list pull down layout navigation. Before FileMaker 10, you had to click a "Go To" button. Script triggers take away that limitation and really makes you start thinking about navigation in new ways.
= More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.
The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.
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By now you are probably comfortable creating layouts and you may have dozens of newly created layouts within your FileMaker file. By default, all new FileMaker layouts are added to the bottom of the existing layout list. Unless you really did create the layouts in the same order you wanted to view them, you will want to organize them in a new list order. This is particularly true if you have a large collection of layouts that are linked to different table occurrences.
LAYOUT REORDER IN FILEMAKER 9 AND EARLIER The reorganization of layouts is available from a menu command under the Layout menu in Layout mode. This is true for all versions of FileMaker previous to version 10.
IN FILEMAKER 10 AND BEYOND (assuming) The Set Layout Order feature that had been under the layouts menu (previous to FileMaker 10) has been been moved and renamed to the Manage Layout command. The new Manage Layout feature is part of the overall family of commands under the Manage menu.
Here you can see the Manage sub-menu for advanced copy of FileMaker 10. This contains the new option of layouts alongside the options for the manage database dialog box (for tables, fields and relationships), the value list definition dialog box, scripts, external file references and the security settings for the file. Since this is a snapshot of the Advanced copy of FileMaker 9, it includes the Custom Function and Custom Menu option.
LAYOUT REORDER DOES ... When you choose to reorder (FMP9) or the manage (FMP10) layout option, FileMaker will bring up a dialog box allowing you to move layouts up and down the layout list for organizational reasons. For instance you can group all the data entry layouts together and then all the list layouts together. The actual process of reordering the layouts is accomplished by clicking a small double arrow handle and dragging the listed layout to its desired spot in the order.
Here you can see a layout list from the FileMaker 10 status bar.
In the status bar (FMP10) or status area (FMP9), you will find a list that allows you to jump to a particular layout. In this same general area of the manage layout dialog box as the reorder handle, is a checkbox that allows you to show or hide the layout in the layout list in browse mode. If you are not using the layout menu for navigation, it is probably a good idea to hide all the layouts from browse mode.
Finally, you also have the ability to jump to a layout in the layout list by selecting it and then clicking the Layout Setup button. = More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.
The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.
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FileMaker includes the ability to spell check text fields or text on a layout when in layout mode. Visual Spell-Checking is a feature that underscores a word that FileMaker may think has a spelling error. When you see the indication that a word may be misspelled, you can right click on the word to bring up your contextual menu options to address it.
Here you can see that the visual spell checker has flagged a misspelling of the word FileMaker.
Here you can see the contextual menu showing you alternate spelling options and the ability to add a word to your FileMaker dictionary.
Not all words flagged by the spell checker are misspelled. You may want to add words to the internal FileMaker user dictionary to accommodate people names, slang, industry related words and the like. This way they will not be flagged as spelling errors in the future.
Now with the release of FileMaker 9, visual spell-checking can be controlled via the Field Behavior dialog box.
FYI... Up to version 9 of FileMaker, Visual Spell-Checking used to be an option that you could turn on or off on a per file basis only. This limitation became a type of “damned if you do / damned if you don’t” choice for developers and users alike.
FYI... FileMaker has the ability to use multiple dictionaries and you can select which one to use during different data entry situations!
FYI... You might not know that you can edit the user dictionary, import new words from a text file or export the user dictionary so that you can share it with other FileMaker users in your workgroup! This is all accessed from the Spelling sub-menu under the Edit menu. Hey, you can even have multiple dictionaries and switch back and forth depending on unique FileMaker usage situations.
Here are some links to other posts that might be of interest in regards to this topic... Field Behavior = More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.
The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.
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In many cases, the decision of using modal vs multiple window design is based upon computer skill level of the end user and the preferences of the developer themselves. In some cases, these two are bundled together like parent and child in a three legged sack race. A three legged races is where two individuals inside legs (the right leg of the partner on the left and the left leg of the partner on the right) should be touching. Tie the partners' inside legs together so each pair of children has three legs rather than four. They race from a starting area to an ending area like a traditional race.
In this case, all developers might treat their users as being very savvy and some developers treat all users as easily confused beginners. So the inside leg of the design process is where the user and the developer meet. In my opinion, there is no one design method but many prominent developers would disagree. Creating an overly simplified user interface limits the power user, slows down their productivity and delays their ability to get powerful information in a timely manner. Creating an overly complex and feature rice user interface limits the casual user, slows down their productivity, intimidates them from interacting and can lead to data entry mistakes.
ABOUT MULTIPLE WINDOW DESIGN FileMaker can support more than one open window to a file at a time. Like so many great features in FileMaker, you can activate the New Window feature in many ways including a menu command, a script step or a button action.
You have more control over a new window event via scripting or even the button action. This is accomplished via a specify button in the New Window setup that brings up the Window Options dialog box. On the surface, these options seem like a very reasonable set of choices including what to name the window, how tall is it, how wide is it, how far should it be from the top and how far should it be from the left. As you might have guessed from the need to control what appears on the computer screen, the measurements are evaluated in pixels. You can type in the options or you can use a calculated value. Using the calculated value allows you to leverage a bevy of Get functions that will tell you about the users computer screen, the other windows on the screen and more. When you think about things like script variables, custom functions and plug-ins, your windowing options can become very robust indeed.
Here you can see the Specify Window Options dialog box.
Conversely, when you use the New Window command from under the Window menu, you have no control over where the new window will appear on the screen, its size or the title of the window. No matter how you create the new window, it is a quick click and drag to move or resize it.
MULTIPLE WINDOWS CAN EMPOWER THE USER Back in the day I was a “what can I do for you today” guy at a local ComputerCraft in Austin, Texas. I had a customer that was tracking stock activity on multiple monitors via the “wicked fast” Macintosh IIFX that I had sold him. Each monitor had multiple windows of various sizes tracking activity and allowing him to make quick buying decisions. This was a good five years before internet stock trading came into being and he was not a computer geek. He just was a very smart and motivated guy that knew what he wanted and needed from his business tool.
Having multiple FileMaker windows open at one time can allow you to view multiple layouts, multiple views of a layout and even multiple found sets of the same layout. You can have information windows that do not allow for editing and windows open that only allow for editing. You can have a window open that simply summarizes data for the solution and/or a window open that only have navigational / operational control buttons. You can write scripts that organize the windows to your particular needs or have memorized states of organization that fire up at the simple execution of a single script. The possibilities are practically endless.
However, multiple windows can be intimidating to the casual user and you can encounter a record locking situation that can bite you even in single user mode.
GENERAL INFO ABOUT MODAL DIALOGS Modal Dialog Windows is a term that has become more important as FileMaker developer embrace the multiple window capabilities given to them. It is not uncommon to have a FileMaker layout that looks like a window dialog box. This is due in part in the lack of robust options from the Show Custom Dialog script step and for compatibility with FileMaker Instant Web Publishing.
FYI ... The Show Custom Dialog step allows the developer to script a message dialog box to come up on independent of the FileMaker screen and has many features such as the ability to show a customized title and message, the ability to add data into three possible fields and the ability to include three buttons that branch a script accordingly. Other Show Custom Dialog features include the ability to use literal text or a calculation to show the dialog box title, the dialog box main message and the labels for the input fields.
A FileMaker implementation of a modal dialog will bring up in a new foreground window and require interaction with that window before any other FileMaker task can take place. As you might have guessed, this amount of control requires ScriptMaker but that shouldn’t concern the non scripting savvy developer. There are many documented techniques that allow modal dialog implementations a snap. The two big tasks are opening the dialog box in the correct size and pausing the script until appropriate interaction from the user.
Within my InBizness product, I tend to use the same script for closing a dialog window and it uses two script parameters of submit or close. Now I tend to stay away from the modal requirement of requiring interaction before closing the window. This is because I’m a bit multiple window guy and have techniques and mindsets in play to help support them. = More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.
The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.
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Copyright 2010 to 2013 and beyond - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com. All rights reserved.
The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.
Friday, December 18, 2009 at 6:26AM 
© 2010 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com
