Coffee cups indicate the complexity of a file, tip or article. One coffee cup is the easiest and three is the most advanced.
To download a file, click on the green arrow icon next to the listing. If there are no coffee cups
or platform icons, the listing may be an article, Quick Tip, Knowledgebase or bonus file.
FileMaker Pro indexes every word in a text field so that finds can be performed quickly. Think of the analogy of a book. Rather than trying to locate something by thumbing through each page, you look in the index and find all the pages numbers at once. FileMaker works in the same way. In order to make finds as fast as possible, the first 100 characters of every word is indexed. If you click into a field and type Command-I (Macintosh) or Ctrl-I (Windows), you can view the index of a field. Most characters are indexed but you may be surprised what characters designate a new word other than a space. The index does take up space, so if a field is not going to be searched on or used as a match field in a relationship, set the Storage Options in Manage Database to never index that field.
A lot of people wonder why the Insert PDF option is dimmed or greyed out under the Insert menu even when they have a container field selected. The two most common reasons, other than installation issues, are the interactive option is not checked and the container field is in a portal. Start by going to layout mode, click on the container field and display the Inspector. Navigate to the Data tab and scroll to the bottom to see if “Interactive Content” is selected. If the Insert PDF option is still not available, it is likely your container field is in a portal and interactive PDFs are not available for size and performance reasons. Consider inserting the PDF as a file. It can still be opened with your favorite PDF reader using the Export Field Contents step but won’t be interactive inside FileMaker.
The new {{PageCount}} symbol in FileMaker Pro 19 allows you to place the total page count on a multiple page document. In previous versions, only the {{PageNumber}} symbol was available. Now you can produce results like "Page 2 of 10" without using a script. The {{PageCount}} also has a function counterpart called Get(PageCount) you can use inside a calculation formula to produce conditional results on the last page of a repor
For some reason, many FileMaker developers think you can recover a file and continue using it. Well, you can if you want to live your life dangerously. Recover is a great tool when used properly. The proper use of the Recover feature is to recover a file and then import the recovered data into a backup of the file which is not damaged. In other words, the Recover feature is for recovering your data not your schema. Even with the new recovery features in FileMaker 10, always remember that FileMaker assumes you are recovering a file because you have no other choice. Therefore, the Recover feature will remove any suspect scripts, fields, layouts and other features it believes could be causing the problem. While the Recover feature could completely fix your file, it's also possible it may not remove all corruption even though the file appears to be functioning properly.
For more information on recovery, see the white paper titled "Demystifying FIleMaker Pro File Recovery" by Steven Blackwell, available in the Resources area of this web site.
FileMaker Pro 19 offers a slick method for switching layouts that's similar to the Spotlight feature in OSX. While in layout mode, type Option-Command-K (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+K (Win) and you can start typing the name of the layout. So much faster the the Manage Layouts dialog!
Many developers call the Toggle Window [Maximize] script step on startup when deploying FileMaker Pro solutions on the Windows platform. Since FileMaker cannot lock the window in the Maximized state (due to Microsoft guidelines), the window will become Restored (or Unmaximized) whenever another FileMaker file is opened -- often to an undesirable window size that obscures the interface and leads to user confusion. To define the size of the Restored window, call the Toggle Window [Zoom] script step during the startup script before the Toggle Window [Maximize] step. The Toggle Window [Zoom] step will size the right and bottom sides of the window to the object that is farthest to the right and bottom on the layout. Depending upon your interface you may want to define a utility layout which contains one object in the position the window should size to.
After 5 attempts in a 5 minute period to logon to a hosted file on FileMaker Server 17, the account is locked out for 5 minutes. This feature requires FileMaker 17 Server but any client from FileMaker 14 and beyond can be locked out. However, earlier clients will get a vague error message saying, "the account name and password you entered cannot be used to access this file". Conversely, if a FileMaker 17 client connects to a FileMaker 12 through 16 server, the old behavior of dismissing the credentials dialog after four attempts will occur and no lockout will be imposed. In addition, this feature only works with internally authenticated accounts. Externally authenticated accounts, including oAuth, have their own rules for failed logon attempts. If a lockout occurs, it pertains to ANY file on the host where that account name is being used.
FileMaker Pro can actually compare two container to see if they are equal. A true or false or false result is returned. This can be handy if you are trying to create a multi-state or conditional button. FileMaker Pro is also smart enough to realize that the same graphic is used on multiple layouts or records and should only be stored once. This saves file space and speeds up the display of graphics.
Does the information on your labels creep up or down such that the last labels on the page are at the top of the label? The most-likely reason the labels are creeping is due to the Body part being too big or too small. However, let's start with the first row of labels. Does the first row of labels hit exactly where you want it to? If the labels are too low, decrease the size of the Header part. If they are too high, increase the size of the Header part. Once you have your first row printing correctly, move on to the rest of the rows. If they are creeping up, you need to make the Body part bigger. If they are creeping down, you need to make the Body part smaller. When you change the size of the Body part, any change is multiplied over the number of rows of labels you have. Change the Body size as much as the difference in position between the first and second rows of labels and all the labels should adjust correctly. It may take a few tries.
FileMaker 7 and 8 have three methods for optimizing files. The Save A Copy As feature is available in FileMaker Pro, Developer and Advanced. This feature allows you to save a compacted copy but not like WinZip or Stuffit. A compacted copy is a duplication of the file compacted and optimized. FileMaker stores data in blocks and, when information is deleted, those blocks may become partially full. Compacting a file merges partial blocks, so there are fewer and fuller blocks -- thus creating a smaller file. Optimizing a file is a lot like optimizing your hard drive. Blocks are swapped so that data in records are grouped together. Scripts, Fields and other areas of FileMaker are also optimized to increase performance by allowing similar data to be accessed sequentially. The File Maintenance feature in FileMaker Developer 7 and FileMaker 8 Advanced simply splits these two tasks into separate features. The big difference is that the File Maintenance feature works on the current file, so you don't have to swap out the old copy for the new one.
Quick Tip
Quick Tip
