Designing complex layouts containing dozens of objects crammed into a small amount of space can be a huge challenge developing in FileMaker Pro. Lacking support for layers or an object tree where it’s possible to visualize and select groups of objects or individual objects within groups—there are various tricks and workarounds one must master using FileMaker. One “trick” involves command-dragging (on Mac) over a selection of objects to select them. As long as the object falls anywhere within the drag selection it gets selected. Without holding the command key only objects fully contained within the drag area get selected. Great. This is very useful. However, when you have layers of objects piled on top of one another, selecting specific groups of objects becomes a chore. Continued…
Posted in Feature Requests, Issues.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– July 3, 2010
After spending a good portion of today trying to figure out why my script to navigate to a layout was not working for a particular new layout, I was able to narrow the issue down to what I consider a nasty bug in FileMaker Pro 11.0v2 (I haven’t tested with 11.0v1 but I see no reason why it wouldn’t also exist there). In short, be careful to not have any layout folder names that are similar to layout names as FileMaker will get confused and fail to access the designated layout when its name is placed within a Go To Layout Via Calculation script step. Continued…
Posted in Issues, v11.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– July 2, 2010
Try going to Apple’s me.com within a FileMaker Pro Web Viewer and you are warned that your browser is not supported. While many routines actually work, some don’t such as trying to compose an email. Clicking on the compose email icon takes one to the default OS browser for re-authentication. Continued…
Posted in Tips.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– June 30, 2010
The Close, Maximize and Minimize window control buttons get grayed out when within a FileMaker Pro v11 field which contains a calendar or drop-down menu control. This is changed behavior vs pre-11 FileMaker. For users relying on the presence of active window controls to clearly denote which window has the current focus, this issue can represent usability problems. Continued…
Posted in Issues, v11.
Tagged with change, changed functionality in v11.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– June 28, 2010
The inability to search within your scripts to locate code is a major omission in FileMaker. I know of no other programming environment where the developer can’t search for his/her code! The good news is there’s a fast, free and easy workaround. Namely, print your scripts to PDF then do the search there. Continued…
Posted in Tips.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– June 16, 2010
I was just engaged in a lengthy operation of copying/duplicating a number of Import Records script steps (so they could be edited) in FileMaker Pro Advanced v11 and realized that the “Arrange By” setting was not being retained when the Import Records script step is copied and pasted but IS retained when the script step is duplicated. Continued…
Posted in Insights, Issues, v11.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– June 15, 2010
I recently noticed my scripted Quick Find wasn’t finding all matching records. Digging around I discovered that the offscreen window containing all the fields to search was coming up in table view and for some reason while all fields were placed on the layout, they were not all showing in table view (there were a LOT of fields) and consequently were not making their way into the Quick Find search. Continued…
Posted in Tips, v11.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– June 14, 2010
Manage Scripts should show and allow sorting based on the modification timestamp of scripts. This would dramatically simplify the process of indentifying recently worked on scripts especially in cases where hundreds of scripts are maintained and the developer goes in and out of many scripts quickly to perform edits.
Posted in Feature Requests.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– June 5, 2010
The new Quick Find feature in FileMaker v11 is great in that you can use it to quickly find text in any field across all related tables. Just simply place all the fields you want included in said find on a single layout and ensure that Quick Find is enabled for that layout (it’s enabled by default). When using this feature within a script it operates differently than a “standard” find request when the find yields no match. Continued…
Posted in Issues, Techniques, Tips, Workarounds, v11.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– June 4, 2010
FileMaker Pro needs the ability to tab into a field (or go to via script) and select/activate a pop-up menu (NOT a drop-down menu, a pop-up menu). Continued…
Posted in Feature Requests.
By Bill Doerrfeld
– June 2, 2010
