ISO FileMaker Magazine

Working off of my recently released Theme Library, I present information on the topic of creating a list view from a pre-existing form view theme. There are a number of tricks to making list views work when using a form view that includes a sidebar. Knowing how to accommodate this aspect of an interface is a life saver when you want to preserve the look and feel you've created.

I also cover how to create and use gradients in FileMaker 7 and 8. If you've got a great starting place for your database look and feel, then watching this video will give you some great tips for creating perfect-working list views!

Providing on-screen messages to users is typically handled via a dialog box window. This is a modal dialog box which the user must respond to before moving on with their work. While ScriptMaker's Show Custom Dialog script step is useful for short messages, it does not allow a great deal of flexibility - at least not like your own custom layout will.

You can create any layout so it will look similar to any type of dialog you wish. You can force users to use your own dedicated data entry screens or walk a user through a wizard-like sequence of steps. The biggest trick with using your own custom dialog boxes is making sure you enforce their use - and being able to make them look and work as expected. Centering windows based on a parent window or based on the current screen are great options to include with using custom dialogs. If you've always wanted to make your own custom dialog windows then watching this video will teach you everything you need to know!

A database is defined by a central location for storing consolidated data. This means there's likely a great number of hands going into that cookie jar. The real question is how do you manage who can do what and are there divisions of users that need different levels of access than others.

The short answer to that question is typically yes. Most every database system requires a bare minimum of user controls. If you need to go beyond the basic limitations of allowing one user to view, edit and delete their own record then this video will cover what you need to know!

THIS ARTICLE'S TECHNIQUE FILE REQUIRES FILEMAKER PRO 8

FileMaker is a great application for building a database system quickly. Most of the features found in FileMaker can be dynamically controlled through the Specify Calculation dialog box. However, with the introduction of the new tab panels, it seems that FileMaker didn't take things quite as far as they should have. Activities such as using dynamic tab names, custom tab graphics and the ability to trigger a script when selecting a tab are sorely missing.

Never fear, Ultimate Tabs is here. This video and technique file will walk you through everything you need to know to fully customize and take advantage of the new FileMaker 8 tab panels!

You may have read all about the new features in FileMaker Pro 8 and FileMaker 8 Advanced. There are many new features that seem impressive and worth the upgrade. Maybe you need some more convincing or haven't had the time to dig deep into the recent release.

Well, wait no longer. You now have zero excuses about knowing exactly what's in this version 8 release. This video walks through all the new features and covers how they may affect your current and future projects.

When using a calendar for most of your life, you tend to think it's just a simple little thing. When you start to develop one, you find out there's all kinds of little things you didn't know. Fortunately, FileMaker provides all the various date functions you could need to manipulate dates and times. However, there are certain situations where you need to know what to do with those date and time functions. This video will show you some of those tips and tricks related to a calendar.

There are just as many ways to automate searching as there are colors in a candy store. It's all a matter of what your needs are. In this technique you'll discover yet another way to provide an easy-to-use search method for users of your database.

Using the concept of a global search approach, this technique allows users to fire off one search request right after another. This is a great feature for those systems where a given search result may not render the expected results in the first few searches. Need a powerful search method? Watch this video today!

Communication is quite obviously an essential part of any system. It's obvious for the reason that communication companies are often bought out for nice, large sums of money. Take the recent Ebay acquisition of Skype for$2.6 billion dollars!

Well, you may not be creating the next version of Skype, but you may be adding a valuable feature to your database system. The addition I'm talking about is a user messaging system. In this straight-forward technique you'll learn how to take advantage of FileMaker's native accounts in order to implement a very functional user messaging system.

There are many ways to provide navigation within your database system. You can use a list view menu within a window, provide layout based tabs created with FileMaker layout objects, use dynamic container based tabs or allow the user to simply make selections from the Status Area layout pop-up list. The system you choose is likely based on how you're using your database system.

This article presents yet one more option for how you implement navigation into your database. This technique is both flexible and powerful because it associates places where users can go based on their privilege set - in essence a role based navigation system where the menu adjusts to match which type of user is using the database. It's a great technique to add to your arsenal!

There are tons of techniques to learn about creating a great looking layout. While it would take more than a few hours to learn them all, you can start out by watching this video.

In this presentation, I provide advice about choosing colors, variations in font sizes and how to properly construct an optimized layout. While it does require some skill to craft an attractive layout, there's nothing here that can't be learned.