ISO FileMaker Magazine: FileMaker Video Tutorials, Templates, Help & More

by Matt Petrowsky

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Whenever a new version of FileMaker is released, we always see a flood of great techniques. Going back to FileMaker 8 and combining a new feature from FileMaker 9, gives us the opportunity to create the best looking and fastest sorting portals possible.

The sorting portals portion of the video is free for anyone to watch in the Preview edition. If you're a paid subscriber then I have a very powerful addition to this technique that can be used in other areas of your FileMaker solution as well. It's my Universal Sort Arrow.

The implementation, while a bit complex underneath, is very flexible and allows you to use one single field for all of your directional sort indicators on any field being sorted.

The technique file showcases just use on sorted portals, but can be extended to accommodate list views as well. Just imagine, one single calculated field for all of your sort indicators. No more graphics (unless you want them) and no more extra time spent on implementation. Once you have this technique integrated it's a matter of seconds to support a new sort arrow for any of your sorted columns!