The Object Info Palette is available in Layout mode (View > Object Info). It displays information about a selected object or group of objects.

For a single selected object, you can see and edit the object name. This is used to name objects on a layout so that they can be targeted with script commands such as Go to Object.

For an object or a group, the palette shows the position and size. There are four position measurements – distance from the left of the layout to the left and right of the object/group; and distance from the top of the layout to the top and bottom of the object/group. There are two size measurements – width and height of the object/group.

The six measurements can be displayed in inches, centimetres and pixels. You can change the unit display by clicking on the unit (in, cm or px). We strongly recommend that you always use pixels as the measurement unit. Pixel measurements are always displayed as whole numbers. This makes it much easier to remember and enter measurements in the palette.

To resize or move an object using the palette, simply enter the required pixel measurement and press the Tab or Enter key.

At the bottom of the Object Info Palette is control of object auto-resizing. This is a new feature in FileMaker Pro version 9. It allows you to control how an object resizes when the window is resized.

It is easy to select one or more objects on a layout and duplicate them using Edit > Duplicate or the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl-D or Cmd-D). Duplicate objects are positioned six pixels to the right and six pixels down from the originals.Here is a tip to duplicate an object a number of times and have the duplicates all evenly spaced.Select the object. In the example below, we are using a button.

1. Duplicate the object.
2. Either drag the object with the mouse or use the arrow keys to nudge the object into position relative to the original. Do not deselect the object.
3. Duplicate the object again. FileMaker Pro remembers the offset or the first duplicate from the original and applies it to the next duplicate.
4. Repeat this as many times as you need.

 

When you need to create a new field, field label or any other object, you can use the tools that FileMaker Pro provides. However, the new object may not always match the appearance of existing objects. So the easiest way to ensure matching appearance is to duplicate an existing object. This is easily done with the Edit menu command (Duplicate) or the shortcut Ctrl-D or Cmd-D.

Another easy way to duplicate objects is to use a modifier key while dragging. On Windows this is the Control key; on Macintosh it is the Option key.

Select one or more objects on the layout (in Layout mode). Hold down the Control or Option key. Drag the object(s) to the new position. When the modifier key is held down, you will see a '+' sign next to your pointer as you drag. Let go of the mouse button to 'drop' the objects.

Make sure you drop the objects before letting go of the modifier key. If you do not, you will simply move the originals. If you make this mistake, use Edit > Undo (Ctrl-Z) to undo and try again.

In Layout mode, fields usually display the field name. When you want to resize a field to an appropriate size for typical data, you need to resize the field, go to Browse mode, and see if it fits. If not, return to Layout mode, resize and repeat. That goes on until you get the size right.

But there is an easier way (of course). When in Layout mode, choose View > Show > Sample Data. This will cause the data from the current record in Browse mode to be displayed in the field object in Layout mode.

The screenshots above are both in Layout mode. Note that where there is no data in the field of the current record, FileMaker Pro supplies filler data such as "Graphic reporting" as seen in the title field above.

To determine the appropriate size for a field, it is a good idea to create a record and enter the longest examplar data you can think of for each field. For example, for the last name field, you may enter a long hyphenated name. In 1996 Guinness listed Featherstonehaugh as the longest English surname.

For number fields, enter the largest number you could reasonably consider using in the field. Make sure you format it as required with currency symbol, thousand separator and decimal places as required.

In the above example, it is clear how wide the DOB (date of birth) field needs to be given the date format that has been applied.

Holding down the Alt key (Windows) or the Option key (Macintosh) while you choose commands from menus or use keyboard shortcuts modifies the behaviour of some commands.

You can investigate changes in behaviour yourself by opening menus with and without the Alt/Option key held down. Note the difference in the Records menu below:

With the Option key held down, the ellipsis (...) after the Delete Record command disappears. This indicates that there will be no dialog to confirm the deletion.

Please note that this is a very dangerous thing to teach the average user since it is usually good for them to get a dialog to confirm what they are doing.

Other interesting command variations with the Alt/Option key held down:

File > Print... becomes Print One (print one copy without a dialog)

File > Close becomes Close All (files)

Edit > Paste becomes Paste Text Only (without formatting)

See what else you can find! There are more.

Let's say that you have a field that is used to store a person's weight. You would like the number entered to display using metric units for kilograms (kg). So when you enter 62, you want it to display as 62kg. Sure, you can enter the units into a number field - FileMaker will allow alpha characters in a number field. But it means that users have to remember to type in the units.

So you use the previous tip to open the number formatting dialog for the field (or select the field and choose Format > Number...). You can format the number as a decimal. However, the only options you have for notation are percentage and currency.

So we use trailing currency notation (usually used for currencies such as Indonesian Rupiah) and then type the 'currency' symbol we want - kg. In Browse mode, 62 entered in the weight field will display as 62kg (after you tab out of the field).

The 'currency' symbol can be up to five characters including spaces.

You may know that the easiest way to access the Field/Control Setup dialog is to double-click a field when in Layout mode. But what about field formatting?

Hold down the Alt key (Windows) or the Option key (Macintosh) and double-click the field. Hey presto! The appropriate field type formatting dialog opens. Text formatting for text fields, number formatting for number fields, date formatting for date fields, and so on. The dialog that opens gives you easy access to the formatting control for the field. And for non-text fields, you usually have a button to access text formatting too.

As an added extra, you can use this technique to determine the field type without opening the Define/Manage Database dialog. For example, if you don't know whether the telephone field was set up as a text field or a number field, get into layout mode and Alt/Option double-click it. The formatting dialog that opens will tell you! Pretty sneaky eh?

Most record sorting we do uses a single field. We can sort by more than one field using the Sort Records dialog. But for simple sorting by one field, there is a quick and easy way.

To sort the records by contact name, we right-click (or Control-click for Mac users with a single button mouse) on the field. Then choose either choose Sort Ascending or Sort Descending.

For text fields, ascending sorts in alphabetical order (A-Z); descending in reverse.

For number fields, ascending sorts in numerical order (0-9); descending in reverse.

For date and time fields, ascending sorts in chronological order; descending in reverse.

When you have found a set of records, you may want to further restrict the found set. For example, if you find all the people who work for a real estate company, you might want to limit that set to those in one state only. You could do another find and this time include two criteria. But there is a quicker way!

In the found set, right-click (or Control-click for Mac users with a single button mouse) on the example data you want to add to the search. From the contextual menu, choose Constrain Found Set.

In the example below, we have clicked on the state field for a record containing NSW.

This Constrain action performs the find on the found set of records only. So we end up with records that match the first search AND the second search.

The opposite of Constrain is Extend. If we now want to extend the found set to include all Ray White Real Estate contacts, we right-click and Extend Found Set.

Often you will want to find all the records that match a record on screen. In the following example, we have a list of movie roles – the actor name, movie name and name of the role they played. We would like to quickly find all roles in the movie called The Misfits.

To do this, we right-click (or Control-click for Mac users with a single button mouse) on the field. In this case, it is the movie title field. From the contextual menu, choose Find Matching Records. FileMaker Pro constructs and performs the find in one step. 

And we can perform a broader search by first selecting text in a field. Let's say we wanted to find all roles with the name O'Hara (like the Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind). We select the word O'Hara in one of the records. Right click and choose Find matching records. Et voilà!