Chapter 1 is for Babies!

So the am at the very beginning of FileMaker Pro 10 The Missing Manual. I am reading chapter 1 and it is going over the super painful basics of the program. How to switch modes, how to scroll the page. This is all great information if you have never used FileMaker before. I am almost at the point where I am thinking of skipping ahead a few chapters but I decide to load the example file.

Now I guess that I would hit these ideas later in the book but just looking around at the chapter 1 sample file I was able to pick up 2 great ideas. The first 1 was using script triggers to create a search box and the second was using conditional formatting to highlight entry fields.

I am trying to make my search box clear itself out after the user hits return but I haven't yet figured to a way to do it. Right now I have the cursor enter a non editable field so the user can't accidentally type into a live field.

I will add more to it later but it is set up to perform quick searches that users do over and over. Might be nice to have some intelligent fields and dialogue boxes rather than the crazy button madness that most of my layout turn into. The buttons are great at the beginning but after a while you end up with way to many buttons and the whole thing is confusing again.

Wow that was long! The point is Capter 1 was worth reading and the Chapter 1 example provided some great ideas.