Assembling Layouts - By Scott Love, Soliant Consulting

Assembling layouts

Here are some shortcuts that make assembling layouts in FileMaker ‎much easier.

By Scott Love, Soliant Consulting

A big part of creating databases in FileMaker is assembling ‎layouts. You'll save yourself a good bit of time if you get to ‎know the key and mouse combinations all the pros know by ‎heart. 

* Ctrl+drag (or Option+drag on the Mac) an object to create a ‎duplicate. When you let go of the mouse, the Specify Field ‎dialog will appear. 

* Ctrl+Shift+drag to duplicate an object and constrain it to ‎either the horizontal or vertical axis. 

* Shift+drag to constrain one of the corner anchors of an ‎object along vertical or horizontal axes. 

* Ctrl+drag a corner anchor of an object to conform to a ‎square. 

* Ctrl+click once on an object to set its properties (color, font, ‎indent, etc.) as that file's default for new fields and objects. 

* Click on a part label (where, for example, it says "body" or ‎‎"footer") to apply attributes to the entire part, such as a ‎background color. 

* Drag over an area on a layout to select multiple objects at ‎once, or Shift+click. Shift+click again to unselect one object ‎from multiple selected. 

* Double+click a tool to "lock" that tool for use. Otherwise, ‎FileMaker will always revert back to the selection tool. 

* Ctrl+Up Arrow or Ctrl+Down Arrow to flip through records ‎in Browse mode, requests in Find mode, layouts in Layout mode, ‎or pages in Preview mode. 

* Get to know the Object Size palette under the View menu. It ‎lets you exactly position objects by entering coordinates. ‎Click on the unit of measurement labels to toggle between ‎pixels, centimeters, or inches. 

* Use the Format > Line Spacing > Custom... (Other…) Menu option to ‎control paragraph formatting within text fields, including ‎the ability to indent. 

* The arrow to show a list attached to a field or the calendar ‎icon are controlled by the right field border: If you turn off ‎the right border, they'll disappear even if you have those ‎options enabled in the Field/Control Setup dialog. 

* If you want to concatenate two fields on a report or insert ‎field contents into a block of static text, don't bother with ‎using a field: turn to the Insert > Merge Field to add data to a ‎text object. 

* To make the tabs on a tab control object wider than the ‎actual text label in question, simply add spaces to the right ‎and left (Simple, but effective). 

This Advisor Tip was originally published in Issue #1 of ADVISOR ‎BASICS for FileMaker Pro.

You can get more how-to ‎advice on FileMaker Pro at ‎http://filemaker.advisorbasics.com.

Smart Duplication in FileMaker Pro ‎Learn how to efficiently duplicate objects.

By John Mark Osborne, Database Pros president and owner, ‎FileMaker Advisor technical editor