Standard Window Sizing and Zooming

Back when computer monitors were small, we wanted FileMaker Pro windows to be as big as possible, so I set them all to “maximize”, so they’d entirely fill your computer screen, completely covering up everything else (including other FMP windows).

Well, now that computer displays have expanded, that just seems greedy. OTOH, there are times when you really do want a particular file maximized. You’ve always had manual control over window size and shape, of course, but you don’t want to have to be doing it every time you switch to a different layout. So now, for each individual file, you can customize window sizing and zooming to your preferences. You get to the control settings from each file’s Router (welcome) screen, by clicking for info on This Particular File, followed by a couple of clicks on the "next page" arrow:


Standard Window. You can specify what you’d like the standard window to look like. These are your options:


As you navigate to each window in a file, its size will be set to the preference you've specified:

• Maximize expands it to fill your entire computer screen.
• Resize to Fit shrinks it so that it’s just big enuf for its contents.
• Restore resets it to whatever size you had previously set it at.

You can also change these sizes manually, from the “Window” menu, or via a script. In addition, you can manually choose 2 other settings:

• Hide makes the window vanish from your screen altogether. Bring it back by choosing “Show Window” from the “Window” menu.
• Minimize shrinks the window down to a minimal placeholder in your dock. Bring it back by clicking on that icon.

Manual controls are in the upper left corner:


Use the red dot to close the window altogether, the yellow dot to minimize it, and the green dot to toggle between maximized and previous size.

Standard Zoom. Similarly, you can specify what you’d like the standard zoom factor to be. These are your options:


As you navigate to each window in this file, its magnification factor will be set to the preference you've specified. You can also change these zoom factors manually or via a script. In addition, you can manually choose 3 other settings: 25%, 300%, or 400%.

Manual controls are in the lower left corner:


Use – to zoom smaller or + to zoom larger. Click on the number to toggle between 100% and whatever your previous zoom factor was.

Do It Now. You should do this for every individual file in your system. If other people also use these files, get some kind of consensus before you arrive at your standard settings.

Changes to "Tag" and "Obsolete" Buttons

You should be familiar with the following arrangement of housekeeping fields and their associated control buttons, because they appear on every data-entry screen in the database system.


Henceforth the buttons will be treated differently.

Tag Buttons. The Set and Find` buttons next to the Tag box will migrate up to the top of the screen, where they will now be known as Tag and Tag`, respectively.


As before, holding down any modifier key while clicking on Tag` will offer you a chance to clear all found tags.

There are 3 motivations for this transition.

1st, having those buttons right within each individual record falsely implied that they’d only affect that single record, when in fact they affect multiple records, which is what the top-of-the-page buttons normally do.

2nd, the tiny Find` button that affected only the Tag box was too easily confused with the big top-of-the-page button of the same name, which performs general searches.


3rd, in general, gold buttons that do searches are labelled everywhere else by the name of the field they search on, which Tag` will now do too.

Obsolete Buttons. The twin Set and Clear buttons next to the Obsolete field will be replaced by a single context-sensitive button that will read Set if Obsolete is empty ...


... or Clear if it’s got a date in it.


This button does affect only the record it’s in, which is why it appropriately remains there.

VCR-Style Navigation Buttons

Depending on when I last updated the buttons in your database system, you may see navigation buttons in either the old round "picture" style or the new oblong "text" style:

Well, they're both about to become obsolete, because the next generation of navigation buttons will abandon both pictures and text in favor of glyphs, which should be familiar from VCR or DVR controls:

The one that might not ring an immediate bell is the "#" one in the middle. Clicking on that one will let you jump to a particular record in the current found set. For example, if you've found 1000 records and enter "500" there, you'll jump to halfway thru your found set. If you try to enter "2000", it'll snark at you.

As you can tell by hovering your cursor over each button to summon up its tooltip, the "arrow-stop" buttons — "|<" and ">|" — will take you to the first and last records in the found set, respectively. The regular arrow buttons — "<" and ">" — will take you to the next record if you're in Form View (1 record visible at a time) or to the next page if you're in List View (multiple records visible at a time).

Reversed Effect of Tag Button

You’re probably acquainted with how I try to save screen space by giving added powers to some buttons if you hold down a modifier key (except caps lock) while clicking on them. These buttons are indicated by accent marks (`). Below are some examples:


Normal effect: creates new blank record
W/modifier key: duplicates current (existing) record


Normal effect: lets you delete the current record
W/modifier key: lets you delete all records in the current found set


Normal effect: goes to Router (welcome) screen
W/modifier key: goes right past the Router screen to the main data-entry screen for this table


Normal effect: enters Find mode; searches for subset
W/modifier key: finds all records

The pattern here is that the modifier key makes the button do extra work, over and above what it would normally do. But there’s been an exception to this pattern. It’s a button that appears near the various Tag boxes:


Normal effect: finds tagged boxes and offers to clear them out for you
W/modifier key: just finds the tagged boxes and stops

For the sake of consistency (and also because simply finding tagged boxes is probably more common than clearing them and should thus be the default), I’m reversing these effects. Henceforth, you’ll get this instead:


Normal effect: finds tagged boxes
W/modifier key: finds and offers to clear

The button color has changed as well. Gold means Find, which is now the basic function of the button; the orange border means delete or clear, which is now the augmented capability.

Omit Button Enhanced

After you’ve done a Find, you may discover a record you didn’t really want. Hopefully, you're aware that you can just drop it out of your found set by clicking on it (to make it active), then clicking on the Omit button. This does not delete it, it simply reduces your found set by 1 record.

You're probably also aware that I use the accent mark (`) on a button to indicate that you can exaggerate the effects of that button by holding down any modifier key (except caps lock) while clicking on it.

Those 2 practices have now come together, as the Omit button has acquired an accent mark. So now, if you hold down a modifier key while clicking on it, you'll be offered a (refusable) opportunity to drop multiple (sequential) records out of the found set all at once.

Let’s say you’ve got 4214 records in the current table, you’ve found 52 of them, and you’re currently at the 14th one, as indicated by the info line:


You do a modified click on Omit`. This is what you’ll see:


The number 1 is pre-selected for your convenience. If you want to drop, say, the next 12 records (14–25) out of the current found set, just type 12 and press the enter key (or click Omit).

Button Transition Explanation

Some of the standard buttons that appear at the top of your data-entry screens are about to undergo a metamorphosis. Here's what's up.

The old-style circular buttons, copied right straight out of the sample files provided with earlier versions of FileMaker Pro, looked OK in FileMaker Pro Versions 1-7, but FMP Version 8 renders graphics more meticulously, which means that the square white frame around the button itself now shows up, as does the square white frame around the graphic design that sits on top of the button. This means that these buttons look really ugly in FMP 8.

That was the impetus to get me to do something I've been wanting to do for awhile anyway, namely to (1) reduce the amount of space these buttons take up on the screen and (2) increase the power of each button.

What you see with the 3 buttons above is Phase 1 of what will eventually be a complete transition away from the round "picture" buttons and toward the oblong "text" buttons.

You'll notice the accent marks (``) on a couple of the new buttons. This is where the "more power" part comes in. An accent mark means you can hold down a modifier key to exaggerate the effect of the button. In particular, holding down "Shift" makes "Next" and "Prev" move a screen (rather than a record) at a time, and holding down "Ctrl" or "Alt" jumps all the way to the last or first record. (You get 2 accent marks because there are 2 different ways of exaggerating the effects of these buttons.)

Phase 2 of the transition process is relatively minor. The old circular button, "or / not", is replaced by its exact equivalent, the obloid "or`" button.

As before, this button changes the criteria for a Find operation you've already started with the "Find" button. If you then click just the unmodified "or`" button, it'll add new criteria to the Find request, thereby casting a wider net and probably pulling in more results.

If, however, you hold down any modifier key while clicking the "or`" button, it becomes a "but not" button, restricting the range of things you're looking for and probably pulling in fewer results.

Phase 3 involves sorting. The old circular button used to have 2 functions:

1. If you just clicked on it, it would perform whatever Sort was most commonly desired for the page you were on.
2. If you held down a modifier key while clicking on it, it would go into FileMaker's generic Sort mode and let you specify your own sorting criteria.

The problem with this, I've discovered, is that you can't tell at a glance which Sort this button would perform for any given page, and it's a nuisance to have to try to remember it for each of several dozen different screens.

Therefore we're separating the 2 functions onto 2 separate buttons:

1. Henceforth the most commonly desired Sort order will have its own green button, clearly labelled with a word like "Name" or "Amount", that's pre-set-up to sort by that factor.
2. The obloid "Sort" button that takes the place of the old round one will just put you in FileMaker's generic Sort mode; holding down a modifier key while clicking on "Sort" won't do anything different. (Notice that there's no accent mark on "Sort".)

Phase 4 involves finding. The old circular "Find" button used to have 2 functions:

1. If you just clicked on it, it would perform whatever Find was most commonly desired for the page you were on.
2. If you held down a modifier key while clicking on it, it would go into FileMaker's generic Find mode and let you specify your own search criteria.

In addition, there was a separate circular button to Find All records.

As with sorting, you couldn't tell at a glance what Find this button would perform for any given page, and it's a nuisance to have to try to remember it for each of several dozen different screens.

Therefore we're separating the 2 functions onto 2 separate buttons:

1. Henceforth the most commonly desired Find will have its own gold button, clearly labelled with a word like "Members" or "Pickable", that's pre-set-up to find that particular subset of records.
2. The obloid "Find`" button that takes the place of the old round one will just put you in FileMaker's generic Find mode.

But notice the accent mark on the "Find`" button. That means that holding down a modifier key while clicking on it will exaggerate its effects. In particular, it will find all records, the way the old circular "Find All" button used to.

Phase 5 concludes the functional part of the button transition. Still ahead is rearranging them into their tidy final sequence.

The old circular "Create" button has been replaced with an oblong "Create`" button, which has 2 functions:

1. If you just click on it, it will create a new record (possibly after asking you for some advance information).
2. If you held down a modifier key while clicking on it, it will create a duplicate record, a copy of the current record.

The old circular "Delete" button has been replaced with an oblong "Delete`" button, which has 2 functions:

1. If you just click on it, it will give you the chance to delete the current record.
2. If you held down a modifier key while clicking on it, it will give you the chance to delete all records in the current found set.

To err on the side of caution (that is, preserving data), the "Delete`" button will not delete anything without giving you a chance to change your mind.

Note that the "Delete`" button also works in Find mode, enabling you to delete an unwanted request from your search criteria.

To summarize, here's what you're used to seeing at the top of data-entry screens:

And here's what's coming up at the end of this transition:

The gold "Common" button shown above will have a different name (such as "Members") on every screen. It'll perform a Find for the most common subset of records you want from that screen, the same way the old circular "Find" button used to do. This is consistent with the way the other dedicated gold buttons work.

Likewise, there'll be a new green button (shown above as "Name") to do the most common kind of Sort operation, the way the old circular "Sort" button used to do.

Because these most common Find and Sort operations will have their own dedicated buttons, we'll no longer need the gray "Table" button to tell you what they are.

This means that the "Find`" and "Sort" buttons will now be generic and will work the same way on every screen in every table. The old "Find All" operation will be performed by holding down a modifier key while clicking on "Find`".