Working with the Tab Control Object

Working with Fields

The primary purpose of a layout is to allow users to interact with data. By interact, we mean everything from viewing, editing, and formatting to finding and sorting. Although a field is at some level just another type of layout object and can be manipulated using the same tools as other layout objects, a number of tools are designed specifically for working with fields. These provide you with a great deal of freedom and flexibility for creating the interfaces that work best for your users and your solution. We don't cover every option of every tool here, but rather try to give you a sense of what the tools are and some of the situations in which to use them.

Adding Fields to Layouts

There are essentially two ways you can add fields to a layout: by using the Field button in the Status Area and by duplicating an existing field.

The first of thesewhich is generally also the first method that people learninvolves clicking and dragging the Field button in the Status Area out to the section of the layout where you want to place the field. The attributes of a field added this way are governed by the current default format attributes. However, the field's width is always 79 pixels. Its height is determined by a combination of the default font, font size, pen width, and object effects (for example, embossing, engraving, drop shadow).

As with other layout objects, when you duplicate an existing field, the new field has all the attributes of the previously existing field (including its width). Remember, to duplicate any layout object, either you can select it and choose Edit, Duplicate or press (D) [Ctrl+D], or you can select it and then (Option-drag) [Ctrl-drag] to a new location. In either case, if you have selected a single field, when you duplicate it, you see the Specify Field dialog and can select the new field. On the other hand, if you have selected multiple objects, when you duplicate them, you get just the duplicated objects.

Keep in mind that you will be duplicating all the attributes of a fieldincluding any button behaviors you've attached to it, tool tips you may have assigned, and so on.

Each field object on a layout is defined to display data from a particular field. Unless you have selected Sample Data in the View, Show menu, you see the field's name on the object when you're in Layout mode. If the field name begins with ::, that's an indication that the object is linked to a related field. To know which relationship is used, you need to go into the Field/Control Setup dialog. That's also where you can redefine a field object to display the contents of a different field. You can get to the Field/Control Setup dialog by double-clicking the object.

Tip

If a field has been defined as a button, double-clicking it takes you to the Button Definition dialog, not the Field/Control Setup dialog. Similarly, if multiple fields are grouped together, right-clicking will only give you the control elements of the dialog.

Field Control Style

Figure 4.18. The Field/Control Setup dialog enables you to format a field with a range of control choices, set auto-complete behaviors, or set repeating values to display.

For standard fields where a user will be manually entering and editing data, the Edit Box format is appropriate. The option to include a vertical scrollbar is normally used only when a user is able and/or expected to type multiple lines of text.

The options to format a field as a Drop-Down List, Pop-Up Menu, Checkbox Set, or Radio Button Set require that you specify a value list that will provide the content for the selection values.

The lower left of the Field/Control Setup dialog is relevant only for fields that have been defined to allow multiple repetitions. You can hard-code the starting and ending repetitions and specify whether a vertical or horizontal orientation should be used.

On the right of the dialog you can opt to change the field associated with the selected object.

Field Behavior

The Field Behavior dialog contains controls for setting when a field is enterable and how a user can exit it. To access this dialog, select one or more fields on a layout, and then choose Format, Field Control, Behavior. You can also (Control-click) [right-click] a field and choose Field Control, Behavior from the contextual menu. The Field Behavior dialog is shown in Figure 4.19.

Figure 4.19. Using the Field Behavior dialog, you can specify which modes a field can be entered in, as well as the keystrokes that can be used to exit a field.

In this dialog, you can control whether a user is able to enter a particular field while in Browse or Find mode. Before version 7 of FileMaker, there was no distinction between modes; a field was either enterable or not. Typically, a user should be able to enter a field in both Browse and Find mode. Sometimes, though, you'll want a field to be enterable in only one of these modes. For instance, you might have a field that you don't want users to manually edit, but that they may need to use as part of a query. On the other hand, there may be unindexed fields on your layout that, for performance reasons, you don't want users to search on.

The other setting in this dialog is the Go to Next Object Using option. By default in FileMaker Pro, pressing the Tab key lets users move to the next field on the layout. Developers may also specify the option to allow the Return and/or Enter keys to perform this function. This is desirable in some cases to allow rapid data entry and to prevent data-entry mistakes. For instance, by setting a text field to use the Return key to go to the next field, you prevent users from accidentally adding stray returns at the ends of fields. Obviously, if a user needs to be able to enter carriage returns in a text fieldsay in a Comments fieldyou wouldn't set the Return key to go to the next field.

Caution

Normally, the Enter key serves to commit a record and exit all fields. If you change all your field behavior to have Enter go to the next field, be aware that users need to explicitly click on the background of a layout or perform some script or navigation routine to commit record changes.

Setting the Tab Order

When moving from field to field on a layout with the Tab keyor (Return) and/or [Enter], as described in the previous sectionthe order in which the fields are activated is known as the tab order. The default tab order is the order in which the fields appear on the layout from top to bottom. Rearranging fields changes the tab order.

Tab order is stored with the layout, so there's no opportunity to customize the tab order for different users. The Set Tab Order dialog is shown in Figure 4.20. After the tab order has been edited manually, rearranging fields doesn't change the tab order. New fields are added to the end of the tab order automatically, regardless of position.

Figure 4.20. You can change the tab order of a layout to make data entry flow in a logical progression for end users.

The dialog operates on like objects. If you want to add all fields to the tab order or remove all objects, choose from the two menu options in the dialog and click the button for the appropriate command.

Note that it is entirely possible to attach a button behavior to a field and for that field to then appear twice in the tab order. One instance will tab into the field for editing, and another will select the field to perform the button action.

Merge Fields

If you've ever done a mail merge, the concept of merge fields should be familiar to you. Merge fields give you a way of incorporating field data within text blocks on a layout. This is useful for creating form letters, labels, and reports.

Merge fields display field data, but they don't behave like or have all the properties of normal fields. A user can't click into a merge field to do data entry, for instance.

To add a merge field to a layout, choose Insert, Merge Field, or press (-Option-M) [Ctrl+Alt+M]. You are then prompted to specify a field. After you make your selection, the field name shows up on your layout surrounded by angle brackets, as shown in Figure 4.21. Note that you can add a merge field alone to a layout, or you can incorporate it (and potentially others) into a block of text within a text object.

Figure 4.21. Merge fields allow field data to be displayed inline with text and avoid the need for sliding fields.

The primary benefit of merge fields is that field data can be flexibly placed within a text block; text before and after the merge field is repositioned to close up any extra space. Thus, within a text block, you could have "Hi, <>, how are you?" On one record, that would come out as "Hi, Joe, how are you?" whereas on another it might be "Hi, Frederick, how are you?"

Text, number, date, and time formatting applied to a text block are applied to any appropriate merge field within the text block. It is not possible to have a single text block that contains multiple merge fields that have different number formats applied to them.