Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Understanding Conversion
FileMaker handles the conversion for you. It takes care of all the internal processes of chan-
ging the file, including translating your old-style layouts into FileMaker Pro's new format-
ting scheme. All your converted layouts will be in the Classic theme; if you add new objects
to these converted layouts, they'll be in Classic too. As with any FileMaker Pro 13 database,
you can change the layout's theme at any time, which in turn changes all objects on the lay-
out.
Since some layout object formatting has changed since version 12, you may notice some dif-
ferences in your converted layouts:
▪ Those 1980s-style pattern palettes no longer exist, so if you used them in your old files,
FileMaker Pro 13 converts those patterns to tiled images. You can keep them, remove
them, or replace them with your own custom designs.
▪ Old-style symbols on your layouts are updated to the new method. For example, in
pre-12 versions, a dynamic page number (“##”) was used to show the proper page num-
ber. These merge symbols are converted to {{PageNumber}} symbols.
▪ Buttons created on old layouts won't show their badges (
Go to Related Record
) unless
you turn on View→Show→Buttons before you convert the file. If you're like most deve-
lopers, you work with this option turned on because you need feedback about layout ob-
jects. But to be safe, check the setting in your files before you convert them.
Sharing Converted Files With WebDirect
If you're planning to share your database by using WebDirect (
Server Hardware
)
, consider
changing the themes applied to all appropriate layouts. For instance, the Classic theme is not
optimized for performance over the Web or on a mobile device, so change your layouts to
one of FileMaker's Touch themes or create a custom theme of your own. Then test your con-
verted database, using every device that will access your database. See
Layout Themes
for
details on themes.
Object formatting (
Using the Inspector
) is not converted to styles automatically. This detail
may not matter if users share the database from FileMaker Server over a fast network con-
nection. But because using styles saves space in your file, which in turn saves on the amount
of information that has to be sent over the network during file sharing, you'll get better per-
formance over slow connections if you apply object styles to all layout objects. This point is
especially important if you're sharing the converted file on iOS or WebDirect (
Server Hard-
ware
). If you don't manually apply styles, performance may be intolerably slow.
