Database Reference
In-Depth Information
UP TO SPEED: SELECTING LOTS OF OBJECTS
Selecting objects on a layout is such a common task that FileMaker gives you several ways to do it.
You can always click an object to select it, but you can use any of the following methods as well:
▪ If you want to select more than one object (so you can operate on them all at once), select the
first object, press Shift and then click each additional object. As you click, each object joins the
selection. If you accidentally select an object you don't want, Shift-click it again to deselect it.
▪ To select
everything
on the layout, choose Edit→Select All or press Ctrl+A (
⌘
-A).
▪ You can even select every object of a certain type (every field, for example). First select one ob-
ject of the type you want. In Windows, press Shift and then choose Edit→Select All. On a Mac,
press Option and then choose Edit→Select Same. FileMaker selects every object that's similar
to the one you selected yourself.
▪ If you have more than one type of object selected when you choose this command, FileMaker
selects every object like any of the selected objects. For example, to select every field
and
every
text object, select one field and one text object and then choose this command.
▪ Finally, you can easily select objects that are close together on the layout with the selection rect-
angle technique. When you click an empty place on the layout and drag, FileMaker shows the
selection rectangle. Drag the rectangle, and anything it touches is added to your selection. Or
hold down the Control key (Windows) or the Command key (Mac) to select just the objects that
are completely inside the rectangle.
Customizing a Layout
FileMaker gives you so many tools for customizing layouts that you can while away hours
making each layout look just the way you want it to. Don't mistake this time as wasted ef-
fort. The principles of good design and software usability apply to even the most basic data-
base. After all, if you're going to be staring at your database for hours every day, it should
look and feel polished. And few databases have just one user (see
Chapter 19
to learn how to
share your database), so when you're customizing layouts, you have to keep other people's
needs in mind, not just your own.
Good design isn't just about how things look. It's also about helping people figure out how
the database works. For example, when you're storing data for contact management, you
want to arrange objects like address fields in forms that people are familiar with. Most U.S.
addresses are shown in a standard form like this:
