Database Reference
In-Depth Information
UP TO SPEED: FORMATTING TEXT
Fields and text objects both show text. You can change the font, size, color, and style of both types
of objects. First, select the objects. Then go to the Format menu. The first seven submenus let you
manipulate the text formatting of the selected object.
▪ The Format→Font menu shows fonts installed on your computer. (In Windows, you may need
to choose Format→Font→More Fonts and then add the fonts you want to your font list. On a
Mac, every font you have installed is automatically listed.)
▪ You can dress up your text in any font, size, and style you like. But don't forget that any com-
puter your database is
used
on has to have the font installed. You might have fancy $300 fonts
on your computer, but your employees may be using the database on stripped-down PCs. So
you'll either need to pick a font that comes standard with the operating system or buy and install
your custom fonts on each machine that will use your database.
▪ From the Format→Size menu, you can choose a size. If you don't see the one you want, choose
Format→Size→Custom instead. In the window that appears, type any number from 1 to 500.
▪ If you're designing a database on the Mac for use on PCs, you need to make all your text ob-
jects 15 to 20 percent larger than you (and FileMaker) think they need to be, because PCs dis-
play fonts larger than their Mac brethren do. You should check your layouts on a PC, since any
text object that isn't wide enough flows over onto another line or may be cut off, which prob-
ably isn't what you intended.
▪ FileMaker includes all the standard styles (bold, italic, and so on) in the Format→Style menu.
You can pick from three different types of underlines (Word Underline underlines words, but
not the space between them, and Double Underline puts two lines under your text). You can also
choose Upper Case, Lower Case, or Title Case to format the case of text no matter how you
typed it.
▪ The options in Format→Align Text let you align the text left to right and top to bottom. For in-
stance, if you choose Bottom, the text sticks to the bottom of the text object when you make it
taller. This setting makes sense only if you type multiple lines of text into a text object. For in-
stance, you may want your company address to appear at the bottom of all your invoices. You'll
get better alignment if you format the address text block with Bottom alignment.
▪ Choose Format→Line Spacing→Double to apply double-spacing (or choose Format→Line
Spacing→Other to specify the spacing more precisely).
▪ The Format→Orientation menu applies only to text in Asian languages and lets you run text
either vertically or horizontally.
▪ To color your text, point to Format→Text Color. A color palette appears, and the color you se-
lect is applied to the selected text.
You can apply each of these options to an entire text object (just select the object first) or to a run of
text
inside
the object. To style just a portion of the text, use the Text tool to select a portion of the
