Database Reference
In-Depth Information
NOTE
The Email and Phone fields probably won't be the same, but they might be close. It's time for a little
organized laziness: Instead of making new blank records and retyping all that stuff, just choose Re-
cords→Duplicate Record or press Ctrl+D (
⌘
-D). FileMaker copies everything from the first record
into a new one for you. Now you can edit just the information that needs to be changed—just be
sure you don't accidentally leave in the first person's email address or phone number, lest a message
or phone call get misdirected later.
Deleting Records
Getting rid of a record you don't need is a breeze. FileMaker Pro gives you three commands
that let you delete one record, a group of records, or even
all
the records in your database.
NOTE
You can't undo deleting a record, because FileMaker saves changes automatically. So when you de-
lete a record (or all the records in a database), make sure you're ready to part with the information.
Consider saving a backup copy of your file first (
Saving a Copy of Your Database
).
▪
One record
. Choose Records→Delete Record or press Ctrl+E (
⌘
-E) to delete the record
you're currently on. FileMaker shows you a message box with a handy Cancel button
that asks if you're sure you want to delete the record. That way, you won't accidentally
send, say, your best client's address to the trash bin. But if you've indeed written him out
of your life, then click Delete to complete the purge.
▪
Multiple records
. FileMaker has a helpful command that trashes any group of records of
your choosing. Before you use this command, you have to tell FileMaker which records
to delete. You do that with the Find command (
Finding Records
)
. Once you have the
found set of records to be deleted, choose Records→Delete Found Records. Again,
FileMaker gives you a chance to change your mind with a message box that tells you
how many records you have in your found set and asks you to click either the Delete All
or the Cancel button.
▪
All records
. In some cases, you may want to delete all the records in a database. Maybe
a colleague wants an empty copy of your database for his own use. Or perhaps your data-
base holds data you just don't need anymore, like test results you're about to reproduce.
You can easily accomplish complete record elimination with two menu commands: Just
choose Records→Show All Records and then choose Records→Delete All Records. (But
