Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8-10. Dynamic guides are the same blue color as normal guides, but a break in the line in-
dicates the center of the affected objects. Top: When the center square is dragged to a point
equidistant from the nearest edges of its neighbors, the double arrow dynamic guide materializes.
Middle: The top-left square was dragged until its midpoint aligned with both the square to the right
and the one below. Bottom: The edge guide manifests itself when two or more extremities line up.
Screen Stencils
Rare is the database that's created and used exclusively on a single screen. Even if you're
making a database solely for yourself, you might use it on a couple different computers and
an iPad over the course of its life. If a database is shared, it could be on 10 different size
screens all at the same time! So the layout that you spent hours making work just right on
your palatial 32-inch screen could turn out to be a real headache for the new hire down the
hall that's stuck with an 18-inch display. The most practical solution to this reality is design-
ing layouts that fit the lowest common screen resolution. You don't even have to keep old
monitors around to do it.
FileMaker's Screen Stencil tool lets you overlay up to eight common layout dimensions on
your layout while working in Layout mode. When you select a stencil, it appears on the lay-
out like an orange guide—but stencils are immovable. You can't drag them around like regu-
lar guides. As you work on your layout, you can be sure that if you keep within the orange
lines, the content will fit your users' screens.
WARNING
The name “Screen Stencil” can be a bit misleading. Screen Stencils are about layout content dimen-
sions, not the dimensions of the screen. For example, a layout conforming to a 1024-by-768 screen
stencil on a Mac will have an overall window size of 1039 by 889 pixels if the Status toolbar is
showing. The fixed menu bar at the top of the screen is 22 pixels tall, and a permanently displayed
dock can easily eat up another hundred pixels. That means a database user might need a total screen
height of nearly 1200 pixels to see a content area height of 1024.
To display a Screen Stencil:
1.
In Layout mode, locate the Screen Stencil button in the Layout toolbar
.
It's the one that looks like a dotted-line box within a dotted-line box.
2.
Click the white triangle to the right of the Screen Stencil button to reveal a menu
of stencil sizes, as shown in
Figure 8-11
.
