Home
Username:
Password:
FileMaker Pro 10: Intermediate Tutorials

Interface Design / Buttons pt. 2

Subtitles of the Movie

Now what we need is some text describing what these things do. So I'm going to get my Text Tool, type in Find and we'll make that a little bit smaller, take the bolding off, go down to let's say 12 point and see how that looks. Looks pretty good. Let's try a little bit smaller and see what it looks like. And that's a little jagged and I don't really like it that much. Let's try 11. It's starting to look better. It's a little bit smaller than this and I want it to be a little bit smaller. And then we'll put it right in there and take a look at it. That looks pretty good. We could go to 12 point if we want. We'll see if that's even better. Well, you know, it's just a little bit easier to read. I don't mind that it competes with this. I think it'll be alright. Now what we want to do is have it centered. So we're going to drag the edge of the text block to here and drag the edge here and then we're going to choose to Format and we're going to Align Text, Center. And then we can move it down maybe one pixel and that looks like it's pretty good. Once we got this right, then we can duplicate it; 123456, one too many, there we go. Move it over. There we go. Make sure it's in the same spot. Let me try duplicating again. That looks good. That looks like it's one off so I'll mov it. Duplicate again. One off the other direction. And one more time and I think I got that one right. So I'll say fine. Let's change their names. This one should say New Customer because we're going to change how we're doing this. These are not contacts anymore. These are really customers that we're going to assign to our ultimate solution, which is an invoicing solution. You could call it contact if you want but I'm changing the terminology here because I think it works better. So do Delete Customer and then this will be simply Print. Now we're ready to go. Let's check it out and see what it looks like in Browse Mode. Hide this and it's starting to look pretty good. I think I like that. Could go smaller. It's just really a preference but it does compete a little bit with this. So, you know, I might decide to do that. Let's see what happens if we go smaller. Let's go back 11 point and then go back to Browse Mode, see if we like that better. You know, I think I do like the smaller font, so it's going to take a little bit of work but I think I'm going to take these off now and just redo it and you'll find yourself doing this a lot, fiddling around with things. You know, you just don't like it, well then change it. It'll really make a difference in the end and I just it was competing too much with your data entry. So get that perfectly centered. Then we'll duplicate that; 123456, move it over, hold the Shift Key down, get it just right, duplicate again, duplicate again, one off, duplicate again. Looks like it's one off. And let's make sure these are all the same. You can go and Shift Click all these and make sure the anchor points are in the same spots and they do look like they're in the same spots, so they should be relatively centered. And we'll just come back and do that again. Delete Customer. We can call it Add. I think Add Customer is better than New Customer. Delete Customer, Print and we'll name these Unknown. Forgot the O. And the same here. Go to Browse Mode, see what it looks like and I'm much happier with that. So a little fiddling can really make a difference and I, maybe it doesn't mean a lot to you, but for me it just makes it not compete with this as much. I want this to be the main focus, this to be the main focus. These are important but not quite as important as this area right here so having a smaller font really does make a difference and prevents competition. You want this to stand out and I think it does now.

Tutorial Information

Course: FileMaker Pro 10: Intermediate
Author: John Mark Osborne
SKU: 33926
ISBN: 1-935320-19-X
Release Date: 2009-01-05
Duration: 15 hrs / 177 lessons
Work Files: Yes
Captions: Available on CD and Online University
Compatibility: Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux
QuickTime 7, Flash 8

VTC Sign up & Benefits

  • Unlimited Access
  • 98,729 Video Tutorials (23,265 free)
  • Video Available as Flash or QuickTime
  • Over 1026 Courses
  • $30 for One Month Access
  • Multi-User Discounts Available