FileMaker Pro 12: Beginner Tutorials
Working with the Database / The Four Modes
Subtitles of the Movie (FileMaker Pro 12: Beginner / Working with the Database / The Four Modes)
FileMaker has four modes that allow you to manipulate FileMaker in distinct ways. We've already covered Browse Mode which is essentially data entry, what I want to do is give you an overview of the other modes. So again under the View Menu, you can see the different modes here, we have Find Mode which is your next mode. It's probably one of the most important modes next to data entry as far as a users point of view because it allows you to locate records, it allows you to work with Found Sets. So when you choose it a lot of the things look the same, you're on the same layout, it's just that there's no data in here. What changes is the Status Toolbar as well as you see these little Magnifying Glasses inside the fields. They're in there because often people mistake Browse Mode and Find Mode, they think that they are the same and what they do is they enter their data in Find Mode, close it and then it's gone. If you don't enter in Browse Mode, Find Mode gets eliminated as you close the file. So it's very important that users know the difference between Browse Mode and Find Mode and it's one reason why when I design a solution I make my Find and my Browse Mode look very different but right now, it all looks the same and it can be confusing. So if you're designing something for a user to use, you know a company, you're going to want to go ahead and do more distinctions than they have here because I can tell you right now, a lot of times people don't see this or they do see it and they don't understand it. Because it really appears to be the same thing as Browse Mode. But if you look up here in the Status Toolbar you'll see that we have the same Rolodex but it allows you to walk through Find Requests which you'll find out about later. They're not records, they're requests. You'll see that we have the Slider, we have the ability to type it in. You have a little bit different information feeding back here but essentially it's kind of the same concept. You don't have a new record, you have a New Request. You have a Delete Request. You have some different buttons here as far as Perform and Cancel. You have Saved Finds, you come down here you still have the Layout Menu where you can switch to Layouts. You have the View As but then you have some other options here which we're going to go over. So all these features we're going to go over but just realize that they are different. Now if you look up here into the View Menu you'll notice that you can customize the Status Toolbar. Each mode has it's own Status Toolbar specific to that mode. So remember that, you can customize each of the four modes. Now also you want to look at this Menu, see how it says Requests? Well this used to be Records, every time you go to a different mode except for Preview Mode you get a new menu here. This changes from Records to Requests to Layout. Now some of the other menus change as well, Insert changes and whether you're in Browse Mode or Layout Mode and so you want to look at those but this is the one menu that's kind of common between them. It changes but it's, it's kind of the common menu where are all of the features are Find Mode are really essentially there or at least the most common ones. So pay attention to that menu there and watch what happens when we go to Layout Mode. So if we come down here and switch to Layout Mode, you notice that now we have a Layouts Menu and feature specific for Layout. Now of course Insert has features specific for Layout Mode also but this is kind of the one you want to pay attention to. So again we have a change inside of our Status Toolbar here, we have the Rolodex but it's for going through your different layouts and in fact you'll see that we have this Layout that we don't really need anymore. Remember the Layout My Table which was based on the My Table, Table. Well, FileMaker didn't get rid of the layout, they got rid of the table which it doesn't list there anymore, so I'm going to come here and go to Layouts and choose Delete Layout. It doesn't say Delete Record, it says Delete Layout. Now it's gone, now you can see on our Contacts Layout it says it has a layout to, to look at, Contact. So as you go through this you'll see you have all of the same features, a New Layout instead of a New Record, then you have a whole bunch of tools like the Text Tool, the Line Tool, a whole bunch of different objects. You have Field Tools here, you have Button Tools, oh there's just tons of them, Chart Tools, all these things go across here. You can even get into Manage Database here if you want also and do recognize that it has that little Down Arrow which means you can click or you can click and hold. And then of course you have the ability to change layouts here. You have all these different features like Modifying the Layout Name which is also the same as going into Layout Setup. You have all these features over here which we're going to go over extensively, not right now but you can show your, your Formatting Tools here for your fonts and things like that. You know all these different tools, you can Show and Hide the Inspector, you can Exit the Layout, there's all kinds of features here, again I just want you to become familiar with them and see where there at and see that they are here. So let's go ahead and try Preview Mode, we'll go to the View Menu and choose Preview Mode and it's again the one menu that doesn't get a specialized menu. The things that you can't do in Preview Mode, such as Create a New Record are dimmed at but realize that your Rolodex goes through pages now. You see we're able to fit two records per page right now and notice there's a question mark here and the reason there's a question mark is because it's about processing time. FileMaker does not tell you how many total pages you have until you go to the very end and then as you're walking through them, you'll know that you have 42 total pages. You have different options here such as Save as Excel, Save as a PDF, you know, Page Setup, Print all those kinds of things. You can Switch Layouts if you want, you can Exit Preview Mode, all those features are there. So what you want to do is become familiar with these different modes, it's just as far as what the features are right now not every detail about how each of the features works. And also I'd recommend becoming familiar with each one of these Keyboard Commands for the different modes. Browse Mode is Control or Command B. Control or Command F depending on whether you're Mac or Windows. Control or Command L and Preview Mode is U because the P is already taken for Print. So spend a little time looking around, even if you don't know what they do, if you just move over this and go oh I wonder what that tool is. Well that's the Tab Control, just kind of become familiar with what these things are and get yourself just a brief overview of how things work and where you can go.
Tutorial Information
| Course: | FileMaker Pro 12: Beginner |
| Author: | John Mark Osborne |
| SKU: | 34323 |
| ISBN: | 978-1-61866-046-6 |
| Release Date: | 2012-06-08 |
| Duration: | 16 hrs / 169 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | No |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |
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