User manual

Table Of Contents
Chapter 3 | Creating databases 69
About indexing and storage options
FileMaker Pro provides options for indexing fields and for storing the results of calculations. You can:
1 Create an index, which is a list of the values stored in a field. An index greatly speeds searches,
but takes up space on your disk. You can index text, number, date, time, and timestamp fields.
You can also index calculation fields if the results are text, numbers, dates, times, or timestamps.
1 Store the result of a calculation field in your database, or you can tell FileMaker Pro to perform
the calculation only when needed (unstored). Storing the result is faster but takes up more
space on the disk. You can specify storage options for text, number, date, time, timestamp, and
calculation fields.
1 Set any field (except summary fields) to share one value across all records in a file if you select
Use global storage in the Storage tab of the Options for Field dialog box. Fields defined with
global storage are also referred to as global fields.
1 Store data for a container field in a location that’s external to the file, such as in a different folder
or directory on the local or a host computer.
.
Click Storage
Select the
storage option for
the field
Storage options for all field types except container fields