Help

Creating and managing layouts and reports
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 240
• When you are working in Table View in Browse mode or Find mode, you can hide fields that
show in Table View. See
Displaying and hiding fields in Table View.
• If you have used the Field tool to add a field to a summary part and the text is difficult to see,
use the Inspector or the Format Painter to copy the style you want from another field.
• You can place fields in the gray area to the right of the layout. This lets you store fields on
the layout or use them in script steps but prevents them from appearing in Browse, Find,
and Preview modes. Users cannot select or work with such fields, and the fields do not
print.
Placing merge fields on a layout
Use merge fields to combine field data and text in documents like form letters, labels, envelopes, or
contracts. You create merge fields in text blocks, which allows you to use static text and field data
together.
Merge fields shrink or expand to fit the amount of text in the field for each record. For example:
• When the field <<First Name>> is between the text Dear and a colon (as in Dear <<First
Name>>:), FileMaker
Pro displays Dear Charles: in Browse mode or Preview mode if the
First Name field contains Charles.
• When a merge field is on a line by itself and the field contains no data (such as an empty
Address Line 2 field in a mailing label), FileMaker
Pro removes the blank line from the text
block, which improves the appearance of the text.
Note In Browse mode, you cannot enter or edit data in merge fields. For entering data, use a
different layout that contains regular fields that permit data entry.
To place a merge field on a layout:
1. In Layout mode, do one of the following:
• To create a new text block containing a merge field, click with the arrow pointer where
you want the text block to appear.
• To insert a merge field into an existing text block, click the Text tool in the status
toolbar, then click in the text block to place the insertion point where you want to insert
the merge field.
2. Choose Insert menu > Merge Field.
3. In the Specify Field dialog box, select the field to insert.
To choose a field in a related table, choose the table from the tables list above the list of fields.
Or choose Manage Database to create a new field, table, or relationship.
4. Click OK.
You see the field name enclosed by double opening (<<) and closing (>>) angle brackets in the
text block.
5. Choose if you want the merge field to be enabled or disabled for quick find. For more
information, see
Configuring quick find. By default merge fields are included in the search.
If a merge field in enabled for quick find, only the fields referenced in the merge field will be
included in the search. For example, if the merge field Departing from <<DepartureCity>> is
enabled for quick find, and one of the records contains New York for the DepartureCity field,
searching for New York finds the record but searching for Departing from New York does not
find any records.