User manual

Table Of Contents
Chapter 3 | Creating databases 59
Keep the following points in mind:
1 Any field type except summary can store a global value. For more information, see “About
indexing and storage options” on page 71.
1 Be sure to use a date field (instead of a text or number field) to store dates. To avoid confusion
when using dates, always use four-digit years.
1 Use text fields instead of number fields to store postal codes, phone numbers, and other values
with leading zeroes or characters like hyphens or parentheses.
1 Although you can’t find or sort records based on a container field, you can define a text field to
describe or identify the contents of the container. Then, you can find or sort records based on
the data in that text field.
To change the way data is displayed in text, number, date, time, and timestamp fields, see
“Formatting field data on a layout” on page 93.
Creating and changing fields in the Field Picker dialog box
When you create a new database, FileMaker Pro opens the file in Layout mode, and displays a
blank layout and the Field Picker dialog box. Use the Field Picker dialog box to define fields for
the database, and to add or change fields for an existing layout.
Note Fields are not automatically added to the layout when you define them in the Field Picker
dialog box. To have fields placed on a layout when you define them, select Add newly defined
fields to current layout in the Layout tab of the Preferences dialog box before you define the
fields.
1. If the Field Picker dialog box is not open, in Layout mode, click in the layout bar.
Summary fields produce results
from values in multiple records
Salesperson Item Qty Extended Price
David Michaels FB3 1 $3.95
David Michaels FB4 1 $17.50
David Michaels FB1 2 $19.90
David Michaels FB5 3 $52.50
Total $93.85
Sophie Tang FB6 2 $39.00
Sophie Tang FB7 5 $77.50
Sophie Tang FB2 2 $45.00
Total $161.50
Grand Total $255.35
Sales Report
Calculation fields produce results from values in
the current record or related records
Favorite Bakery Confidential June 2014