User manual

Chapter 3 | Designing and creating solutions 46
Creating and changing fields in the Field Picker dialog box
When you create a new file, 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 file,
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.
2. In the Field Picker dialog box, add, delete, or change fields.
To Do this
Add a field Click New Field. A placeholder Field is created in the fields list, with a field
type assigned. With the field selected, type a new name for the field. See
“About naming fields” on page 43.
Change the field type Click the field type and choose a new field type from the list. See “About
choosing a field type” on page 44.
Important Changing the field type can permanently and irretrievably
erase data.
Set options for the field Right-click the field and choose Field Options. See “Setting options for
fields” on page 50.
Delete a field Right-click the field and choose Delete Field.
To delete multiple fields at a time, select the fields, then right-click and
choose Delete Field.
Important Before you delete a field, confirm that you don’t need any of
the data it contains.
Change a field’s name Windows: Double-click the field, then type a new field name.
OS X: Select the field, then click the field name and type a new field name.
Display the Manage
Database dialog box
Click to add a field to
the database
Fields appear here
as you add them
Specify settings for position
and labels of fields dragged
to the layout
Search for fields
Sort fields