User manual

Creating and managing layouts and reports 6-21
1 To change the number of rows, the color or pattern of alternating
rows, or whether a scroll bar appears in a portal, double-click the
portal. In the Portal Setup dialog box, change formatting options,
then click OK.
1 For information about working with portals in databases published
on the Web using the FileMaker Pro Web Companion, choose Help
menu > Contents and Index, click the Index tab, and type layouts,on
Web.
F ormatting field data on a layout
Use FileMaker Pro field formats to control how data appears on a
layout. The formats you specify don’t change the data as it’s stored
in the database, and you can specify different formats each time you
place a field on a layout (whether it’s on the same layout or a
different layout). For example, if you enter –5123 into a number
field, you can format it in one place to display as –$5,123.00 and in
another place as <5123>.
FileMaker Pro applies field formatting in the following precedence:
1 If you don’t specify formats, FileMaker Pro displays numbers,
dates, and times based on the system formats set in Regional Settings
in the Control Panel (Windows) or Numbers and Date & Time control
panels (Mac OS) when the file was created.
1 In FileMaker Pro, you can specify display formats for text,
number, date, time, or container fields with no objects selected.
FileMaker Pro applies these default formats to fields you place on
layouts later. For number, date, and time fields, these display formats
override the system formats.
1 Once you place fields, you can select one or more fields and
specify formats.
See the following sections for information on setting default and
individual field formats.
Note You can work with files that are created with different system
formats for numbers, dates, and times (for example, if you’re in the
United States and you’re opening a database created in Australia).
You have the choice of viewing and entering data either in the
formats that the database was created with, or with your current
system settings. To use the current system settings, in Browse mode,
verify that Use System Formats is checked in the Format menu. (You
see this command only if you’re working in a database that was
created with different system formats.) This change in format affects
how data is displayed in number, date, or time fields when users edit
the data in Browse mode or Find mode, or when you select Leave data
formatted as entered in Layout mode. For more information, see the
FileMaker Pro Help. Choose Help menu > Contents and Index, click
the Index tab, and type system formats.
Keep these points in mind:
1 You can set specific formats for number, date, and time fields, but
users can still enter data with extraneous characters (like “per
pound”). To explicitly control the type of data users enter in a field,
specify validation options (see “About defining database fields” on
page 5-3).
1 If no fields are selected and you specify field formatting (text,
number, date, time, or graphic), you set default field formats for that
field and all fields of that type that you add later. Similarly, if you’ve
just created a field and it’s still selected, and you specify field
formatting, you set default field formats. If you change these default
formats later, FileMaker Pro does not retroactively change
previously applied formats.
1 To quickly display the format dialog box for the type of field
you’re working with, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as
you double-click the field. Or, right-click (Windows) or Control-
click (Mac OS) the field and choose a command from the context
menu.