Development Guide
Table Of Contents
- Chapter 1 Getting started
- Chapter 2 Customizing database solutions
- Chapter 3 Customizing menus
- Chapter 4 Creating custom layout themes
- Chapter 5 Developing third-party FileMaker plug-ins
- About external functions
- About the example plug-in
- Installing, enabling, and configuring the example plug-in
- Description of the FMExample plug-in’s external functions
- Using the example plug-in
- Customizing the plug-in example
- Requirements for writing external function plug-ins
- FileMaker messages sent to the plug-in
- Avoiding potential Mac OS X resource conflicts
- Providing documentation for your plug-in
- Registering your plug-in
- Chapter 6 Debugging, analyzing, and optimizing files
- Chapter 7 Using the Developer Utilities
- Overview of preparing your solution files
- Modifying database solution files
- Considerations for a runtime database solution
- Binding databases into runtime database solutions
- Saving and reusing Developer Utilities settings
- Converting and upgrading solution files
- Removing full access privileges from databases
- Chapter 8 Distributing runtime database solutions
- Appendix A Feature comparison of the runtime application with FileMaker Pro
- Index
Chapter 3
Customizing menus
With FileMaker Pro Advanced, you can create custom menus for your
database solutions. You can add, edit, duplicate, or delete menus and
menu items in many ways, such as:
1 Changing a menu item name.
1 Performing a script or script step from a menu item. You can also
run scripts from an associated toolbar icon and shortcut menu.
1 Assigning custom keyboard shortcuts and access keys.
1 Specifying a platform for your menus and menu items.
1 Specifying a mode for your menus.
1 Specifying menu sets for files and layouts.
About customizing menus
You can customize menus by:
1 editing a copy of a standard FileMaker menu. Use this method to
make minor changes to existing menus, for example, to modify the
properties of a few menu items. See
“Customizing menus” on
page 23.
1 starting with an empty menu. Use this method to make significant
changes to menus, for example, to add menus and change menu item
properties.
You may need to modify menu sets and specify when FileMaker
installs them. See
“Customizing menu sets” on page 27 and
“Installing menu sets” on page 29.
The following example shows how to customize the New Record
menu item that appears in the Records menu. You can rename the New
Record menu item to New Invoice, then attach a script that runs when
the user chooses the New Invoice menu item. Finally, you can change
the default menu set so your new custom menu set displays when a
user opens the database.
This example assumes the database contains a script called My New
Invoice. My New Invoice automates several tasks, like switching to
the Invoices layout and creating an empty record. See Help for
information about creating scripts.
1. Open the database and choose File menu > Define > Custom Menus.
Double-click the
Records Copy menu to edit a copy of the standard
Records menu. See “Creating and editing custom menus” on page 23.
2. Select the New Record menu item to modify the properties of the
menu item. Change the title of the
New Record menu item to New
Invoice
. See “Creating and editing menu items” on page 24.
3. Change the action of the menu item to run the My New Invoice
script. See
“Creating and editing menu items” on page 24.
4. Set the default menu set for the file to Custom Menu Set #1. See
“Specifying a default menu set” on page 29.
5. Click OK.