I am a novice, but learning, at Filemaker Pro 8. I know there has to be
a way that if one field has certain criteria (i.e., a sales rep's
initials) then other related fields will automatically fill in (i.e.,
full name, phone, email). I'm stumped at trying to figure this out.
Anyone know?

In article <1161276614.510662.140560 (AT) i42g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
"louseey" <lucybanta (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

As you want to use it, Autofill is really nothing more than a
calculation.

In the autofill specification, you place a calculation defining the
autofill decision, probably using If or Case statements.

Matt

Thanks Matt, but I don't know how to use If or Case statements. Is
there somewhere I can go for directions?


Matt Wills wrote:

In article <1161276614.510662.140560 (AT) i42g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
"louseey" <lucybanta (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
The possibilities are endless. It really depends on exactly what you're
trying to do and where those other details are stored (or not stored)
as to which method is the best for your needs.

Normal fields do have the option to have data Auto-entered when the
record is created using a Calculation or looking up other field data.
Using your example, you could "hard code" the data into the fields via
an auto-enter calculation.
eg.
Full Name {Text field}
Auto-enter calculation
= Case(
Initials = "CB", "Charlie Brown",
Initials = "YB", "Yogi Bear",
Initials = "PS", "Papa Smurf",
Initials = "FF", "Fred Flintstone",
"Unknown Initials"
)

But this does mean that you have to change the auto-enter calculation
every time you need to add / remove a sales rep.

Or you could store the details in another table / file and use a
relationship to obtain the relevant data. This is the usual way, but
can be complicated for a very new person to FileMaker. This way also
means that you may not even need to have an auto-enter field at all,
but simply display the appropriate field from the related record
itself.

The problem (and this could just be a simple example) is that the
initials may be the same for two people with different names. You might
be better to create a Value List containing the Full Names which the
user chooses from via a pop-up menu and then the other fields use
auto-enter calculations to obtain their data.


Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)

Don't take this the wrong way, Lucy, but you'll want to either go through
the FileMaker Help file from the very beginning or, better yet, purchase one
of the many books available on FileMaker Pro. Not that we won't be able to
help you with specific questions... the newsgroup is really good for that.
But, to fully answer your question is going to be like writing a couple
chapters on how to set up relationships and use them in your layouts.

I might also recommend using Google -- http://groups.google.com -- to search
the comp.databases.filemaker archive, as variations on this question have
been asked and answered many times in the past.

Two titles people have recommended are

Special Edition Using FileMaker 8, by Scott Love (not sure if it covers
version 8)
FileMaker Pro 8: The Missing Manual , by Geoff Coffey

Good luck!

"louseey" <lucybanta (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

FileMaker Help is a good place to start.

Matt

In article <1161300559.961331.9980 (AT) h48g2000cwc (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
"louseey" <lucybanta (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote: