Okay, here's another question for the group. On my main database page
in the Body part I've got a list of all my records. When you select
one of these records the details of the particualr record are displayed
in the Footer part. The problem is that, apart from the little black
line that FMP draws to the left of the line, there's nothing that
really draws focus to which line has been clicked on. What I'd like to
do is put some kind of focus ring around the current selected record.
Any ideas on how to do this?

Writing the dcatabase was the easy part. Getting it to look the way I
want has turned out to be surprisingly difficult.

Thanks.


--
"Giving money and power to government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
-- P. J. O'Rourke

I don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for, but I'm doing
something in all of my solutions that sounds similar.

I assume you've already got a serial number field. If not, you need one.
This is auto-entered, unique for each record, and non-modifiable.

Create a global text field

Store a colored rectangle in a global field. Make the rectangle the
"focus" color you'd like.

On your layout, place the Highlight_Indicator field behind your data
fields, and make sure the data field fill is off (transparent). Format
the container field to fill the frame with your graphic.

Create a calculation container field; call it "highlight_indicator" or
something, where the calculation is:
Case (text_field = serial number ; focusfield)
This will display the focus field for the record you're looking at (see
below)

Add something along the lines of this step to each script that views
your records:
When selecting a record, set the above text field to the record's serial
number.

That should do it.

And yes, designing and creating an excellent interface can take longer
than making a database that works.

Abbott


In article <2005120308585416807%thisbeingmilt@gmailcom>,
This Being Milt <thisbeingmilt (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Okay, I have to admit that this totally confused me. I've been messing
with it all morning. I get the general idea of what you're trying to
do, but I just can't get it to work. Do you have an example anywhere I
could look at?

Thanks so much for your help.



On 2005-12-03 09:49:07 -0800, Abbott Schindler
<abbottnospam (AT) nospamkbase (DOT) com> said:


--
"Giving money and power to government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
-- P. J. O'Rourke

This Being Milt wrote:

Ray Cologon has an example of a technique for highlighting the selected
row in list view at http://www.nightwing.com.au/FileMaker/demos1.html#d5

It's an FP5 demo file, but the concept should still work in 7/8.

Matt

Thanks for the link. I see how he's doing it, and I duplicated his
steps exactly in mine, and I *still* can't get the damn thing to work.
I give up. Thanks anyway.



On 2005-12-03 13:40:01 -0800, "Matt Wills" <Im (AT) Witz (DOT) End> said:


--
"Giving money and power to government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
-- P. J. O'Rourke

Milt,

Here's a step-by-step outline of how to do this without using a serial
number field (so it works in any table):

1. Design your highlight graphic
2. Create a Global Container field, MasterHighlight
3. Put your highlight graphic into MasterHighlight

4. Create a Global number field, CurrRecord

5. Create the following field:

RecordHighlight (calculation, container result) =
If(CurrRecord=Get(RecordID);MasterHighlight;"")

6. Create a script, "Set Current Record" with the step:

Set Field [YourTable::CurrRecord; Get(RecordNumber)]

7. Go to your layout and make the following adjustments:

a. Create a rectangle the height and width of your body part. (Don't make it
transparent yet as doing so will make it hard to work with.)
b. Right-click the rectangle and choose "Button Setup..."
c. Specify to run the Set Current Record script
d. With the rectangle selected, choose Arrange--> Bring to Front to be
certain it's on top of all other elements

e. Add the RecordHighlight field to your layout if it isn't there already
f. With the RecordHighlight field selected, choose Arrange--> Send to Back
to be certain it's below all other elements

g. Put everything together in the body part like a sandwich. From top to
bottom:

--- Rectangle/button to run the Set Current Record script ---
--- Your fields and other usual body part elements ---
--- The RecordHighlight field ---

* Use the Show Size palette (click in/cm until it shows pixels) if necessary
to make sure the highlight container field and the button rectangle are
sized the same and in the same position.

* Make sure they are fitted to the body part precisely (and not touching the
header)

* Make the button rectangle no fill/no pen now

Now, when you go to browse, whenever you click on a record, the following
will happen:

1) The rectangle/button will activate
2) The script will set the global field CurrRecord to the RecordID of the
record you clicked on
3) The calculation for that record will suddently become "true" and the
background highlight will appear.

Bill

"This Being Milt" <thisbeingmilt (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Ooops

Script step should be:

Set Field [YourTable::CurrRecord; Get(RecordID)]

(not RecordNumber)

"Bill Marriott" <wjm (AT) wjm (DOT) org> wrote

Bill, thank you so much for your steps. However, being the FMP retard
that I am , I'm getting stuck.

On step 5 you say "create the following field." Does this need to be
named anything specific? What type of field is it?

Also, there is no field called RecordHighlight. Should I create one?
If so, what are its details?

Thanks again.



On 2005-12-03 15:09:09 -0800, "Bill Marriott" <wjm (AT) wjm (DOT) org> said:


--
"Giving money and power to government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
-- P. J. O'Rourke

It's just a convention I have used... in plain language:

Create a new calculation field called "Record Highlight." Make sure the
result at the bottom of the formula editing window is set to "Container" and
use the calculation:

If(CurrRecord=Get(RecordID);MasterHighlight;"")

By the way, if you didn't catch my followup post, the correct script step in
#6 should be:

Set Field [YourTable::CurrRecord; Get(RecordID)]

(Where "YourTable" is the name of the current database table you're working
on.)

Bill

"This Being Milt" <thisbeingmilt (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Thanks, Bill. I really appreciate your help but I flat-out cannot get
this to work. I even created a blank database from scratch with only
one field in it, followed these steps to the letter, and it just won't
work. I'm just too much of a newbie I guess. Thanks anyway.


On 2005-12-04 17:29:45 -0800, "Bill Marriott" <wjm (AT) wjm (DOT) org> said:


--
"Giving money and power to government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
-- P. J. O'Rourke