Hello Everyone,
I have a sorting problem that I hope someone can help me with. I am
setting up a data base of books -sounded simple- I want to sort a list
of Books I want to look for when I am in the Used Book Store.

I have a 'Status' field where I put a 'W' (for Want)... I then would
like to sort and print a list to take with me:

1) on Author
2) If a book is part of a series, then sort on the Series
3) then sort by the Series #

(keeping the series together) by Author

Now, I know how I'd write in Basic; but, I can't right with Filemaker
Pro 6... Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks any Help anyone can give me... Much Appreciated - Tom

In article <wWqre.689$NU5.368 (AT) newssvr13 (DOT) news.prodigy.com>, Hwy101
<Hwy101280 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote:

Assuming you have the appropriate fields with the correct data, then
choose Sort from the Records menu and move the fields from the
left-hand column into the right-hand column in this order:

Author {increasing order}
Series {increasing order}
Series Number {increasing order}

Click on the Sort button and ta-dah! )

Any records with nothing in the Series field will automatically be
sorted to the top.


If you want it part of a script, then sort manually as above, then open
the Script Editor, create or edit a script and insert the command

Sort [Restore Sort Order]

All done. Just make sure when later editing and closing that script to
NOT replace the sort order ... unless of course you actually want the
last manual sort order to replaced the one stored with the script.



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

Hi Harry (sorry to be so long in getting back -close at work) - Got the
Sorting, Series, w/Series # sorting pretty good from the menu... but, I
also want to print a 'W'ant List (to take to the Used Book Store when I
go -just printing the 'Wants' -not printing the others one at all)

Helpful Harry wrote:

In article <PJIse.30233$J12.17439 (AT) newssvr14 (DOT) news.prodigy.com>, Hwy101
<Hwy101280 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote:

That's a simple matter of performing a Find to get the "W" records: go
into Find mode, type a 'W' in the appropriate field and press Enter or
click the Find button in the window's side-toolbar.

Similar to the Sort script command, you can perform the Find manually,
then create / edit a script to use the Perform Find [Restore] command.
FileMaker will store the last manual Find request with the script ...
as long as you don't Replace it when later editing the script (unless
again you're wanting to replace it).

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

Okay -I think I get this - will know when I try -- Can I then edit the
script to do the rest of the sort on the 'find'? (need to put into
Author, Series, Series# Order) so I can find easier in the store?

Thanks very much for the Help Harry -this any easier in 7?

Helpful Harry wrote:

In article <A9Nse.4290$Pa5.1658 (AT) newssvr21 (DOT) news.prodigy.com>, Hwy101
<Hwy101280 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net> wrote:

Manually Find the 'W' records and manually Sort them as required.

Then it depends on whether you've already got a script with the Find
and Sort commands in it already or are creating a new script (or adding
them to an existing scipt):

- For a new script or adding the commands to an existing script,
simply create / open the script, add the Perform Find [Restore]
and Sort [Restore] commands, and then close the script.

- For a script that already has the Perform Find and Sort
commands, open the script, make sure both have the Restore
option turned on and then close the script - a window appears
asking if you want to Keep or Replace the saved Find Requests
and Sort Order, change both to Replace so that the last
manually performed Find and Sort are now saved with the script.

Either way, the script will now have the Find Request and the Sort
Order saved with it and will restore and use those whenever you run
that script.

Whenever you later edit that script you need to make sure the Keep
options are on ... unless you're wanting to change one or both and
replace them with the last manually performed versions.


Note: For the Sort [Restore] command you may also want to turn the "No
Dialog" option so that you don't have to see and confirm the Sort
window every time the script is run.




I'm not sure because I don't have FileMaker 7.

You can write the script to perform all the actions of the Find
step-by-step, but it isn't really necessary here since the Find is
always going to be "W" in the appropriate field. The Restore method is
the only way to have a script sort records (unless you want the window
to display every time and you manually change / confirm it).

For some VERY peculiar reason best known to FileMaker Inc there's no
way to see the saved Find Requests or Sort order that's saved with the
script commands. The only way you can see these is to Print (or Print
Preview) the script - then the script commands do display more useful
details. (




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

In article <180620051645469718%helpful_harry (AT) nom (DOT) de.plume.com> Helpful
Harry, helpful_harry (AT) nom (DOT) de.plume.com writes:
Yes I agree, this makes Finding and Sorting in scripts so much more
difficult, especially for beginners. I often wish you could specify the
Find / Sort criteria in the script.
Having to do the Find or Sort before writing the script is not intuitive
at all. It don't help when you're editing an old script either.
I'm still using FMP4, surely they've fixed this by now?

G.

In article <dars37$t3s$1 (AT) news (DOT) e7even.com>, ovalking (AT) yahoo (DOT) com says...
In FM7 you can. (at least in developer) I don't have pro installed on
this machine at the moment.

In article <MPG.1d3b2009f324287c989be2 (AT) shawnews (DOT) vf.shawcable.net>,
42 <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote:

You can in FM Pro 7. This is one of the significant improvements over
earlier versions of FMP.

Bill

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