I've got a printing script that pauses in Preview with the Status Area
hidden.

I'd like the user to be unable to continue the script without choosing
from a drop down menu (ie not be able to hit 'enter' to resume the
script).

I'd also like the user to be able to choose from that drop down menu
and pass the choice to the parent script.

So far I can't do either. Any ideas? 8.5A on OSx.

Thanks
G

In article <1176142673.688541.218490 (AT) l77g2000hsb (DOT) googlegroups.com>,
"Grip" <grip (AT) cybermesa (DOT) com> wrote:

Not really a good idea. If the Preview has multiple pages then you're
stuck looking at the first one (unless you use scripts in the menu for
"Next Page" and "Previous Page".


The usual trick is for the Printing script to fake the Preview. Once in
Preview mode you can use the Copy command to copy the entire previewed
page, then swap back to Browse mode and paste the result into a Global
Container field for the user to view and you still have the ability for
buttons to work (unlike in real Preview mode).

You need a "Printing" script something like:

Freeze Window
Go To Layout [PrintLayout]
Enter Preview Mode []
Copy
Go To Layout [FakePreview]
Enter Browse Mode []
Paste [g_FakePreviewField]

where g_FakePreviewField is the Global Container field stretched as big
as possible (for a single printed page).

You can then use buttons to allow the user to print the real report,
"cancel" back to data entry, go forward and back pages (using a second
Global field to keep track of which page of the printout you're
previewing).

You can even fake the Zoom functions by having different layout with
the g_FakePreviewField at different sizes with the graphic format set
to shrink / enlarge proportionally.

The only real problem is that going backwards and forwards through
pages of the printout can be very slow if you're using Summary sections
since the buttons have to keep going into Preview mode to copy the
appropriate page.













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

On Apr 9, 2:59 pm, Helpful Harry <helpful_ha... (AT) nom (DOT) de.plume.com>
wrote:
I've been trying to lock down my solution, eliminating the status bar,
creating really tight custom menus, scripting navigation, etc. But I
keep running into little barriers like this. I have one menu for
those layouts with Navigation commands (Next, Previous, Last, First).
I could have just 'Continue' on that menu with a Resume script step
and use a Custom Dialog, but it's just not that elegant as having a
'Continue' and a 'Cancel'. Also users may inadvertently hit Enter,
resuming the script but not know why.

So I'll look into the Browse mode trick, thanks.

G

If it's a muli-page printout you may find the browse mode trick
unweildy.

Here's what I like to do. Have the main window displaying the print
preview layout. A second window appears as a floating dialogue to the
right. It displays these options: a) report name pop-up, b) "print"
button c) "preview" button, d) "cancel" button e) "page up" and "page
down" arrows.

When user clicks the page up or down arrows the script moves to the
correct page in the preview window. The user is prevented from
interacting directly with the preview window as she is trapped in the
floating dialogue screen. This is done by means of a loop. All the
buttons on the floating dialogue window have a "resume" action.

Regards
Kevin Smith

On Apr 9, 3:32 pm, "Grip" <g... (AT) cybermesa (DOT) com> wrote:
Sometimes working against the tool isn't worth the effort. We choose
to develop in filemaker to leverage its specific advantages, making an
FM app look just like an Access app (for example) is often a waste of
time. Filemaker's status bar is extremely functional, and will be far
far more responsive than any kludgy recreation of that functionality
we can invent. Occasionally its worth it, often its not.

As an aside, In your case, if all you want to do is defeat the 'enter'
is continue behaviour, try something like:

set $$canexit = "no exit"
loop
pause/resume script
# if the user runs --- XXX $$can exit will be set
exit loop if $$canexit="exit"
end loop

then 'enter' just cycles the loop, and appears to do nothing at all to
the user.

The script you have them run to really continue must, of course, set $
$canext = "exit", and resume.

-cheers,
dave

On Apr 16, 9:57 pm, d-42 <db.pors... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I had figured out that answer,
but got stuck because it was failing. It took the help of another
forum to help me realize the Continue button was set to the default
"Pause Current Script". That was a little embarrassing.

I understand your postion on the status bar, but I disagree. It's
taken me about four hours of work to make a layout object I can drop
into any layout that recreates the limited functionality of the status
bar that I want (everything except the slider bar, that is). It
requires one field per table and one additional global field per
file. It is not kludgy at all, and it permits me to fully control the
user experience.

I want I can limit the exposure a user has to records they shouldn't
access (by not including the unaccesible records in the "total" count
for instance or not having total count at all). I can make the
experience MORE intuitive than it already is ("I hit return to put a
new line in and it found the records instead" or "Why does it say
"layout" there? "Unsorted?" "). And it does so in the colors and
fonts and icons I choose.

Personally I think it's very worthwhile, but YMMV.

On Apr 16, 9:57 pm, d-42 <db.pors... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Dang, I've been trying to limit my business e-mail account's exposure
to usenet spammers and I just posted under that account. This is a
repost, but I'm sure some newsreaders have already picked it up. So
sorry for the weird double post....

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I had figured out that answer,
but got stuck because it was failing. It took the help of another
forum to help me realize the Continue button was set to the default
"Pause Current Script". That was a little embarrassing.

I understand your postion on the status bar, but I disagree. It's
taken me about four hours of work to make a layout object I can drop
into any layout that recreates the limited functionality of the
status
bar that I want (everything except the slider bar, that is). It
requires one field per table and one additional global field per
file. It is not kludgy at all, and it permits me to fully control
the
user experience.

If I want I can limit the exposure a user has to records they
shouldn't
access (by not including the unaccesible records in the "total" count
for instance or not having total count at all). I can make the
experience MORE intuitive than it already is ("I hit return to put a
new line in and it found the records instead" or "Why does it say
"layout" there? "Unsorted?" "). And it does so in the colors and
fonts and icons I choose.

Personally I think it's very worthwhile, but YMMV.

G

On Apr 16, 9:57 pm, d-42 <db.pors... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Dang, I've been trying to limit my business e-mail account's exposure
to usenet spammers and I just posted under that account. This is a
repost, but I'm sure some newsreaders have already picked it up. So
sorry for the weird double post....

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I had figured out that answer,
but got stuck because it was failing. It took the help of another
forum to help me realize the Continue button was set to the default
"Pause Current Script". That was a little embarrassing.

I understand your postion on the status bar, but I disagree. It's
taken me about four hours of work to make a layout object I can drop
into any layout that recreates the limited functionality of the status
bar that I want (everything except the slider bar, that is). It
requires one field per table and one additional global field per
file. It is not kludgy at all, and it permits me to fully control the
user experience.

If I want I can limit the exposure a user has to records they
shouldn't access (by not including the unaccesible records in the
"total" count for instance or not having total count at all). I can
make the experience MORE intuitive than it already is ("I hit return
to put a new line in and it found the records instead" or "Why does it
say "layout" there? "Unsorted?" "). And it does so in the colors and
fonts and icons I choose.

Personally I think it's very worthwhile, but YMMV.

G

On Apr 16, 9:57 pm, d-42 <db.pors... (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Oh and Welcome Back!

On Apr 17, 9:12 pm, Grip <g... (AT) cybermesa (DOT) com> wrote:
Don't get me wrong, I remove the status area most of the time too.

But that slider bar is a good UI widget that can't be effectively
duplicated. On a print preview of a 120 page report its hard to beat.

Thanks

-cheers,
Dave