Did FileMaker just open the door for developers to create databases that will run on Macs, Windows, iPhones and iPads, all for free? Runtime + Go = Free Distribution Platform The recent launch of FileMaker Pro 12 has been getting rave reviews around the web. A big bonus of the new version is that FileMaker […]
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Searching for Email Addresses in FileMaker
April 12, 2012 
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The @ symbol used in email addresses has a use in FileMaker that predates email. FileMaker started using this symbol as a wildcard to search for missing characters. For instance if you were looking for something that ends in ‘smith’, you could search for @smith, which would bring up silversmith and goldsmith etc. Apparently, database […]
Continue reading Creating Google Cluster Maps from FileMaker
February 17, 2012 87 Comments
2014-12-17 Update: The FileMaker Pro 11 demo works well on Macintosh, but there are some issues with Internet Explorer on Windows. If at all possible, it is recommended that you use FileMaker Pro 12 or 13 on Windows. Here is a link to the FileMaker Pro 12 Demo. 2014-01-25 Update: Working with the demo file in […]
Continue reading Changing Window Names based on User Input
January 6, 2012 4 Comments
Sometimes you notice the little things in a software program and wonder ‘How did they do that?’. As a FileMaker Developer, the next question is usually, ‘can I do that in FileMaker?’ Today I was noticing that in Apple’s Mail App, when you start typing something in the Subject field of a message, it shows […]
Continue reading How do I update information in a whole bunch of records at once in FileMaker?
December 7, 2011 1 Comment
Recently a friend of mine who hadn’t used FileMaker for a while asked me how he could move through a bunch of records and update some text in all those records. He vaguely remembered there were some quick ways of doing this. This blog entry is for him and everyone out there in Google, Yahoo […]
Continue reading Windows Management Part II: How to stop the user from accidentally closing the last window in a FileMaker database
November 23, 2011 2 Comments
Here is a demo file containing the “On Close” script. The script is self contained and can be pasted into any FileMaker database. How to stop the user from accidentally closing the last window in a FileMaker database Add a script called “On Close” In the Script, prompt them when they try to close the […]
Continue reading Windows Management Part I: Cleaning up Windows in FileMaker
November 20, 2011 5 Comments
I was working on a database that linked a lot of data to other data, employing many join tables. It is a database about maintaining a library of video and audio recordings of art events. The idea is to allow researchers explore and move through Artists, Events, Media Assets, Groups and Programs easily. As a […]
Continue reading All the Access you want on a Mac
November 14, 2011 Comments Off on All the Access you want on a Mac
A recent project required accessing MDB files from Access. I found this useful utility in the Mac App Store. Bare Bones Microsoft Access Table Viewer app MDB Viewer available on the Mac Store is really just a bare bones table viewer for Microsoft Access MDB files. It sells for $6 and for the right situation […]
Continue reading Move Selected Files into a New Folder using AppleScript and Automator
August 17, 2011 4 Comments
Mac users, do you find yourself doing this more often than you like? You select a batch of files or folders, then realize you want to put these items into a folder to facilitate moving them about. You have to back out of your selection, create the folder, then move the files into the newly […]
Continue reading FileMaker and Image Maps in a Web Viewer
May 3, 2011 14 Comments
Software, although continuously improving sometimes loses capabilities that were in older packages or versions. For a long time, I have wished there was a better way to tie an image map to data in FileMaker, something I saw demonstrated a long time ago. Filevision offered the ability to link graphics and data Source: ebay auction […]
Continue reading Submitting FileMaker Runtimes to the Mac App Store
April 10, 2011 7 Comments
I have been looking at the feasibility of submitting an app to the Mac App Store using FileMaker. When the Mac Store was first announced, it sounded like the apps had to be created in Xcode/Cocoa and nothing else would do. Since that time, I have seen discussion of using Adobe Flash and RunRev’s LiveCode […]
Continue reading URLs in PDFs – Yet another reason to shorten URLs in FileMaker
January 25, 2011 9 Comments
Long URLs in FileMaker If you have a long URL in FileMaker, it is no problem. You could just have a button to open the URL from a text field. However, if you export the same URL to a PDF to circulate the information to others who don’t use FileMaker, you can hit problems. The […]
Continue reading FileMaker Progress Indicators using a Web Viewer and Animated GIFs
November 9, 2010 13 Comments
With the advent of the Web Viewer technology being added to FileMaker, developers started to employ these useful containers for all sorts of things. One of the obvious things is to add an animated GIF to a layout to give users an indication that something is happening when a long script is running. There is […]
Continue reading Paradise by the Dashboard Light – Bouncing around in FileMaker, building Charts
October 21, 2010 9 Comments
FileMaker Pro 11’s new Charting ability, is a great addition to its feature set. It can however, be a little confusing how best to grab the numbers to use in the label and data (X and Y axis) series of a graph. I set out to build a ‘management dashboard’ layout for one of my […]
Continue reading Creating and Storing 2D Bar Codes in FileMaker
October 7, 2010 8 Comments
2D Bar Codes are all the rage these days. These new style bar codes can store considerably more data than a standard bar code. Combined with the wide spread availability of iPhones and other smart phones with a built-in camera, capable of scanning these codes, there is an opportunity to employ these codes for a […]
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