90 Minute Contact Manager in FileMaker Pro

The Field Picker is the easiest way to create fields in FileMaker Pro.

Housekeeping fields are those that track creation and modification of records.

In order to save time and also show to work with an Excel spreadsheet, data will be imported.

Choosing a theme is as simply as scrolling through a list of choices and clicking.

Parts define where elements display when a user is viewing your solution.

FileMaker has two main views: form and list view. Learning the differences is very important.

Making sure font types and sizes match is all import for a consistent interface.

Resizing and positioning fields in an organized manner is key to interface design.

Determining the window size for your FileMaker solution is a crucial step in the design process.

Learn how to perform basic finds or searches.

Additional requests allow for OR finds in FileMaker as opposed to the traditional AND find in a single request.

Omitting records allows for exclusion.

Date range finds are one of the most common search tasks, allowing you to locate records that match a range of dates.

Finding records with nothing in a field is a very common task, helping you to locate records that are incomplete.

The Field Control tool allows you to more easily add fields larger than one row in height, such as a Notes field.

Popovers allow you to fit a lot of information, such as a notes field, in a small area.

Fields containing multiple lines may require a scroll bar.

FileMaker makes it very easy to script communication with several email clients, allowing you to pass information stored in FileMaker fields like email addresses, subjects and entire email correspondence.

FileMaker can also communicate with your favorite web browser to open any web site stored in a FileMaker field.

Since the data being sent out in the email won't be stored in FileMaker, it's best to use global fields as the interface for composing the mass email.

In order to provide feedback, let's place some instructions in the popover identifying how many people will receive the mass email.

A Send button placed in the popover allows the completed message to be sent using the Send Mail script step.

Find birthdays by month, regardless of the year or day.

Automate searching for upcoming birthdays.

Add a calculation that displays the age of the contact next to their date of birth.

Define what determines whether a record is a duplicate or not is the first step to locating duplicates.

Automating the process of locating duplicate records with a script makes it far easier to perform and also avoids the need to display the duplicates field on the layout.

In order to filter a phone number, all formatting must be removed.

Once the numbers have been isolated, the phone can be formatted with simple concatenation.

Implementing the formatting feature requires the use of an Auto-Enter calculation.

Incorporate the Let function to make your formulas more efficient.

Allow for 7 and 10 digit phone numbers using a Case statement.