When naming and saving a new database, the Windows and Mac file dialog boxes are different. Other dialog boxes may also be slightly different, although they will usually contain the same options.
It's only critical to include the .fp7 file extension if you're a Windows user.
As you can see, you can use either FileMaker Pro or FileMaker Pro Advanced to create databases.
create Text fields p. 12
You'll note that after creating each field, the field type defaults to Text (the last type selected) and the name of the last field created is highlighted. When you start to type a new name, the previous name is replaced. Thus, to quickly create each new Text field, you can just type its name and press /. (The keypress is equivalent to clicking Create, the default button.)
Don't worry if you make mistakes while defining fields. To change a field's name or type, select it in the Define Database's field list, make the change, and then click the Change button.
If you exit the dialog box before creating all the fields, you can return to the Define Database dialog box by choosing File > Define Database.
Because similar information will be gathered for each investment type (such as an account number and amount invested), I created a naming convention to make it easy to tell one investment's fields from the others. Stock fields are preceded by Stk_, for example.
create Number fields p. 13
Since data in Number fields can be entered using any combination of digits, a decimal, and a sign (+ or -), you're probably wondering why we didn't set a format for the fields. It's because formatting is specified as part of a layoutnot as part of a field definition. Field formatting is discussed in Chapter 3 and later chapters.
set Validation options p. 19
The reason that Stk_Account Number wasn't also set as Unique is because multiple stocks can be held in a single brokerage account.
/
. (The keypress is equivalent to clicking Create, the default button.)