What s a Layout?

What's a Layout?

In the previous chapter, we discussed how to define fields for holding the data that you want to store in your database. In this chapter, we discuss the tools at your disposal for creating user interfaces to manage that data.

You use layouts to create user interfaces in FileMaker Pro. Layouts are similar in some ways to Web pages, though they're structured quite differently. If you're familiar with SQL-based database development, it might help to think of layouts as being similar to views.

A layout is a collection of graphical objects that a user interacts with to view and modify data. These objects include things such as fields, buttons , static text blocks, graphic elements (such as lines or rectangles), and images. FileMaker Pro contains a rich set of tools for manipulating these objects, allowing you to create attractive and functional interfaces for your users easily.

You can create many different kinds of layouts in FileMaker. Form layouts are useful for data entry; list layouts are generally used for reports and often contain summary parts . Some layouts may be designed for system administrators to clean up data quickly. Still others can serve as user navigation menus and contain no data at all.

One of the things that makes FileMaker unique among database products is that the layouts themselves are stored in a file, right along with data, scripts, access privileges, and other elements of application logic. Every FileMaker Pro file must have at least one layout; there is no practical limit to the number of layouts that a file can contain. It's not unheard of, nor undesirable, to have anywhere from a dozen to a hundred or more layouts in a file.

Layouts are created and managed in what's known as Layout mode . To get to Layout mode, choose V iew, L ayout Mode, or simply type ( -L) [Ctrl+L]. Almost all the material in this chapter deals with tools and functions that require you to be in Layout mode to access them, but for simplicity and brevity, we will not specifically mention that fact in conjunction with every tool and tip. Consider yourself warned .

In this chapter, we take a "top-down" approach to learning about layouts. We begin by discussing layout creation and layout configuration options. We then move down to the level of the part, and finally down to the level of objects. Learning about layouts can entail "chicken-and-egg" problems: Most topics are intertwined to the extent that there's no convenient linear approach through the material. We therefore encourage you to skip around from topic to topic as necessary to fill out your knowledge.

Finally, this chapter does not comprehensively cover every layout tool or configuration option. Rather, our approach has been to cover details that you might not otherwise discover on your own, and to present what we consider to be "best practices" for working with layouts.