ISO FileMaker Magazine

Even to this day, after providing FileMaker-related technical education for many years, I still see solutions with less-than-optimal structure and storage. When it comes to graphics, “all things add up.” The cumulative cost of data or technical debt often comes back to bite you when you’re trying to refactor an old solution to meet modern standards.

This video showcases what I know about storing and using graphics within your FileMaker layouts. If you’re unaware of how large images impact performance, you might end up needing to update them in a million different places - unless you know the trick for better storage. For example, not realizing that you’ve added a 4MB image instead of an optimized version that can be transferred as part of CSS through WebDirect can make a huge difference in performance. These are the kinds of small but crucial details that can significantly improve your solution overall.

That’s what videos like this are all about - understanding how things really work. How is the data stored? Are things being duplicated unnecessarily? If the thought of updating hundreds of graphics is something you’d rather avoid, then it’s time to take full advantage of the tools available to us. Let’s optimize our graphics knowledge.