Interface Enhancements
While it's possible to use too many colors or too many font sizes, it's rarely possible to use too much simplicity. Making your interface simple, while hiding the complexity to accomplish the desired tasks, should be your ultimate goal.
In this video I walk through four different techniques you can use to make your user interface just a bit more user friendly. Identifying the end of all records in a list view, using a double-click script, making it easy to manage buttons over tabs and making your sort columns just a bit prettier.
Do you have some of your own techniques you'd like to share? Post them in the comments section.
Comments
tab labels
I liked this video --thanks so much! (Can't wait for your developer code library!)
SITUATION: You show your simulated panel text twice, one white on top and one dark below and slightly off to simulate a drop shadow effect. If you need to change the text, you have to go into the two separate fields.
QUESTION: However, would this work better? If you still begin with the two graphic templates to be used underneath -- dark for active and light for inactive states (as you use in the video) -- couldn't you reuse them (without having to type in new panel text twice) by using global fields on top of them, rather than text typed directly -- identifying the text to use in the global through a tab preferences table, where the fields are named by referring to object name?
• Need to change the "tab label"? Just change the object name.
• Need a new "tab label"? Just duplicate the global field and change the name.
(e.g., gWhiteTab_Code, gBlackTab_Code -- where "Code" is both the text to display, as well as the name of the Object)
Does this seem easier/quicker to execute, or more complicated?
You sure can use fields!
I actually questioned if I should show the use of fields directly or their display equivalent - merge fields (which would be better to use because you don't have to worry about making them non-enterable).
Yes, the optimized version of "quicker tab labels" would involve the use of field values. This means you only need to change the values within the fields.
The reason I didn't show this is because a smart developer (like yourself) will hopefully realize this option. It does require the addition of interface fields to your tables and some developers don't like doing this (although I think it's just part of what you have to do with FileMaker). The mixing of interface fields and data fields is simply par for the course in most FileMaker solutions.
One of the things that FMI could do to improve on the interface possibilities would be to simply support the use of global variables within merge tags. Think about this one <<$$Tab-One>> <<$$Tab-Two>> <<$$Tab-Three>>. This means you would be able to set up your interface within global variables as part of a startup script.
Maybe in version 11 or 12. ;)
-- Matt Petrowsky - ISO FileMaker Magazine Editor
double click
You mentioned that some might find the double clicking too strict a criteria if it should be within the same second. Different spacings might be optianed this way:
not Div(NextTimestamp-FirstTimestamp ;3)
--sd