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FileMaker has four modes in which you can manipulate the program. We've already
introduced you to Browse mode, which allows you to do data entry, adding
records, editing fields, and so on. But there are three other modes, and you're
going to be working with these modes a lot. And the way you change between the
different modes is by using the View menu. And the first four items are your
different modes. You can see there's a check mark right next to Browse mode,
meaning you're in Browse mode. There's also Find, Layout, and Preview. Now,
you're going to be moving between these different modes a lot. If you're
developing a solution all day long, you'll do it hundreds of times. So to make
it more efficient, you might want to remember each one of these keyboard
commands so you don't have to grab the mouse when you're working with it. So you
have Command or Control B for Browse mode, you have Command or Control F for
Find mode, you have Command or Control L for Layout mode, those ones are easy.
Preview mode's a little different. Command P is reserved for print, so you have to
use Command or Control U. So what we're going to do is we're going to switch to
Find mode. Now Find mode is how you essentially change your found sets. I want
to find everybody who has a last name of Osbourne. I want to find everybody in
the state of California. Those are the things you can do here. It looks a lot
like Browse mode, I mean you have all the same fields here. It's just that
you're working with Find Requests now. And you can see that change over in the
status area. You see that is says Request here, not Record, and you don't see
the icon here for going between your records right now because you're in Find mode.
And you can add multiple requests, which are kind of like records, although they're
not permanently stored like records are, and that will make these icons for the
Rolodex show up. But realize that you're in Find mode, and you don't want to mix
up the two modes, Browse and Find mode, they look a lot the same. You really
want to be conscious of this status area and how it changes. So you have the
word Request here, you have this Omit button, symbols, there's a little pop up
menu we'll go over later, there's a Find button here. So be aware of all these
things that are going on. Look at what's happening here and be aware, and that
way we won't mess it up, because if you enter data into Find mode thinking it
was Browse mode and then close your database, all that data's gone, it's entered
into Find mode, and that's not stored permanently. Now you can also switch modes
through these icons right here. So here's what's called Layout mode. So if we
click on it, you'll notice that now it changes to Layout mode here, it says
Layout down here, and under the view menu, there's a check mark next to Layout
mode. Now Layout mode is where you rearrange your interface. You can move a
field; you can delete a field, not permanently, just off the layout. To
permanently delete a field you have to go to Define Database. We can put colors
on here, background colors; we can draw rectangles, and circles, and put on
portals, which we'll cover later, and add fields and parts, and all this stuff
in the status area allows you to manipulate what it looks like inside of Layout
mode, which translates, actually, into Browse mode. Whatever you do here
translates directly into Browse mode, and we'll cover that later. Now your last
mode is Preview mode. If we go ahead and select Preview mode, which you can do
down here as well, then what you're looking at is FileMaker's interpretation of
what it's going to print out like. And so what FileMaker tries to do is print
as many records per page as possible. So see here there's one record right here,
and then there's another record. And because it can't fit completely on the rest
of the page, well, there's another page down here where we'll see the third
record, and so on. So it tries to fit as many records per page as possible, and
so that indication that we're viewing pages right now, what might print out, it
now changes the word Page here. And you can actually work with this as well, you
can type in a page number. Once you hit the Return or Enter key it moves to that
page. You can walk through them manually like this and go through page by page.
And you'll also notice that the total has a question mark, well FileMaker
calculates each page as you go to it for speed reasons. So if you want to see
how many pages you have, you have to scroll all the way to the end, and now you
see there's 21 total pages. So you'll also want to notice that there are
different menu items, or menus when you're in each mode. Certainly the status
area is very obvious, it changes, right? And you see this change over here. But
you also need to realize that the menus change. Now in this case, you still
have a records menu, but a lot of the items are dimmed out in Preview mode
because you can't do them, you can't create a new record on a page. You can
sort the records if you want, but you can't do any of these other things. So
realize that these change, and other menus change as well. You obviously can't
apply formatting to a field in Preview mode because you don't have access to the
fields. So you want to be aware and be very critical of what's going on, and the
more critical of what's going on and more aware of what's going on that you are,
the more you're going to be able to work with FileMaker to be able to make it a
habit, so you know whatever's going on. So let's try going to Layout mode. And
look, we have a Layouts menu with different things you can do under the menus
specific to that mode, specific to Layout mode. And if we go to Find mode, well
now we have a Requests menu. These are all the menu items that are specific to
this mode. So you want to be aware, we're not covering all these different menu
items yet, but be aware that these different things go on when you switch modes.
And so that will make you one step closer to understanding these modes. Now what we
want to do is make sure that you understand each one of these modes and all the
little details of what you can do in there. So that's what we'll be going over
in the next tutorials.