There has been a lot of talk on the various FileMaker forums about how we can do demos on our laptops and projectors for FileMaker Go, without having to make people huddle around our iPhones/iPads. (more…)
All right, so it’s been almost a week, and I still haven’t posted about FileMaker’s new product. I’ve been busy, okay?
Busy figuring out how to use the coolest product ever!
FileMaker Go is a new iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad app that you can use to either run standalone FileMaker databases, or access databases being hosted by FileMaker Server. (more…)
I was showing a prospective client some samples of my work a couple days ago. She liked what she was seeing except for one thing. “Can you get rid of all that white background; I can’t see a thing!”
First of all, I gave an inner wince, because I like my white backgrounds (assuming I have put a small bit of colour elsewhere). I’ve found that once clients ask for things like this, the database is well on the way to looking like Clown Puke, as described in my post on May 26, 2010.
… and that’s a slippery slope, friend.
However, I just had new business cards printed that list my title as “FileMaker Database Superhero” (seriously!), so I don’t like to leave a citizen in distress. (more…)
On a layout, a client wanted a checkmark to indicate when a required field is filled in. Trying to come up with the leanest solution possible, I knew I had the following options:
All right, then. The wild layout has been house-broken. This is just a quick post to show the various iterations of the layout, from its wild infancy, to its charming and debonair adulthood.
Now that our layout from my May 26, 2010 post is looking pretty much how we want it to, let’s look at one more thing we can do to make it easier for our users to enter data — and enter it consistently.
I briefly tried to think of a title for this post that made some sort of Viagra joke (you know, with objects getting bigger), but couldn’t think of anything clever. That’s your loss, I’m afraid: What this world really needs is more Viagra jokes.
Anyhow, one of the many cool options that FileMaker came out with a couple versions ago — in FileMaker 9 — was auto-resizing. This gives the developer the ability to specify what layout objects should grow — and in what directions — as the user increases the size of the window. (more…)
All right now, kids. Last time, we added some related data on those empty tabs, and used it to create more intuitive navigation. So what’s next?
Let’s spit-polish this thang with some finishing touches. (more…)
So, in my last post, we folded the layout space a little by adding tabs to the layout. That’s pretty cool. Now we can add some related data in that extra space.
Now why would we want to do that? Let’s have another look at the layout in its current incarnation (more…)
More work on that nasty layout from my May 26, 2010 post. It’s time to give the user some more data. That’s right, we’re going to improve the user experience by putting more stuff on the layout. Haven’t we been slowly removing things these past few weeks?
Yea, Bob. We have. But it’s not all about the visual. We want accessibility too. (more…)