One of the cool things with FileMaker Go is the capability of using anchors (also known as auto resizing) to stretch the layout in portrait and landscape mode. I saw this technique at DevCon and thought it was such a great way to take advantage of that functionality.
Getting Started
In this screenshot, we’re looking at a safety database in Portrait mode. My anchors are on the left and top for everything except the “Comments” field, which has anchors on the bottom as well, and the signature button that has anchors on the left and bottom.
Now once the user turns the device landscape, VOILA! We get a new “side panel” that wasn’t there before. Where did that come from?!
Using Anchors
Cool stuff, right? The way to do it is to anchor the side bar to the top and right. Then, group the layout objects (very important!) and overlap the grouped objects to line up to the right margin of the “portrait section”. From there, all that’s left to do is to push the grouped objects to the back, so that the “portrait section” is in full view and the “landscape section”, or the side bar, is hidden. Simple as that!
You have to make sure to group the layout objects. But, let’s pretend that you forgot – once you push those objects behind the “portrait section” it’ll take quite a lot of manual work to find the objects individually. So you don’t HAVE TO in order for the technique to work, but it sure does save you from a lot of object selecting!
Here are two screenshots in Layout Mode, to show you what the two sections look like. In the second screenshot, I haven’t yet pushed the grouped “landscape section” to the back.
Have you implemented any technique like this into your FM Go solution?
During the webinar, you mentioned that you’d put these files somewhere … I can’t locate them. Could you help me?
Ida-
Thanks for the question. We have not posted them yet due to some technical delays and the holidays. But, we WILL get them there eventually! We’ll post an update here, on our twitter account (@mighytdata), on Facebook, in our newsletter – whereever we can get the word out! Thanks for your patience.
Susan
If you are looking for the recording and sample file, it is now posted. Check it out via this link: http://mightydata.com/5-techniques-for-building-a-solution-with-filemaker-go/
Hi
The link above isnt working now, is there another way to find the file?
Thanks
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