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FileMaker Go: Functionality with Anchors

November 3, 2011 by Martha Zink 6 Comments

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.

iPad safety app in portrait orientation

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?!

iPad Safety app in landscape orientation

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!

Seperate portrait and landscape layers

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.

Landscape layer on top of portrait layer

Have you implemented any technique like this into your FM Go solution?

Filed Under: News Tagged With: FileMaker Go, Layout objects, Video

Comments

  1. ida lively says

    November 29, 2011 at 11:56 am

    During the webinar, you mentioned that you’d put these files somewhere … I can’t locate them. Could you help me?

    Reply
    • Susan Fennema says

      November 29, 2011 at 1:55 pm

      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

      Reply
  2. Susan Fennema says

    December 1, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    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/

    Reply
    • Mark says

      June 2, 2015 at 10:55 pm

      Hi
      The link above isnt working now, is there another way to find the file?
      Thanks

      Reply
  3. Yvette says

    July 2, 2014 at 12:20 am

    When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is
    added I get four e-mails with the same comment. Is there any
    way you can remove people from that service? Appreciate it!

    Reply
    • Kirk Bowman says

      August 31, 2014 at 8:51 pm

      Yvette – I checked our subscriber list and I did not see your email address so you should not be receiving notifications.

      Reply

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