

Also, you can now select the control style of a field being dragged onto the layout (in addition to the placement and label options from previous versions). One notable change is that the width of the palette is resizable, allowing for longer field names to be visible in the Field Picker interface. Another benefit is that since you will no longer be closing the Object Palette to conserve screen real estate, the object-level hiding capabilities there are much more consistent and useful. They function much the same as before, but, since they are tabbed, they take up less space. The Field Picker and Object Palette can be found on the left side of Layout mode, with tabs on the top to switch between the two.

I know for me, this saves time managing the various floating palettes (which previously always found a way to be floating exactly where I needed to be working). FileMaker has adopted this behavior and permanently adhered the Field Picker, Object Palette, and the standard Inspector to the left and right of our layout. You can do that under FileMaker Pro Advanced → Preferences, then checking the “Use advanced tools” box:įor anybody who has used a design application like the Adobe Creative Suite products, the idea of docked palettes is not a new one. If you are a long time user of FMP Advanced, be sure to enable the advanced tools to give you access to all of the features you are accustomed to. While not strictly an issue in Layout mode, it is worth noting that FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Pro Advanced are now one product under the FileMaker Pro Advanced moniker.

With FileMaker 17, we get much closer to bridging that gap, receiving a whole bunch of handy, time-saving features along the way. For a long time, Layout mode has been lacking a few key features you would normally expect to see in a modern design application. To any of us who spend most of our day working in FileMaker, the response was sheer joy.įor all of its speed, flexibility, and ease-of-use, sometimes our favorite platform is missing some of those “standard”, quality-of-life features you would expect. Way back when FileMaker 14 was released, as developers we were treated to the new-and-improved script workspace, adding all kinds of features from line breaks to auto-complete/type-ahead coding.
