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Custom Menus allow the developer to modify and enhance FileMaker’s menus, making the menus more meaningful and appropriate for different users. Among other capabilities, Custom Menus can be used to hide certain commands from users, while giving users easier access to other commands.
In addition, Custom Menus allow the developer to include a script as a command in any menu, making virtually unlimited functionality available to users at the developer’s discretion.
Assigning custom titles to menus and menu items can also make your database look more like a custom application and less like “FileMaker.” Well-implemented Custom Menus can reduce training time and minimize technical support needs.
However, the concepts behind creating Custom Menus - and the series of dialog boxes for creating them - can be rather overwhelming at first. We’ll take you step-by-step through the process so that it all becomes crystal-clear.
NOTE: We will be demonstrating the new, improved Custom Menus interface for FileMaker Pro 11, which is considerably less overwhelming than previous versions.
The first step in understanding Custom Menus lies in the terminology: before you can start, you have to be clear on the distinction between Menu Sets, Menus and Menu Items. We’ll methodically drill down from Menu Sets to Menus to Menu Items. Then we’ll further disassemble all the options, including Commands, Submenus and of course the highly useful but underappreciated Separators. We’ll show how any menu can be used as a submenu, and also show how items that you might normally expect to see only as submenus can be made into regular menus.
You’ll learn the difference between the name of a Menu or Menu Item and its Title, and how to dynamically override the title of a menu or menu item based on the current context. You’ll also understand how the Command attached to a Menu Item can be different from the Item’s Behavior. This last bit of knowledge will open the door to some very powerful interface tools - like preventing users from activating the Close box.
In addition to creating your Custom Menus, you’ll have to determine where and when they should appear. We’ll show you various ways to install your Menu Sets, as well as how to check to see which Menu Set is currently active.
Finally, you’ll learn some of the gotchas that come with Custom Menus, including inadvertently locking users out of actions that they should be allowed to perform. And remember - once you install a Custom Menu, it doesn’t care that you’re the hotshot developer: we’ll show you some things that will drive you crazy during testing (”Hey! How come I can’t switch into layout mode?”)
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