1. When arrow buttons are provided to move between records, you can always hold down the option key to move to the first or the last record in the found set.
2. Portals with button-style column headings can typically be sorted by clicking on the column headings. The portal will sort and then display a graphical indicator of which column is the sort criteria, much like a standard operating system listbox. Neat, eh?
3. Many functions display a dialog box prompting you to continue your action (e.g. deleting a record or overwriting the text in a field), these dialogs can be circumvented by holding down the option key as you press the button in question. Much like Filemaker's native functions.
4. Some of the functionality of the toolkit requires that you have Applescript enabled (this is why the toolkit is not currently available for Windows). If Applescript is not enabled, that functionality will not be available to you. For example, SystemText uses Applescript to get the calculation formulas of the fields in a file. Without Applescript, you still get the field name, type, etc, but you won't get the calculation.
5. In all the tools (except the Field Index Tool), there is a dark strip with text at the bottom of the layout. This text tells you who entered and last modified the current record and when, and gives you feedback on the found set.
6. Armed with nothing but the above knowledge, you can venture forth and figure out on your own precisely how to use these tools. But just in case you prefer to read, we have included documentation for each tool. This documentation is located in the folder named, oddly enough, "Documentation".
Tool Descriptions
Field Index Tool:
This is a simple tool which performs three functions: it can get the contents of a field, it can get the index of a field (i.e. a sorted list without duplicate values) and it can get the calculation of a calc field.
SubstituteGen:
Another relatively simple tool, this one is used to generate complex "Substitute" calculations. You simply enter the search and replace pairs and click a button. There are options to use field lists from files as value lists to speed entry. SubstituteGen was used in the development of our ThemeMaker product.
Importer:
Importer provides a place for you to store the import orders used in other files. As you know, Filemaker does not "remember" what the field pairs are in an import, it just remembers the order of arrangement, which is all fine and good until you forget which fields are supposed to match up. Additionally, Importer can perform the import for you using Applescript, though it is noticably slower than Filemaker.
SpecWriter:
This tool streamlines the process of creating system specifications for user requirements documentation or junior programmers. It is MUCH faster than simply typing your specs in a word processor, and prints really attractive reports that make it easy to build the system when the time comes. And if you need to make a new file that resembles a file you have previously profiled in SystemText, you can import that record and change only the information that needs changing.
SystemText:
SystemText was designed to help you comprehend and document complex files. This tool pulls all the information for a file together into a single format. You can then annotate this information, update it when necessary, and print out a comprehensive report on the file. SystemText leaves the analysis to you, it just helps pull it all together.
