Wow, I'm starting to sound like Yoda.

Say, I want to do something that seems like it should be a no-brainer.

In my ignorance, I am forced to look to the more experienced for insight...

When entering information in our database for a new transaction, there are many different companies/people who are a part of that transaction that need to be entered.

I want to be able to use data that is already in the Contact Information table for an entry, rather than having to re-enter the info every time.

For example, for a new transaction, I need to enter the contact information for a "Trustee". This Trustee is already in our database, but based on the way our layouts are designed, each party involved is displayed on a layout for that transaction. So, it's not just a matter of looking it up everytime we need to call "ABC Trustee Co." It must be associated with the transaction at hand.

So, while entering info for each transaction, is there a plug in or some basic function that will allow me to choose the contact to have the info entered automatically?

In FileMaker 7 you have two kinds of Auto Entry options you can employ: lookups and AutoEnter Calculations. Sounds like you already know about those and just need a way of selecting the contact you'd like to associate with each transaction.

The simplest way to associate a contact with another record (assuming that record has a place for the related contact's ID number) is to format that ID number field as a drop-down list of all your contacts. You can elect to show a second field in this drop down (a contact's last name or company name) and sort the list by that value.

That works for a small number of contacts, for larger numbers you'll likely want to select the contact from a portal of contacts or from a list of your contacts. Each method involves the scripting you'd imagine would be required to filter the portal or build the list and then send the selected contact's ID to your record.

Let me know if this is what you were asking about.

John

Thanks, John.

I'm not sure how to accomplish this:

[You can elect to show a second field in this drop down (a contact's last name or company name) and sort the list by that value. ]

Can you elaborate?

I've duplicated the CONTACTS table, and created a CONTACTS LOOKUP table.

There is a autoenter serial number ID for each record, and I've created a new field called LookupID, which is related to the ID.

Using this setup, I've used the LookupID field and formatted it as a drop down list of the ID numbers. By making all other fields in the CONTACTS table "lookup" fields, I can get this to work if I select the proper contact ID. This is obviously not practical, however. No one knows which ID number to select. So, I'm left with 2 issues with this setup:

1. If I select a contact record, and FM does the lookup and enters the data into the fields of the current record, I CANNOT change the address of the contact from here--it will create a new record. This is not ideal.

2. I need to figure out how to do what you've suggested (see quote) to have a Value list from the Company name be looking up that record based on the ID number.

?[/quote]

Update:

I figured out # 2 above, but not #1.

Not sure why you duplicated the contact's table, but lets say you have entered your contact ID into table X and now want to see contact information in a layout based on table X.

You can, as you've done, create fields in table X into which you'll lookup contact information.

Or, you can place fields from the contact's table ON your table X layout. In this manner you'd be seeing the actual contact's phone number (for instance) on your table X layout. Should you choose to edit that phone number, you'd be editing the actual contact's phone number- not the "copy" of it that you've looked up into table X. Just make sure you select contact fields from the same relationship (table occurrence) you'd have used for the lookup.

=)