Hi

fmSpark allows you to see a list of fields which you can merge into a letter. Is there a way to "filter" that list, so users only see the fields you want them to see?

Sure!

Simply open the Settings screen by clicking on the icon at the top, right of the window. Next switch to the Developer screen by clicking the icon in the same area and choose the Fields and Functions tab panel.

Here you can select a table from the pulldown list and remove any fields you don't want to appear in the Insert Merge dialog.

It's worth noting that by default, fmSpark excludes fields whose names begin with an underscore when you use the Rebuild function.

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Corn Walker
The Proof Group LLC

Thanks. That's what I'd hoped.

I suppose the trick is to make sure fields are human readable (so to speak) so that users can get the gist of what they contain quite easily. You can't allocate aliases to field names can you ?

For example, the field might be called "con_NameFirst" in the table but on the list it can show "First Name"

It's not a big deal, I was just wondering

It's an interesting idea, to say the least. I know many developers have asked FMI for this type of feature for some time.

If you have FileMaker Pro Advanced and don't mind using a little elbow grease, you could create custom functions for all of your non-legible fields. So "CONTACTS::con_NameFull" would become "FullName" and the custom function would handle the substitution.

We've been using the underscore to distinguish "developer" fields from "user data" fields for a while now and our naming practices mean fields that don't begin with an underscore should be human readable.

Hope this helps.

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corn walker
the proof group llc