Chapter 7. The Structure: The Manage Database Dialog
FileMaker presents you with different interfaces to perform different tasks — and from the user's perspective, Browse mode, Find mode, and Preview mode cover most requirements. However, when you're in the process of developing or modifying your database, you'll spend much of your time in Layout Mode (discussed in Chapter 6), in the Manage Scripts and Edit Script dialogs (see Chapter 8), and in the various tabs and panels of the Manage Database dialog. The Manage Database dialog is thus one of the three main developer centers within FileMaker and is where the plans and specifications for your database reside, allowing you to build and edit the tables and relationship structures that support your data.
Creating a database is a design process that involves a series of decisions, each of which impacts the subsequent operation of the solution — affecting its efficiency as well as the development time and complexity of the project. A few good decisions early in the development cycle may save you a great deal of stress and frustration later on.
FileMaker Pro is built around principles that take care of much of the tedium of the database design process. FileMaker anticipates your needs in a number of ways — from automatic creation of an ...
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