FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual

Paragraph Formatting

Sometimes you put lots of information in a field. For example, suppose you decide to keep track of all your correspondence with your customers. You can make a database to store letters and emails so you can search them or print them out, as needed. In a database like this, you usually end up typing (or pasting) long blocks of text into a field, where you need to control more than just the font, size, style, and color.

Align Text

Text alignment is perhaps the most important aspect of your document’s appearance. You can have text rigidly justified on both right and left, or with a loose right margin for a more casual look. If you use FileMaker to send party invitations to your contacts, you can use centered alignment for an attractive, social look. People may not think about text alignment much, but it really sets the whole tone of a document. FileMaker puts these settings right on the Format menu.

The Format → Align Text menu offers four useful choices:

• Choose Left to make every line of text start at the left edge of the field. As the text wraps from line to line, the right edge appears jagged.

• Choose Center to make every line of text center itself in the field. In this case, both edges are jagged.

• Choose Right if you want every line to end exactly at the right edge of the field. As you can probably guess, this option means the left edge is jagged.

• The Full text alignment (sometimes called Justified in other programs) tells FileMaker to take special care to make every ...