FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual

Copying and Pasting Database Structure

Since a large percentage of a database designer’s work is fairly repetitive, File-Maker Pro Advanced provides some tools that let you take shortcuts through the tedious process of creating tables, fields, and scripts. By copying work you’ve already done, you can spend less time defining fields or recreating complex scripts and more time doing the creative work of designing a database. You can import tables and fields without copying data between tables in the same file and between different files.

FileMaker also provides Copy and Paste buttons in several major dialog boxes so you can reuse fields in the Manage Database window, scripts and script steps in Script Maker, and even entire tables or groups of table occurrences. (You need full access privileges in both the source file and the target file to import or copy and paste elements from file to file.)

Importing Tables and Fields

If you have a handful of tables in one file that would also be useful in another, you can import the table and field information. Importing tables doesn’t copy the data inside them. Rather, it copies the tables’ design and structure, with all their fields, including their names, types, comments, calculations, and so on. Start by choosing File → Manage Database and clicking the Table tab. Click Import, and then locate the file that contains the table you want to copy.

Next, tell FileMaker which specific tables to import in the dialog box shown in Figure 19-1. When FileMaker ...