ASCII/ANSI

[JayBee]

Hello All

I have noticed that using the Alt characters on the keyboard shows you
the different ASCII symbols in Filemaker for example Alt + 1 is a
smiley face of some description. and the classic Alt+65 shows a
capital 'A' . For example when you insert a graphic object / text box
into a Filemaker layout in layout mode.

The faces and musical notes seem a bit random. Does anybody know if
there are symbols of specifically, A: a Camera and B: A star.

I had a quick look at ASCII lists that I found online but I could not
find any camera or star sepcifically.
I hope you can help.

Many Thanks
JayBee

[Howard Schlossberg]

Post by JayBee
Hello All
I have noticed that using the Alt characters on the keyboard shows you
the different ASCII symbols in Filemaker for example Alt + 1 is a
smiley face of some description. and the classic Alt+65 shows a
capital 'A' . For example when you insert a graphic object / text box
into a Filemaker layout in layout mode.
The faces and musical notes seem a bit random. Does anybody know if
there are symbols of specifically, A: a Camera and B: A star.
I had a quick look at ASCII lists that I found online but I could not
find any camera or star sepcifically.

There are definitely stars in the Wingding font, but it all depends on
what fonts you and your users have installed. If you use a particular
character from a particular font, then all users must have that same
font for the character to display correctly.

In Windows, go to Start > Programs > Accessories > Character Map to see
all available fonts and characters on your machine.

Howard Schlossberg
FM Professional Solutions

[Ursus]

Hi Jennifer,

As Howard stated, when you use fonts all users need to have the same font.
If you need symbols for GUI you can better use a graphic of some sort. I
have found http://icons.mysitemyway.com very useful. It has heaps of icons,
grouped in style and groups.
--
Keep well / Hou je goed

Ursus

Post by JayBee
Hello All
I have noticed that using the Alt characters on the keyboard shows you
the different ASCII symbols in Filemaker for example Alt + 1 is a
smiley face of some description. and the classic Alt+65 shows a
capital 'A' . For example when you insert a graphic object / text box
into a Filemaker layout in layout mode.
The faces and musical notes seem a bit random. Does anybody know if
there are symbols of specifically, A: a Camera and B: A star.
I had a quick look at ASCII lists that I found online but I could not
find any camera or star sepcifically.
I hope you can help.
Many Thanks
JayBee

[Your Name]

Post by JayBee
Hello All
I have noticed that using the Alt characters on the keyboard shows you
the different ASCII symbols in Filemaker for example Alt + 1 is a
smiley face of some description. and the classic Alt+65 shows a
capital 'A' . For example when you insert a graphic object / text box
into a Filemaker layout in layout mode.
The faces and musical notes seem a bit random. Does anybody know if
there are symbols of specifically, A: a Camera and B: A star.
I had a quick look at ASCII lists that I found online but I could not
find any camera or star sepcifically.
I hope you can help.
Many Thanks
JayBee

The images have little to do with ASCII / ANSI and the Alt key codes in
Windows are not ASCII / ANSI either. In the ASCII character set code 64, for
example, is always a capital letter A and code 1 is actually a control
character which "marks the beginning of a message header". Some fonts do
have image characters in the higher numbers, but they're non-standard and
may be interpreted / displayed differently in different applications, fonts
and operating systems.

What you have to do is use a font that has the standard characters redefined
as images - these are often called "dingbat" fonts (Microsoft calls them
Wingdings). The easiest way to find these in Windows is to use the "Symbol"
option in the "Insert" menu in Word. You'll get a grid of characters and can
change what font is being used with one of the pop-up menus. For example, a
standrad five-point Star image can be found using Wingdings replacing the
"capital I with a grave accent" and a Camera can be found in Webdings
replacing the "capital O with the .. accent" - a Google search for "Alt Key
Codes" should give you the codes to type for those characters, but you'll
then have to change the font they use.

Even better, depending on what you're using them for, is to use a normal
JPEG image instead.

Helpful Harry :o)

[JayBee]

Hi

Ok thanks Guys that's all been very helpful.

For my current project I think I am erring towards the side of using
a .gif icon now.

I can't figure out how to insert the icon/picture file into a
container field in Filemaker though. If it is possible?!

I am using Filemaker Pro version 7.

I have a container field in place. My plan was to do it the following
way:
A button that has a script attached, when it is pressed the script is
activated. Among other things the button will place the icon in the
required container field if the boolean condition is true and remove
the .gif icon from the field and leave it empty if the boolean value
is false. I know that the logic side of it is working because I have
tested it by adding and removing text from a text field depending on
the boolean result.

The script steps I have tried in order to place the icon in the
container field are as follows:

Set Field [Table Name:: Container Field]
Insert Picture [icon.gif]

I thought that by setting the field to the container field and then
the next script step is Insert Picture that the picture would auto. be
inserted in the container field, but it didn't work like that.

I also tried to use the script step Replace field contents but I
didn't see an option for path to an image file.

I hope you can help.
JayBee

[Ursus]

Jenny

Better use a calculation with container as result

example of three fields:

gMyIcon <container, global>
MyContents <anything>
cViewIcon <calculation, container, If ( IsEmpty(Mycontents) ; "" ; gMyIcon )

you should manually import your icon into the gMyIcon field. (only once) And
if you are planning to use a lot of icons you can better create a separate
GUI table with only globals and import all needed icons there.

and I would use png if available. But if you only have a gif, this will also
do.
--
Keep well / Hou je goed

Ursus

Post by JayBee
Hi
Ok thanks Guys that's all been very helpful.
For my current project I think I am erring towards the side of using
a .gif icon now.
I can't figure out how to insert the icon/picture file into a
container field in Filemaker though. If it is possible?!
I am using Filemaker Pro version 7.
I have a container field in place. My plan was to do it the following
A button that has a script attached, when it is pressed the script is
activated. Among other things the button will place the icon in the
required container field if the boolean condition is true and remove
the .gif icon from the field and leave it empty if the boolean value
is false. I know that the logic side of it is working because I have
tested it by adding and removing text from a text field depending on
the boolean result.
The script steps I have tried in order to place the icon in the
Set Field [Table Name:: Container Field]
Insert Picture [icon.gif]
I thought that by setting the field to the container field and then
the next script step is Insert Picture that the picture would auto. be
inserted in the container field, but it didn't work like that.
I also tried to use the script step Replace field contents but I
didn't see an option for path to an image file.
I hope you can help.
JayBee

[JayBee]

Hello All

I have acheived the functional result that I wanted now as described
above by Ursus.
I was testing it out before in a copy of my live database files and
the image '.gif ' file that I had imported seemed to be stored fine
even when the files were closed and re-opened and the calculation
result had changed etc.

I have now attempted to implement the same system to my live database
files and for some reason the storing of the 'gif' icon in the GUI
Table and layout seems to be intermittent. I noticed that once the
claculation result had changed only once the image file seemed to have
been lost aswell. Or maybe it is becuase I closed the files down and
re-opened them, and it is at that point that the image file was lost?!

Apologies but I am just going to throw this one out there because I am
sure it was working fine before, and I am under a bit of time pressure
now. I'll need to look at it again tomorrow morning, but at the
moment it is not fully functional :-( , so if anybody has any ideas of
what may be causing this storage problem then that would be great. I
am not sure what setting is missing. I think it must be down to
something simple, since it doesn't seem to be working as it once was?!
The obvious thing is that the container field in the GUI table uses
global storage. I did check that and it does. Perhaps it's down to
something in the calculation 'display' field being not quite right

Anyway, I hope you can help.
Regards
JayBee

[Your Name]

Post by JayBee
Hello All
I have acheived the functional result that I wanted now as described
above by Ursus.
I was testing it out before in a copy of my live database files and
the image '.gif ' file that I had imported seemed to be stored fine
even when the files were closed and re-opened and the calculation
result had changed etc.
I have now attempted to implement the same system to my live database
files and for some reason the storing of the 'gif' icon in the GUI
Table and layout seems to be intermittent. I noticed that once the
claculation result had changed only once the image file seemed to have
been lost aswell. Or maybe it is becuase I closed the files down and
re-opened them, and it is at that point that the image file was lost?!
Apologies but I am just going to throw this one out there because I am
sure it was working fine before, and I am under a bit of time pressure
now. I'll need to look at it again tomorrow morning, but at the
moment it is not fully functional :-( , so if anybody has any ideas of
what may be causing this storage problem then that would be great. I
am not sure what setting is missing. I think it must be down to
something simple, since it doesn't seem to be working as it once was?!
The obvious thing is that the container field in the GUI table uses
global storage. I did check that and it does. Perhaps it's down to
something in the calculation 'display' field being not quite right
Anyway, I hope you can help.

I'm not sure what you mean by "live database". If you mean one running under
FileMaker Server or hosted by another computer, then any changes you make to
Global Fields as a connected user are not saved when you Quit the database -
only the host computer can save such changes. Global Fields become
Local-Global Field when a user connects to a database - each connected user
can have different information stored in their own COPIES of the Global
Fields, and the changes are not saved when they quit.

To save any changes, you'll need to:
- shut the database down in the Server
- copy the database file to your own computer
- open the database locally in FileMaker Pro
- make the changes to the Global Fields
- quit the database
- copy the database back to the Server
- relaunch the database in the Server


Helpful Harry :o)