You know in the FM6 Pro templates where they have the <<Item>> display
the value in the Item field?

How would you display a field from a related DB?

I imagine it would require a portal with a button in it or something,
but I can't make it work.

TX!

in article 68bfaa53.0407281339.184456fb@posting.google.com, Budy at
budywhatsisname@hotmail.com wrote on 7/28/04 2:39 PM:

> You know in the FM6 Pro templates where they have the <<Item>> display
> the value in the Item field?
> 
> How would you display a field from a related DB?
> 
> I imagine it would require a portal with a button in it or something,
> but I can't make it work.
> 
> TX!
The field <<Item>> is a merge field. You access them by going into Layout
Mode - Menu Bar - Insert - Merge Field  (Cmd M on a Mac).

In order to utilize a field from a second database like this, you would have
to have a relationship established. It would be no different than one you
would use for a portal.

I have never done this, and I'm curious as to why you would want to?

HTH

Lee

Lee Smith wrote:

> The field <<Item>> is a merge field. You access them by going into Layout
> Mode - Menu Bar - Insert - Merge Field  (Cmd M on a Mac).
> 

Yes - it looks like this <<RelationshipName::FieldName>>

> I have never done this, and I'm curious as to why you would want to?

When placing data into a sentence while keeping uniform formatting. For 
example, "You have 13 days remaining to pay your bill."

Great, thanks, it works!

Now then, why did I do it you ask?

1)I am doing an asset inventory of all of our computers, periferals,
software, IPs, etc and I thought I'd split things up into small
databases to keep them manageable.

If I want to find an IP (on the IP.fm5), I figured it might be nice to
know what computer it belongs to, who owns it, room number, etc...
most of which is located on a different DB (Computers.fm5), so I just
portal this info into IP.fm5.

I have built my DBs on a FM6 template which has different layouts in
the form of 'tabs' and display merge fields across the top of the
body. So in IP.fm5, I have the body which only holds IP and Domain
fields, a tab for 'User' and another tab for 'History'. On the body I
wanted merge fields to display the IP, the user and the room number...
the later 2 are on Computer.fm5.

Soooo... now when I browse IP.fm5, IP is presented in big bold orange
letters as are the user and room number which are ported in from
another DB.

2) I am a complete Fm n00b and don't know if a better way. I suppose I
could have just put portals where the merge fields are, but my way
seems more orderly (i.e. all the editable user fields are under the
'User'tab).

If you think I'm making a grave error, please let me know.

Thanks again!

Lee Smith <canepa6645@charter.net> wrote in message news:<BD2D7328.9689%canepa6645@charter.net>...
> in article 68bfaa53.0407281339.184456fb@posting.google.com, Budy at
> budywhatsisname@hotmail.com wrote on 7/28/04 2:39 PM:
> 
> > You know in the FM6 Pro templates where they have the <<Item>> display
> > the value in the Item field?
> > 
> > How would you display a field from a related DB?
> > 
> > I imagine it would require a portal with a button in it or something,
> > but I can't make it work.
> > 
> > TX!
> The field <<Item>> is a merge field. You access them by going into Layout
> Mode - Menu Bar - Insert - Merge Field  (Cmd M on a Mac).
> 
> In order to utilize a field from a second database like this, you would have
> to have a relationship established. It would be no different than one you
> would use for a portal.
> 
> I have never done this, and I'm curious as to why you would want to?
> 
> HTH
> 
> Lee