Dealing with Hyphenated Names in Filemaker Pro

I learned something new about text formatting in Filemaker Pro today. One of my database users needed to enter a hyphenated name in our personnel database and I had the field formatted for Title Case to be sure all last names were capitalized. However, title case does not take into account a hyphenated last name and forces the second name to be lowercase.

A quick fix is to change the field back to plain text formatting but a better solution is to highlight the first letter of the second name in BROWSE mode, right click and select "UPPERCASE". Browse mode formatting affects only this entry. The format is stored with the data rather than with the layout as it is when you format a field in Layout Mode. I've used Filemaker for years and didn't know this. Here's the formal support note (although it is written for Filemaker Pro 9 it works with version 8 as well:

Formatting text

You can specify how text (both in and outside of fields) appears on your layout. You control:

the character attributes of the text, including font, font size, style, and color

the paragraph alignment, margins, and line spacing

tab settings

vertical writing (if your operating system supports Japanese text entry)

You can also set conditional formatting options on layout objects, which allows the format of data and fields to change automatically based on conditions you set. (For example, you can automatically display balances that are over 30 days past due in bold, red text.) For information, see Defining conditional formatting for layout objects.

You can format field data in both Layout mode and Browse mode. For example, you can select an Address field in Layout mode and format it to display in a particular font, and you can select and format text within the field in Browse mode (for example, to italicize or underline a word for emphasis). It's possible to create conflicting formats by creating one format for a field object in Layout mode, and a contrasting format for field data in Browse mode. Here is how FileMaker Pro resolves text formatting conflicts:

When you format a field in Layout mode, the formatting affects only the appearance of that particular occurrence of the field object.

When you format field data in Browse mode, this formatting is stored with the data, and you see it in any layout that displays that field. Field data that is formatted in Browse mode takes precedence over data formatting in Layout mode. For example, if you format field text as Bold in Browse mode, then switch to Layout mode and format the same field as Plain Text, the text will continue to display as bold.

Tip To maintain flexibility in formatting the same data on different layouts, use Layout mode to apply the primary font and paragraph settings to field objects on layouts. Use Browse mode to apply bold or italic emphasis to particular words in fields. Do not format the entire contents of a field in Browse mode; instead, reformat its field object in Layout mode.

Notes

In Layout mode, if you specify text formatting with no text or fields selected, you set default text formats for fields and text that you add later. Similarly, if you've just created a field or typed text and it's still selected, and you specify text formatting, you set default text formats. If you change these default text formats later, FileMaker Pro does not retroactively change previously applied formats.

In Layout mode, you can format text that's part of a grouped object without ungrouping it first.

You can use the Text Formatting toolbar (choose View menu > Toolbars > Text Formatting), the text ruler (choose View menu > Text Ruler), or the shortcut menu for quick access to many text attributes. For more information, see Using toolbars, Specifying paragraph attributes and tab settings, and Using shortcut menus.

To eliminate formatting applied in Browse mode, reformat the text in Browse mode or export and re-import the data.

When you paste text into fields:

unformatted text automatically acquires the default formatting of the existing field text.

text that has the same format as existing field text keeps its formatting.

text that has a different format to existing text keeps its formatting. To change pasted text format to the existing text format, choose Edit > Undo Formatting immediately after pasting the text.

In Browse mode, you can format particular characters in number, date, time, and timestamp fields. For example, you could format only the year of a date to be bold, such as 5/5/1965. However, you can only see and print the special formatting when the field object is formatted with the Leave data formatted as entered option in Layout mode. If you specify any other field formatting options, the special formatting is only visible in Browse mode when the field is active. (Text fields do not have this limitation.) For more information on formatting fields, see Formatting and setting up field objects in Layout mode.