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Defining custom menus (FileMaker Pro Advanced)

With FileMaker Pro Advanced, you can create custom menus for your database solutions. You can add, edit, duplicate, or delete menus and menu items in many ways, such as:

•	changing a menu or menu item name.

•	performing a script or script step from a menu item. You can also run scripts from an associated toolbar icon and shortcut menu.

•	assigning custom keyboard shortcuts and access keys.

•	specifying a platform for your menus and menu items.

•	specifying a mode for your menus.

•	specifying menu sets for files and layouts.

You can create a menu by starting with a blank menu or by editing a copy of a standard FileMaker menu. You can duplicate a menu so you can make changes without modifying the original, or you can delete menus that your users will not need.

To create, edit, duplicate, or delete a menu:

1.	Choose File menu > Manage > Custom Menus > Custom Menus tab.

2.	If FileMaker Pro Advanced includes menus that do not exist in this file, click Update to add missing menus to the file.

3.	Do one of the following in the Manage Custom Menus dialog box, then click OK:

 

To	Do this
Create a menu	Click Create. In the Create Custom Menu dialog box, do one of the following, then click OK:  • Click Start with an empty menu.  • Click Start with a standard FileMaker menu, then select a menu from the list. Tip  You can press Shift and click Create to create an empty menu, then click Edit to modify it.
Edit an existing menu	Select the menu from the list, then click Edit. Note  Default FileMaker Pro menus cannot be edited, so they do not appear in the list.
Duplicate a menu	Select the menu from the list, then click Duplicate.
Delete a menu	Select the menu from the list, then click Delete. Important  When you delete a menu, you also delete its menu items.
Sort the menu list	For View by, choose menu name, display title, custom order (which you create by dragging items in the list), or creation order. Tip  You can also click the Menu Name or Display Title column headings to sort the list.
Display the menu set in which the menu is used or display comments describing the menu	Click the Used in Menu Sets/Comments column heading.

4.	If you selected Create or Edit, you see the Edit Custom Menu dialog box. Specify options for the custom menu.

Note  The options you specify apply to the entire menu.

 

To	Do this
Specify the menu name	For Custom Menu Name, enter a descriptive name for the menu (up to 100 characters).
Include a comment describing the menu	Enter a comment about the menu (up to 30,000 characters). The comment appears in the Manage Custom Menus dialog box, not in your solution file.
Specify the title that you want to display in the menu bar of your solution file	For Menu Title, select Override Title, then enter the name (up to 30,000 characters). Windows: To specify an access key, type an ampersand (&) before the character you want to use as the access key. For example, type &File to display the File menu with the letter “F” as the access key. To base the menu title on the result of a calculation, click Specify, then build a formula in the Specify Calculation dialog box. Note  You cannot change the title of the Help or FileMaker Pro menus.
Install menus based on conditions you specify	For Install when, specify a calculation that results in a Boolean value.  • If the calculation evaluates true or non-zero, the menu is installed. For example, for the menu to appear when the file is opened in Windows, enter: If( Abs(Get( SystemPlatform )) = 2; 1; 0 )  • If the calculation evaluates false or zero, the menu is not installed. For example, for the menu to appear when the file is opened in OS X, enter: If( Abs(Get( SystemPlatform )) = 1; 1; 0 ) To ensure a menu is always installed, for Install when, enter 1.
Specify in which modes to display the menu	For Include in mode, select in which modes you want the menu to appear (Browse, Find, Preview). When users switch modes, the menu set changes to display only the menus specified for that mode.

5.	After you create or edit the custom menu, you can create custom menu items. See Creating and editing custom menu items (FileMaker Pro Advanced).

6.	Click OK to close the Edit Custom Menu dialog box.

7.	In the Manage Custom menus dialog box, for Default menu set for this file, choose a menu set. If you do not choose a default menu set, the standard FileMaker menus are used.

8.	Click OK to close the Manage Custom Menus dialog box.

Notes

•	You must have full access privileges to customize menus.

•

When you create a file, no internal structures for custom menus or custom menu sets exist in the file. The first time you open the Manage Custom Menus dialog box, FileMaker Pro creates these structures. If you click Cancel, you are prompted to discard changes made in the file. If you don’t want to store custom menu structures in the file, click Discard.

•	To create custom menus or custom menu sets in a FileMaker Pro file created via FileMaker Server, you must open the file using FileMaker Pro Advanced.

•	You can check your runtime solutions to see if custom menus are installed:

•	Windows: Choose Help menu > About FileMaker Pro, then click Info.

•	OS X: Choose FileMaker Pro menu > About FileMaker Pro, then click Info.

When custom menus are installed, the dialog box displays “Custom Menus Active”.

•	You may need to modify menu sets and specify when FileMaker installs them.

•	Custom menus display in FileMaker Pro and runtime solutions but can only be edited using FileMaker Pro Advanced.

•	Web published databases do not recognize customized menu commands. For example, if you customize the New Record command to quit the application, this will have no effect in FileMaker WebDirect; web users will see the default New Record command.

•	FileMaker features only work if they are included in a menu. For example, if you remove the View menu from the menu set and do not have any scripted buttons on the layout to switch views, the mode buttons in the status toolbar are disabled, making it impossible for your users to switch modes.

•	To add custom menu items for new features to menu sets created in previous versions of FileMaker, create a new custom menu and add the new menu item from the list of standard FileMaker menus in the Create Custom Menu dialog box.

•	If the Edit menu is not part of an installed menu set, the Cut, Copy, and Paste shortcuts do not work.

•	Shortcut menus display when a user right-clicks (Windows) or Control-clicks (OS X) an object or an area. If you customize a menu item that has a shortcut menu item, you also customize the behavior performed by the shortcut menu item.

•	It is important to provide user documentation with your solution because the custom menus won’t match the product documentation.

•	Standard FileMaker menus and menu items are localized based on the operating system’s language. However, if you customize the title of a menu or menu item, it will not be localized when the system’s language is changed.

•	Standard FileMaker menu items are dimmed if users don’t have privileges to perform the menu command. Menus are not dimmed if you attach a script to the menu item and disable Based on existing command.

•	The Open Help script step displays FileMaker Pro Help, not customized help.

•

A previous version of FileMaker Pro Advanced (FileMaker Developer) allowed you to customize the Help, About, and Scripts menus for runtime solutions. If you use FileMaker Pro Advanced to open a runtime file created in FileMaker Developer, any customized About, Help, and Script menus will appear as part of the Standard FileMaker Menus menu set. You cannot change them.

•	In OS X, menu cropping may occur depending on the number of custom menus installed and the resolution of the display screen. To display all menus, reduce the number of custom menus or increase the screen resolution.

•

Custom shortcuts can only use characters found on English/U.S. keyboards. You can also use the yen character on Japanese keyboards. If you use the yen character as a shortcut, the character appears as a backslash (\) in the Specify Shortcut and Edit Custom Menus dialog boxes in OS X. When you install the menu on a Japanese system, the character appears properly as the yen character.

•	In OS X, you cannot use AppleScript to access the FileMaker Pro menu (or its menu items) if the menu is not included in the installed menu set.

•	In Browse mode, the Constrain Found Set and Extend Found Set menu items appear in shortcut menus. You cannot customize their actions.

•	In Find mode, titles of custom menus and menu items that are based on field values that are not global will be blank.

•	If you customize an action for any of the following commands, the corresponding icon performs the customized action. If you remove any of these commands from the menu bar, the corresponding icon performs the default action:

•	Zoom In and Zoom Out commands are executed via the zoom control buttons.

•	Status toolbar command is executed via the status toolbar control button.

•	Perform Find command is executed via the Perform Find button (or by pressing the Enter key in Find mode).

•	In Windows, the menu item name for Close and the shortcut, Ctrl+F4, cannot be modified in the Windows System Menu of the document window. The Close behavior will change if the action for the Close Menu item is altered in the Edit Custom Menu dialog box.

•	You cannot modify the names for Browse, Find, Layout, and Preview in the Mode pop-up menu. The actions for Browse, Find, Layout, and Preview can be modified and will be activated when the Mode pop-up menu is changed.

Related topics 

Documenting developer solutions (FileMaker Pro Advanced)