FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual

The Very Basics

You’ll find very little jargon or nerd terminology in this book. You will, however, encounter a few terms and concepts that you’ll see frequently in your computer life. They include:

• Clicking. This book offers three kinds of instructions that require you to use the mouse or trackpad attached to your computer. To click means to point the arrow cursor at something onscreen and then—without moving the cursor at all—press and release the clicker button on the mouse (or laptop trackpad). Right-clicking works the same as clicking, but you use the right mouse button instead. (If you use a Mac and don’t have a right mouse button, press the Control key as you click.) To double-click, of course, means to click twice in rapid succession, again without moving the cursor at all. And to drag means to move the cursor while keeping the button continuously pressed.

  When you’re told to Ctrl-click something, you click while pressing the Ctrl key (the Control key on the Mac) on the bottom row of your keyboard. Such related procedures as Shift-clicking and Alt-clicking work the same way—just click while pressing the corresponding key.

  Note

  On the Mac, the key that does most of the Alt key functions is called the Option key. Macs also have an extra key called the Command key, which has a cloverleaf (⌘) on it. When the Mac keystroke is different from the one in Windows, this book gives it in parentheses.

• Menus are the lists of commands that you pull down from the words at the top of the FileMaker window. (On the Mac, they’re always in the bar across the top of the screen.) There are two equally valid ways to choose from these pull-down menus with your mouse: Click once to open the menu, and then click again to choose a command; or click and hold the button as you drag down the menu, and release when you get to the desired command. Use whichever method you find easier.

• Keyboard shortcuts. Every time you take your hand off the keyboard to move the mouse, you lose time and potentially disrupt your creative flow. That’s why many experienced computer jockeys use keystroke combinations instead of menu commands wherever possible. Ctrl-P (⌘-P) opens the Print dialog box, for example.

• When you see a shortcut like Ctrl-Q (⌘-Q), which closes the current program, it’s telling you to hold down the Ctrl (⌘) key, and, while it’s down, type the letter Q, and then release both keys.

If you’ve mastered this much information, you have all the technical background you need to enjoy FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual.