User manual

66 FileMaker Pro User’s Guide
4. In the fields list, double-click a field that you want to define.
5. In the Options for Field dialog box, click the Auto-Enter tab and select options. (The available options
depend on the field type.)
6. Click OK to close the Options for Field dialog box, or click another tab to set additional field options.
Defining field validation
You can select field validation options to ensure that data is entered into the field correctly. FileMaker Pro displays a
message if you enter data incorrectly.
Important To avoid confusion when using dates in FileMaker Pro, set date field validation options to make
sure dates are always entered with four-digit years.
To Do this
Enter a date, time, timestamp, user name, or account
name when the record is created or modified
Select Creation or Modification, then choose an option from the list.
Assign a sequential number to the field in each
record
Select Serial number. Select On creation to assign the number when a
record is created. Select On commit to assign the number when the
record is committed. For next value, type a starting value (for example,
1001), then type the number to increment by.
Enter the value from the previously accessed record Select Value from last visited record.
Enter data you specify Select Data, then type up to 255 characters.
Enter the result of a calculation in the field Select Calculated value, define the formula in the Specify Calculation
dialog box, then click OK. For more information about the Specify
Calculation dialog box, see
“Creating calculation fields” on page 61.
Select Do not replace existing value of field (if any) to prevent
overwriting data already present.
Enter a value that’s copied from a field in the same
or a different table or file
Select Looked-up value, define the lookup, then click OK. See “Creating
lookups” on page 106.
Prevent users from changing an automatically
entered value
Select Prohibit modification of value during data entry.
Turn off automatically entered data Clear all selected checkboxes.
Select options for
entering default
data in the field
Click Auto-Enter