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About window styles

Window styles allow you to specify how a new window behaves in your solution. Each layout and task should be designed with a particular window style in mind.

Document window

Document windows allow users to start a new process or view additional information.

Use document windows for typical user-input tasks or tasks that can take place in any order. For example, open a document window to review an invoice while looking at a customer’s purchase history.

Floating document window

Floating document windows remain on top of other windows even when the floating window becomes inactive.

Use floating document windows to display information or tasks that should be visible at all times. For example, open a floating document window to display an interactive table of contents.

Dialog window

Dialog windows appear in the foreground. Users must close all open dialog windows before they can activate open document or floating document windows.

Use dialog windows to collect required information or alert users to situations while blocking access to other windows. For example, open a dialog window to display an alert when a user attempts to modify sensitive data.

When you use dialog windows, keep the following points in mind:

•	Dialog windows can’t be minimized.

•	Users must close all open dialog windows before they can open a new file or run scripts from the Scripts menu.

•	When a dialog window is open, the New Window script step creates only dialog windows.

•	Users can work with non-document windows, such as the FileMaker Pro Advanced Data Viewer and Script Debugger, if these windows are open when a dialog window opens. However, users cannot work with the Manage Layout dialog box, the Script Workspace window, or the Launch Center window.

•	Any operations that attempt to open a non-dialog window will fail when a dialog window is open (for example, using a script trigger to run a script from another file). OnTimer scripts do not execute when a dialog window is open unless the script launches from the dialog window itself.

•	Although all script steps appear active in the Script Workspace window, some restrictions apply to the following script steps when they’re used with dialog windows.

 

Script step	Supported	Restriction with dialog windows
Adjust Window	Yes	Operates only on the current window
Arrange All Windows	No
Convert File	No
Go To Related Record	Yes	Can open only a new dialog window
Move/Resize Window	Yes	Operates only on the current window
New File	No
New Window	Yes	Can open only a new dialog window
Open File	No
Open Remote	No
Perform Script	Yes	Will fail if executed from another open file
Quit Application	No
Select Window	Yes	Can select only the current dialog window

•	OS X: A FileMaker Pro dialog window does not have all the same qualities or restrictions of a standard OS X dialog window. For example, Apple events can communicate with a file while a FileMaker Pro dialog window is open.