FileMaker Pro
How do I . . .

How do I guide users through FileMaker solutions?

Apple Guide works very well for guiding users through FileMaker solutions. You can coach mark the FileMaker windows, and you can use the standard context checks to detect a lot of information about the user's current state (for example, which mode they're in). FileMaker is also very scriptable, so you can automate procedures using AppleScript or the FileMaker scripts.

The only real limitation involves how users open your guide file. To have your guide file automatically appear in the Guide/Help menu, it must be located in the same folder as the FileMaker application.

A better approach is to bypass the Guide/Help menu altogether and place a button that opens your guide file right on the FileMaker layouts. You can write an AppleScript application that opens your guide file, then use a button on the FileMaker layouts to launch the AppleScript.

I've used FileMaker's built-in Send Apple Event script command to launch an external AppleScript. The AppleScript to open your guide file looks like:
AGStart -- startup the Apple Guide application

tell application "Apple Guide"
Open Database "MyGuideFile"
end tell

Check out the Open and OpenWithSequence commands in Apple Guide's AppleScript dictionary for options that let you open the guide file with specific views or sequences that provide context-sensitive help for your different FileMaker layouts.



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