2empowerFM Layout Painter

Use scripts or field values to draw lines, polygons, tabs, buttons, text, or color directly on your FileMaker layout. Create graphs or images with triangles, pie slices, and rectangles.

Place an image of tabs in FileMaker, then use Layout Painter to recolor and draw on the image to highlight the active tab (shown to the right). The same tab image can be used in many databases and you can even create multiple images for multi-row tabs. As a bonus, you'll also get certain functions from 2empowerFM Keyboard and Mouse that let you calculate which tab was clicked and handle clicking in Preview mode.

Tabs aren't limited to static images. Layout Painter can draw tab shapes on the left, right, top, and bottom of areas. You can change each tab's color, location, and text. Can't fit as many tabs on the screen as you need? An example is included which draws a clickable arrow to show when more tabs can be scrolled into view (see picture).

In a database of flowers, you can recolor the background to match the color of each flower. In the image to the right, Layout Painter is replacing a Cancel/Reschedule button with the date of cancellation and coloring the background red so the user notices the record was canceled.

If a field is empty, draw a button over it (shown earlier), or draw light-grey instructions inside of it (shown right).

Save money and reduce waste by using partial label sheets - let users click which labels to print on in Preview mode, then draw over the preview to indicate which labels will be printed (shown right). An example is included.