HOW TO USE FILEMAKER PRO FORMS

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LESSON 1 - Background - All forms have some common features.

NOTE - BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING - YOU MUST FIRST HAVE THE SOFTWARE ON YOUR COMPUTER. YOU CAN NOT DO ANYTHING WITHOUT FILEMAKER PRO SOFTWARE.

Color Lettering

These are non-printing fields or text which are important and should be kept permanently in the electronic version - especially the creation dates and printing information. ANYTHING APPEARING IN COLORED PRINT ON YOUR SCREEN WILL NOT PRINT OUT.

Green letting performs a function. This is used to identify buttons.

Red lettering is informational. Stop, look, and read this important information.

Fonts - You must have the following fonts loaded on your computer and your printer to utilize these forms:

Arial and Times Roman for the IBM

Helvetica and Times for the Macintosh

Headers and Footers

Footer - This is a non-printing field. The footer contains special printing instructions such as the color of paper, print back-to-back, print on a card, etc.

Suggestion: Use this field as a permanent record of when and where you submitted the original printout. (i.e., Submitted to A.O. 6/21/95.)

Header - This is a non-printing field. The header contains the following:

Submitted to APPROVING OFFICIAL AND DATE - This statement indicates that this electronic version meets the following NIH Electronic Forms Users' Group requirements:

Format meets standard layout requirements.

Field names are standardized.

Proofed by group members for spelling errors.

Tested by group members for bugs.

Tested for electronic transfer between the Apple and IBM platforms.

Submitted to the NIH Forms Officer or other office for official approval on the date indicated in the statement. (Check with your Administrative Office to be certain that use of this form is acceptable.)

Approved by NAME OF APPROVING OFFICIAL AND DATE. - This statement indicates this electronic version meets all of the above requirements and has received official approval from the sponsoring office which designed or distributed this form on the date indicated in the statement.

Release date - The release date refers to the date the electronic version was released for use. This date can be used to determine if you have the latest electronic version of the form. This date is not related to the official revision date of the form which appears on your printout.

Instructions

Non-printing instructions may be located anywhere in the document, particularly where fields will automatically compute. Pay particular attention to the WARNING in the upper right hand corner.

Other Information

• Help - If you are having trouble with your forms, you may find your answer here. As we become aware of problems and their solutions, we will post the information here.
• Web Sites - Additional Web sites for forms.

  Paper Color

  Paper colors are indicated on the screen (for color monitors) as well as in the Footer field (for black and white monitors).

  Patient Forms

  Forms containing confidential patient information will NOT be placed on this Web Site. These forms are provided by the Clinical Center, Medical Records Office and should only be placed in the patient's official Medical Record file. If you have created a form to store confidential patient information, you may be violating the Privacy Act. Please seek guidance from the Clinical Center, Medical Records Office, 496-0827.

Technical Support for Software (for problem solving)

DCRT - 4DCRT

LESSON 2 - How to Find, Download, and Fill In the Forms

Locate

• Open Netscape or Internet Explorer
• Type http://mantis.dcrt.nih.gov/nihforms/ in Location, then hit ENTER
• Select the form of software you are using (NOTE - You must have one of the software packages indicated to use these forms. Note the version listed on the Home Page. You must have either that version or better.)
• There are two ways to locate the forms.

  1. By subject category.

  2. By comprehensive list of all forms regardless of their subject.

Select either the subject category or the comprehensive list of forms.

Search for a form by number or title

• Go to Forms List by Number
• Select EDIT and FIND
• Enter either the form number or a key word in the title of the form.

Download

• Select the form link which appears in underlined blue print.
• A dialog window will appear requesting the location to which you wish to save the document. Select the location and select either SAVE FILE (for IBM) or SAVE (for MacIntosh).
• If you are finished, close Netscape or Internet Explorer or select another form.

Fill In Fields

• Open the file to which you saved the copy of the form.
• Open the form. (If you have a later version of the software than the one we listed on our home page, you will need to convert the form to your upgraded version. We will not upgrade our software unless substantial improvements to the software have been made. This is because many offices do not have the budget to purchase new upgrades.)
• Place your cursor anywhere on the edge of the form and click your mouse button.
• Hit TAB. The cursor will automatically go to the first field.
• Hit TAB to move to the next field.
• Hit SHIFT TAB to move back to previous fields or simply place your cursor in the desired field and click the mouse button to select that field.

To change the print inside a field

• Highlight the characters inside the field you wish to change and select FORMAT.
• Highlight the command you wish to change (Underline, Bold, Superscript, Size, etc.). This will not change the entire field but only the characters you select.

To select consecutive page layouts of a document

• In the upper left hand corner is a button which will read Page1of?. This indicates how many pages there are to the form. Place your cursor on this button and hold it down. Each page will appear in a window to the right. Highlight the page desired and that page layout will appear.

LESSON 3 - Electronic Mail

• Make sure the addressee is using FileMaker Pro software and has a version at least as good or better than the one you are using. Find out what platform the addressee is using - IBM (Windows) or Mac. If the addressee is not using the same platform you are sending from, change the settings for your e-mail as follows:

  Eudora

  • Select Special and Settings.
  • Select Attachments in the window to the left and the appropriate language code
    • IBM or Windows - Ueuencode
    • Macintosh - BinHex
  • Select Message and Attach Document.
  • Locate the document in the window, highlight it, and select Open.

LESSON 4 - Creating and using a database with multiple copies of forms

Create Additional Records

• Select Mode and New Record. (NOTE - If much of the data in the form is the same for the new record, you may wish to select DUPLICATE RECORD.)
• You now have a new copy of the form. Notice the flip file at the left side of your screen which now reads Records: 2.
• Select the top or bottom card of the flip file to move between your records.

Import Records

• Select File.
• Highlight Import/Export and Import Records.
• Select the Form in the Window from which you wish to import records and Open.
• Select Matching Names in the upper right corner of the window.
• Select Import.
• Highlight Select and Find All (it will restack and display all records).

  Import 1 or More Records From a Database of Several Records

• Open the document you are importing from.
• Highlight Open and Find.
• Type in the data in the appropriate field to allow the software to find the record(s) you wish to import and select the Find button on the left side. (NOTE - To omit all but certain records.)
  • Type in the data in the appropriate field for records you wish the software to omit and select the Omit box and select the Find button.
• Close the document and open the document you wish to import into.
• Highlight Find.
• Select File and Import/Export and Import Records. A window will appear listing documents on your computer. You must find the document you wish to import records from.
• Select the Form in the Window from which you wish to import records and Open.
• Select Matching Names in the upper right corner of the window.
• Select Import.
• Highlight Select and Find All (it will restack and display all records).

Sort Records

• Highlight Mode and Sort.
• Select the Field Names from the Field List window which you wish to sort . Double click and the field will move to the Sort Order window then select Sort. (NOTE - You will need to place the fields in the order in which you wish to the sort to be done. To do this, place your cursor over the double arrow for the Sort Order window, hold down your cursor, and drag the field to the proper order. You can also decide on an ascending or descending order.)

LESSON 5 - Personalizing Fields

Automatic Data Entry Field - This field was formatted to provide the capability to personalize the data which always appears in the field when you create a new record. To create your personalized list Highlight the following:

• Highlight File and Define and Fields.
• Select the name of the field and Options.
• Select Auto Enter from the button at the top of the window, select Data and type the data you wish to be automatically printed in the field each time a new record is created.
• Select OK and Done.
• When you create a new record, this data will always be automatically entered. (NOTE - You can change the data simply by repeating these steps.)

Automatic Data Selection Field (Pop-up Field) - This field was formatted to provide the capability to personalize a choice of data. To create your personalized list Highlight the following:

• Highlight File and Define and Fields.
• Highlight the field you wish to create a pop-up list for.
• Selection Options.
• Select Validation in the Button at the top of the window.
• Select Member of Value List.
• Select Define Value Lists in the button to the right.
• Type the name of your Value List Name.
• Select Create.
• Type your list.
• Select Done.
• Select Save.
• Select the name of the field and Options.
• Select Mode and Layout.
• Highlight the field you wish to make a pop-up field.
• Select Format and Field Format.
• Select Pop-up list and the correct value list in the button to the right.
• Select Mode and Browse to get back to filling out your form.
• When you select the field a list will appear. Double click on the data you wish to enter in the field.
• To edit your personalized list follow the steps below.
  • Highlight File and Define and Value Lists.
  • Select the Name of the list you wish to edit.
  • Make your corrections and select Save.
  • Select Done.

LESSON 6 - Printing on 5 x 8 Cards

The alignment of different printers may differ so forms printed on 5 x 8 cards may not align correctly on your printer. Before you enter your data make sure the form will print on correctly on your printer. Follow these instructions.

First you must get into the layout or designer program.

• Highlight Mode and Layout.

Now you can move the form around on the page.

• First align the form horizontally. Place your cursor on the header button and slide it up or down to get the top of the form to align on the card.
• Now align the form vertically.
• Highlight Edit and Select All.
• Place your cursor on the form and drag it to the correct position.
• Highlight Mode and Browse.

Now print. You may have to try this several times until you get the correct alignment. If you move only some text and don't think you can put it back into the correct position, download a new copy and try again.

LESSON 7 - Creating a Bundle of Forms.

• Open the form you wish to copy into your bundle.
• Select File and Print.
• Select Field Definitions.
• Open the form which you wish to be your bundle. You will wish to create a new layout where you will copy the second form.
  • Select Mode and Layout.
  • Select Mode and New Layout.
  • Give your new layout a name and select OK.
• You will notice that you have all of the fields that now exist in your bundle. You will wish to delete these from the layout after you have created your new fields. They will still exist in the field definitions.
  • Using the Field Definitions printout from your second form, create all of the fields on the printout.
  • Select Edit and Select All.
  • Select Edit and Cut. All the fields will disappear on your screen.
• Now you will wish to get rid of the Header and Footer. Government forms literally take up every part of the paper so we choose not to use these parts for forms. We use header and footer fields instead.
  • Select Mode and Part Setup.
  • Select the Header and Delete and the Footer and Delete and Done.
• Now you will wish to copy the layout and fields from the second form into your bundle.
• While keeping the bundle open to the layout where you wish to add the second layout, open the form you wish to copy into your bundle.
• Select Mode and Layout.
• Select Edit and Select All.
• Select Edit and Copy.
• Now go back to your bundle and select Edit and Paste. You may get a warning window that the layout extends off the bottom of the layout and asking if you wish to extend the layout to accommodate it. Select Yes. The second form will appear in your layout. Make sure it is positioned correctly by dragging it around on the layout.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the layout. If the body button is below the layout, move it up to touch the bottom of the layout.
  • If, while you are moving the form around on the layout, you need to move the body button down. Move it and then select Select All and move the layout to the correct position, then repeat the above step.
• You will need to check the new layout to make sure all of your fields were copied. If not, check your field definitions against your printout from the form you are adding to make sure you did not spell the name of a field wrong. Also check to see if the field types match. Numbers and dates also must be numbers and dates in your bundle.
• You will now need to set your field fill-in order.
  • Select Mode and Tab Order.
  • Select Create New Tab Order.
  • Now select each tab in your form. A number will be assigned in the order in which you select the fields.
  • When done select OK.

LESSON 8 - Creating a Report/Spread Sheet Screen (Coming)

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