Unlike the Macintosh, which scrolls long menus, Windows 3.x wraps long menus in several columns. Claris decided to maintain a consistent interface between the Mac and Windows versions of FileMaker Pro by sticking with menu arrangement for the Scripts menu and the Font list on the Format menu. Pop-up menus with long value lists can also run into the problem. If you have a large number of fonts, long value lists, or a large number of scripts, it is possible that some of the entries will not show up on the screen. This is because once Windows fills up the screen with its menus, it provides no way to scroll to parts of the menu that are not visible.
One workaround for this operating system limitation is to increase the resolution of your Windows video driver (if your video card can support a higher resolution). Here are some other fixes for the three situations the long menu problem can appear: the Font selection of the Format menu, long pop-up menus, and the Scripts menu.
1. Font list on Format Menu
If you are using FileMaker Pro version 2.0, you can change fonts by using the Text Format selection on the Format menu. FileMaker Pro 2.1 added a feature that allows you to configure the Font list on the Format menu to show just the fonts you choose, and therefore not fill up the screen with multiple columns. The Configure/More Fonts option in the Format menu allows you to remove fonts from the Font list on the Format menu, without having to remove fonts from your system. A Configure/More Fonts selection appears at the top of the list of fonts when you choose Font from the Format menu, and this Configure selection lets you pick and choose which fonts you wish to appear in the font list. You can still use any available Windows font by using the Text Format selection on the Format menu to change the font on a selected field or text object on a layout.
If you have a lot of fonts installed, however, you may not even be able to access the Configure/More Fonts option with a mouse, and you do accidentally change fonts when you don't mean to.
The best way to access this is to not use the mouse, but to use command keys, instead:
ALT-T [formaT menu]
F [Font]
F [configure/more Fonts...]
Remove fonts from the menu until you have a manageable number. You can use the mouse for this. Note that you can still access fonts that you remove from the font menu by selecting the text object or field you want to format, then using Apply Font from the Configure/More Fonts... dialog box.
Another good trick with Windows is not to keep the mouse button held down when selecting from menus. To get to the Text Color option, for example, click once on the Format menu and then let go of the mouse button. If you then click on Text Color, for instance, thus "jumping over" everything in between, you can avoid the problem of the long font list drawing on the screen.
2. Long Value Lists Formatted To Show As Pop-up Menus
If you have long value lists and format them to appear on the layout as pop-up menus, consider formatting the field to show the value list as a pop-up list instead. This will only show a few items from the value list at one time and provide a scroll bar so that you can scroll through the items in the value list.
3. Long Scripts Menu
If your scripts menu is causing the difficulty, you can either shorten the names of some scripts, so you can show more columns, or remove some of the scripts from the menu by de-selecting the "Include in menu" checkbox. Scripts that are removed from the menu can be accessed from buttons, other scripts, or by performing the script from the ScriptMaker dialog box. As with the Font selection on the Format menu, sometimes so many columns appear that the ScriptMaker selection can not be chosen from the Scripts menu. In that case, you can still choose ScriptMaker with its key combination:
Alt - C Brings down Scripts menu ( While holding down the Alt key, press C )
S Chooses ScriptMaker from the Scripts menu that was brought down with Alt - C