Before you build an app,
know what goes where.

A contact book, one idea at a time.

Imagine you want to keep the names and email addresses of people you meet. A note on your phone works at first. Later, you want to find someone quickly and keep every contact organized in the same way.

Before choosing colors or adding buttons, decide what one entry represents and which details belong to it. For this lesson, one entry is one person.

A WORKED EXAMPLE

Three people. One Contacts table.

A table groups records about the same kind of thing. Our Contacts table holds people. A record is one contact. A field is a named detail, such as First name or Email. A field value is the actual information in that field for one record.

In this illustration, each row is a record and each column is a field. Adding another person creates another record. It does not require another set of fields.

Notice the two people named Alex. A first name alone cannot identify a contact reliably. Our example gives each person a distinct Contact ID. These short IDs make the example easy to read; in lesson 2, we’ll configure an automatically generated unique ID.

The layout is how you see the data.

A layout arranges fields, labels, buttons and other objects on the screen or a printed page. You might want a list to scan your contacts, and a detail layout with more room to enter one person’s information.

Both layouts can show the same record. Moving the Email field object on a layout changes its position, not the stored email. Editing the email value changes the record’s data, so another layout showing that same record and field will show the updated value.

YOUR TURN / ABOUT FIVE MINUTES

Plan one new contact.

Use paper, your notes app or the worksheet below. You don’t need to open FileMaker for this activity.

1. Write the table name: Contacts.
2. List its four fields: Contact ID, First name, Last name and Email.
3. Add this fictional fourth record: C004 · Sam · Patel · sam@example.com.
4. Circle one whole record. Underline one field name. Mark one field value.
5. Sketch a detail layout for Sam. Put the same fields in a different arrangement.
6. Explain what would change if you moved the Email field, and what would change if you edited Sam’s email value.

The CSV contains the three fictional contacts above. It is a data sample, not a FileMaker app. Open it in a text editor or spreadsheet if helpful; importing it is not part of this lesson. No name or email is required.

A QUICK REVIEW

Check your understanding.

Choose one answer for each question, then check your answers. This is practice, not an exam. You can try again as often as you like.

Answers stay in this page’s memory. No account is needed. We count quiz submissions without collecting answers or scores.

Ready to build something?

You can now describe a small database before opening FileMaker: a Contacts table, one record per person, named fields for their details, and layouts that present those details.

Next in the outline: create your first contact file, define its fields and enter sample records. Lesson 2 includes practice files and a native screenshot. Read lesson 2 ↗