Keeping track of correspondence in Filemaker--Searchable

You need at least three tables for this as this is a classic many to many relationship issue.

People:

PeopleID

EmailAddress

other contact Info fields

Correspondance:

CorrID

Date Sent

Any other fields you want to document the specific message--including the actual message if desired

People_Correspondance:

PeopleID

CorrID

Your relationships would look like this:

People----<People_Correspondance>-----Correspondance

People:: PeopleID = People_Correspondance:: PeopleID (Enable allow create and delete options for People_Correspondance)

Correspondance::CorrID = People_Correspondance::CorrID (Enable allow create and delete options for People_Correspondance)

To log who recieves a given correspondance, create the correspondance record and use a portal to People_Correspondance to assign recipients to your distribution list. (Fields from People can be placed in this portal to help make it easier to work with.)

A portal to People_Correspondance placed on a People layout will show which messages were sent to that individual.

To pull up a list of all people who were not sent a particular message, use this layout in a find:

Enter find mode

Enter either the corrID for that message or (If you've put such a field from Correspondance in the portal) the name of the message in a Correspondance title field.

Select the Omit option from the status area.

Perform the find.