7 Replies Latest reply on Mar 30, 2015 5:10 PM by davidanders

Open a second existence of FileMaker

ScottyGoodBoy Mar 27, 2015 9:33 PM

Title

Post

I know that I can open more than one database at a time, but is it possible to open another existence?

I have two monitors, and I would like to open one database to display on one monitor, and the other on the second monitor. No matter how I try to open the second database, it opens it in the same existence and all I can do it resize the two windows to display on the same monitor.

I'm probably just having a brain fart here...

1. Re: Open a second existence of FileMaker

philmodjunk Mar 27, 2015 10:18 PM (in response to ScottyGoodBoy)

Mac or windows?

On a mac just drag the window to the other monitor.

On windows, all FileMaker windows exist inside an application window. To use both monitors un-maximize the application window and then stretch that window to span both monitors. Now you can put different FileMaker windows on different monitors.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
2. Re: Open a second existence of FileMaker

WBSimon Mar 30, 2015 7:46 AM (in response to ScottyGoodBoy)

As far as I know, you can only run a second 'Existence" of Filemaker with a with a licensed copy of a different version (and even then, it gets tricky at times).
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
3. Re: Open a second existence of FileMaker

ScottyGoodBoy Mar 30, 2015 2:47 PM (in response to ScottyGoodBoy)

Very clunky either way.... But I got it...
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
4. Re: Open a second existence of FileMaker

philmodjunk Mar 30, 2015 3:10 PM (in response to ScottyGoodBoy)

Definitely clunky on Windows, but not on Macs. Why FileMaker windows are still kept within an application window is beyond me.

I've heard of setting up and running a system script that would pop the application window out to the limits of your two montors automatically...
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
5. Re: Open a second existence of FileMaker

ScottyGoodBoy Mar 30, 2015 3:42 PM (in response to ScottyGoodBoy)

Well, I am stuck in the Windows environment, so I guess I will have to roll with the punches.

Almost every program even in Windows lets you open a second existence (or occurrence) of a program.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
6. Re: Open a second existence of FileMaker

philmodjunk Mar 30, 2015 3:50 PM (in response to ScottyGoodBoy)

And thus does not have this "window inside a window" limitation.

It's even worse than what we've described thus far. You can hide the outer application window and thus get rid of the extra set of scroll bars by maximizing windows, but then you can only have one visible window open at a time and opening a new window drops your existing windows out of maximized state and resizes them to often dramatically different proportions--forcing you to add code to resize the windows back out to near maximized dimensions.

It's one of the reasons I am very glad to have popovers in FileMaker 13. In many of the situations where I would previously open a new window, I can now more simply open a popover.

But this is all more applicable to a single monitor implementation than multiple monitors.
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions
7. Re: Open a second existence of FileMaker

davidanders Mar 30, 2015 5:10 PM (in response to ScottyGoodBoy)

Mac Only

Allow Fast User Switching. Switch to other user and open Filemaker.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060103143430866

__________

https://community.filemaker.com/message/178084
To do this do the following:
Open terminal.app You will find this in Applications/Utilities
enter the command
open -n -a /Applications/FileMaker\ Pro\ 13\ Advanced/FileMaker\ Pro\ Advanced.app/
That's it. The source for this came from:
How to open multiple instances of an application in OS X - CNET
Like Show 0 Likes(0)

Actions

Go to original post