Hi Barrie,

A couple of quick things to check.  First make sure the field you click 
into is a text or number field and not a calculation.  Next make sure 
the field is set up so that it can be entered in Browse mode.  Either 
one of these things could produce a message similar to what you are getting.

I hope this helps
Bruce Herbach

Barrie Phillips wrote:
> I'm working with a database with 11 tables, in FMP Advanced 9.5 on a Mac.
>
> The main 'People' table contains the names and ID numbers (and other 
> information) of all the individuals in the database. Because it is 
> important that I keep track of any edits to any of the records, edits 
> are done non-desctructively. I do this by considering each original 
> record (or the last edited version) to be 'current', and since I 
> generally only want to display 'current' records the match field 
> between all the tables is the concatenation of the ID number and the 
> 'current' indicator (yes/no). During the edit process the original 
> record is duplicated but the 'current' flag is set to 'No', and the 
> edit is made to the new record.
>
> The individuals are added to a 'People' table at which time the ID 
> number (this is a 'person' ID number and not a serial record ID 
> number) is assigned consecutively and the record is set as current. 
> All the remaining tables are presented in portals on six tabbed cards, 
> several of which contain their own nested sub-cards. The cards are set 
> to show data from the 'People' table, while the portals show data from 
> the related tables. The match fields for both the 'Individual' field 
> and the related field are on the card (with data from the 
> 'Individuals' table) and in the related portal.
>
> My problem is that despite the fact that the relationships are set up 
> to allow record creation in the related table from the 'People' table 
> I cannot do so by simply placing the cursor in a field in the portal 
> and typing. I get a message telling me that the field is not 
> modifiable. I can make it work by including a scripted button on the 
> portal row to create a new record in the related table, and everything 
> works fine. However, I shouldn't have to explicitly script record 
> creation and I cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong.
>
> I'm not certain if this is enough information, but I would appreciate 
> any help you might be able to offer.
>