On May 12, 2015, at 1:17 PM, Geoff Graham <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I wish I could remember what the define fields trick was for…

You don't need to open Define Fields, but it's easy enough to do.

There are some things (e.g. switching to a layout, resizing a window) that don't count as a "real change" so when you close a FileMaker file it doesn't write out all of the "state" data to the file (window size and position for our purposes). Therefore you need to do something that does count as a real change to prompt FMP to write out the file state when it closes the file. This could be modifying fields (or making it appear that way), scripts, or layouts.

This is still true in current versions of FileMaker, although the list of state variables and things that count as a "real change" has grown over time.

Cheers,
-corn


Cornelius Walker
The Proof Group
http://proofgroup.com/