Steve, thanks for knocking the blinders off! I don't know why I didn't see it, but I don't really need to use the concatenated field anyplace. I can instead use the 'person' ID number as the match field and determine 'current' status by inspection of the appropriate field to make sure I am looking only at current records. Auto-creation works fine now, and I don't have to put up with a kludgy fix to accomplish related record creation. Thanks so much for the help. Barrie On Mar 14, 2010, at 6:00 PM, FMPRO-L automatic digest system wrote: > Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:35:25 +0000 > From: Steve Cassidy <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: FMPRO-L Digest - 12 Mar 2010 to 13 Mar 2010 (#2010-42) > > On Mar 14, 2010, at 1:27 PM, Barrie Phillips wrote: > >> Thanks Steve >> >> I'm typing into a text field. In this case the portal to the >> related =20= > >> table contains only >> a text field, two date fields, and a check box that are visible. >> The =20= > >> 'person' ID number, >> current record flag (yes/no) and the concatenation of the two (the >> =20 >> match field) >> are hidden beneath the four entry fields. > > "Allow creation of related records" does not work if the match field > =20 > is a calculation. (Obvious if you consider the situation; in order > for =20= > > auto-creation to work, Filemaker has to set the match field =96 but > a =20= > > calculation cannot be set.) > > I'm not 100% certain, because I rarely use this functionality, but I > =20 > think you can get around the problem by using multiple (two in this > =20 > case) relational criteria =96 one matching the person ID and the > other =20= > > matching the flag =96 instead of the single calculated field. > > Steve=