In Chapter 1, you learned about using Find mode for simple searches. But the more records you have in your database, the more you need advanced finding techniques to avoid wasting precious minutes clicking the book icon 1,057 times in a row just to find the record or records you want to display, edit, or print. FileMaker's Find tools give you the power to track down the 1 record in 100,000 you need right this minute, or the 5 records with missing phone numbers that you created a week ago Tuesday.
FileMaker always keeps track of your most recent find criteria, even if it's been a while since you did the search. So if you have to run another copy of your last report, or you just need to see if any new records match since the last time you did the find, all you have to do is choose Records→Modify Last Find. FileMaker does the equivalent of entering Find mode and typing in your find criteria. You can edit the criteria if you want, or just click Find, and you're done.
Modify Last Find (Ctrl+R or ⌘-R) isn't just a speedy way to recreate a find, though. You might have a found set of records, but you can't remember the search criteria. Choose Modify Last Find and you'll be looking at them. Then you can click the Cancel Find or the Perform Find button. Either way, you're right back in your found set.
You can tell FileMaker to search for more than one item at the time. But depending on how you enter your search terms, you can get very different results.
If you want to find every vocalist in the People database who lives in New York, a computer geek would say that you need to do an AND search. This odd term means you're asking for records where the city is New York and the Notes field contains the word "vocalist". Just New York alone, or vocalist alone, doesn't get the job done. An AND search is more restrictive than a single-field search because more of your search terms have to match before FileMaker puts a record into your found set. Though it's complex to think about, you can easily set up a multiple request search. Here's how:
Choose View→Find Mode or, in the Status toolbar, click the Find tool.
FileMaker opens a new find request.
In the State field, type NY.
You're telling FileMaker to find all records for people who live in the state of New York. That's your first search term.
In the Notes field, type vocalist.
This second search term narrows the range of matching records. FileMaker knows that it has to show only those records that match both search terms you've entered.
In the Status toolbar, click the Perform Find button.
FileMaker shows you the two records that match both your search terms.
If an AND search is more restrictive than a single criteria search, an OR search is less restrictive. That is, you almost always find more records with an OR search, since a record has to match only one of the many search terms you set up in order to get into the found set. To convert the previous example to an OR condition, think of it like this: "I need to find everybody who either lives in New York or is a vocalist." So sirens who live in Nebraska (or anywhere, for that matter) show...