FileMaker has a variety of features to help you automate your business, including the File Options feature. “File Options” can be found in the File menu of File Maker Pro and Advanced. It has several useful tools for you, and also a couple of “gotchas!” if you are not careful.
First, it can provide automatic logins for you. If you are in a secure environment and have no worries about unauthorized access, you can set your FileMaker application to automatically open every time you open it, without needing to enter a user name and password each time. This is a slick feature which saves you a lot of time over the course of many days when you have to continuously re-enter your credentials.
The Gotcha! here of course, is what do you do, if you ever want to log in with a different user name or privilege set? There’s a solution for that. Just hold down an extra modifier key at the same time you open your FileMaker application. In Mac it is ‘option’, and in Windows it is ‘shift’. This will bring in the FileMaker login window so that you can enter a different user name and password.
Secondly, the File Options, allow you to save your password in KeyChain (on the Mac). Again, this should only be used when in a secure office environment. But it can save you lots of time and effort by saving your password. However, what do you do when the inevitable time comes that you need to change your password? Sometimes in fact, people forget that they have selected this option and then they are auto-logged in and can’t figure out what is going on. Once you remember it’s time to change your password, simply open up your Keychain Preferences from within your Mac OS and do a search for FileMaker in order to cancel your old password. Then turn off the auto-login feature, and enter your password, and you will be good to go!