Figure 1: Surprise! -- In addition to the obligatory fluff, FileMaker Pro's Window menu has a few unexpected goodies. You can hide any window to temporarily get it out of your way, and show a window that's been hidden. And you can make a new window any time you want.

Nobody would blame you if you never realized this cool trick. After all, the Window menu in most programs is chock full of pretty useless stuff. (Tile Horizontally? Who uses that?) But FileMaker Pro's Window menu is a little more oomphy. You can see for yourself in figure 1.

Hide windows

If you work with more than one database, or your database system has more than one file, it can sometimes seem like your screen is filling up with windows. Of course, your operating system has some tools to help deal with this crowding. On Windows, you can minimize a database window, and it will turn into a little brick in the bottom-left corner of FileMaker Pro's application window, mostly out of the way. On Mac OS X, you can minimize the window to the dock. But both methods are a little messy. If you're a heavy Mac user, your dock is probably already strained to the breaking point. And those little bricks in Windows are ugly and hard to find when you need them.

Instead, try this: With a database window open in FileMaker Pro, choose Window > Hide Window. Poof. The window is gone. But it isn't actually closed. Instead, FileMaker Pro has simply wiped (almost) every trace of it from your screen, so it is completely out of site. If you want it back again, just choose Window > Show Window and select the name of the window in question. It will pop back on the scene, right were it was when you hid it.

This trick might seem a little pointless at first. After all, you could just close the window instead. But a hidden window is more convenient for a few reasons:

1. It's easier to call back up again. No trips to the Open File or Open Remote dialogs necessary.
2. When you hide a window, FileMaker Pro remembers where you were. Show it again and you'll be on the same layout and record you were before. And you'll have the same found set, sort order, status area setting, zoom level, and so forth.
3. If your database is hosted remotely (on a server that isn't in your home or office) it can sometimes be slow to open. But a hidden window reappears in a snap.