FileMaker developers have philosophical differences of opinion on many issues great and small, and one of them is a) whether it’s worthwhile to add color to table occurrences (TOs) on the Relationships Graph (RG), and b) if so, what guiding principle(s) one should use.
Needless to say, I have some opinions on the subject, and here they are.
If you’re working on a simple project, it may not be worth the trouble. But let’s assume you’re working on a complex project, or that you’re working as part of a team (and if so, the project will almost by definition be complex).
In either of those latter cases, I believe that color coding is well worth the effort. I have seen various schemes employed, but to cut to the chase, the one that makes the most sense to me is to color code TOs according to their underlying base table.
In the example above, which is a small fragment of a complex project, I can quickly zoom in on the TO I want without actually doing much reading, akin to the way those of us who drive automobiles in the U.S. automatically know to stop when we see a red octagonal sign.
And I can sort the TOs as I wish (in this case by function), rather than grouping TOs from the same table together, as I might feel inclined to do if I weren’t using color coding.
Bottom line: color coding facilitates team development, helps me understand my solutions better, and enhances my productivity.