A student called me all the way from Missouri yesterday to see if I could help him with a Filemaker Pro issue. He is working on a project for a medical center and is attempting to insert .jpg images into a container field and have the image, rather than an icon for an embedded file, display in browse mode. The Insert Picture process displays an image but he wants users to be able to double click the image to be able to edit the image in its associated application. I experienced the same problem he reports and after testing multiple machines with different hardware and different OSs, I obtained the same result repeatedly. So, I called Filemaker technical support and tried everything they suggested without any improvement.

So far I have tried:
Gateway computer with Windows 98 & Filemaker Pro 5.5v2 with default install - icon only
2 different Dell computers with Windows 2000 & Filemaker Pro 5.5v2 with default install - icon only
Gateway computer with Windows XP & Filemaker Pro 5.5v2 with default install - icon only
Sony computer with Windows 98 & Filemaker Pro 5.5v2 customized install (multiple Oazium plugins - icon only.

I tried both .jpg and .gif images. I tried different application associations (Paint, Microsoft PhotoDraw, and Adobe Photoshop) without any improvement.

I have deselected my file association DDE setting, rebooted and attempted the insert again with the same result. I have booted into safe mode (to eliminate possible conflict with network drivers), launched Filemaker and attempted an insert with the same results.

I have had the Filemaker technician use the very same image file and he has successfully inserted it. I have reset my application and document preferences to be identical to his without improvement. I have tested my DDE functionality and it works perfectly for inserting spreadsheets and .bmp files but stubbornly displays only an icon for .jpg and .gif files even though the proper application is launched when the embedded icon is double clicked.

The student in Missouri reports the same behavior that I observe on a Windows 98 machine running a new installation of Filemaker Pro 6. I am also still mystified why the Filemaker technician's workstation does not appear to be using the Microsoft Object Packager in the insert process. This appears to be a standard Windows behavior for all machines I have tested. If anyone has any other ideas I would appreciate hearing from them at: mharrsch@uoregon.edu.

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