Drawing a full border around a List Report

[BobWeaver]

This problem comes up from time to time, and I finally found a very simple solution to it. Well...maybe it was out there all along, but I never found it. Anyway, here is a sample file that shows how to draw a border around a printed list report even when there are only enough records to partly fill a page.

(Usual techniques fail because the border only extends as far as the last record. This technique doesn't have that problem.)

BorderReport.fp5.zip

[Vaughan]

Wow. I'm very impressed!

The only gotcha is that it's page size specific. FMP needs to make a Status(CurrentPageSize) function.

[Lee Smith]

Impressive!

I have never seen anything like it either.

Thanks for sharing.

Lee

[BobWeaver]

Yes, it is dependent on page size. Fortunately, that wasn't an issue in my situation since I was emulating a government form that was always a fixed size (8.5x11"). I guess the workaround is to make the leading subsummary part as big as the largest page you expect to have, and let it cut off at the bottom of the page. Then put the bottom piece of border in the footer. Of course that's getting more complicated again.

There's one other gotcha that I should mention. While you can put any graphic in the subsummary part (so long as the top of it starts in the header), it will appear as a background behind the records. Except, if the graphic is vector based (such as a pict files, or created with filemaker's simple graphics elements), then any of the component parts of the graphic that are not partly in the header, will not print. This happens even if all the parts are grouped. An example of this would be something like a graph paper grid. The vertical lines would print fine since one end of them would start in the header, but all the horizontal lines, except the top one or two, would vanish. The workaround in this case is to put the graphic into a global container field, and put this field on the layout. Then, everything will print.

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Thanks Bob. Brillant. a "Must see". Sure I would use it in some reports.

[cjaeger]

Thanks Bob.

I just took it one step further:

define a 1:1 self-relationship

make a portal with detail fields and let the to of the portal begin in the header

Whoa - You can have a records detail view in List mode!

The drawback: No input whatsoever is possible. Buttons in the Portal dio not seem to work.

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Chris Jaeger